NFL Draft
2/12/25
5 min read
Jamaree Caldwell 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For Oregon Ducks NT
Height: 6020 (verified)
Weight: 342lbs (verified)
Year: Senior
Pro Comparison: BJ Raji
Scouting Overview
Oregon Ducks nose tackle Jamaree Caldwell projects as a space-eater in the heart of an NFL defense. Caldwell offers a dense, squatty frame and an excellent center of gravity. He absorbs solo blocks and double teams on the interior and will be a useful weapon for keeping his linebackers clean so they can flow to the football.
Caldwell has flashes of surprising athleticism and quickness, offering some upside for impact on early downs out of base personnel. He plays with an effective lateral mobility that allows him to flow with the front, help stay in his fit, and prevent interior blockers from climbing up to the second level.
2025 NFL Combine Results
TBD
Positives
- Boasts the ideal frame for playing as a space-eating nose tackle
- Surprising first step quickness and ability to play through lateral contact in penetration opportunities
- Plays with active hands to fall off blocks and play cut back opportunities effectively
Negatives
- Offers only modest length and separation ability for lock/peek/shed technique
- Despite his flashes as an attack player, his profile will likely cede reps to a more dynamic talent in passing situations
- Dominance in the middle waned against some of the better competition on the schedule
Background
Caldwell is from Newberry, SC, and played high school football for Newberry HS. There, he was an unheralded recruit who was set to enroll and play at Hutchinson Community College but did not play for the program. He instead enrolled at Independence Community College and played four games for the program before he began receiving offers as a JUCO transfer.
Caldwell enrolled at Houston in the summer of 2022 and played two seasons with the program as a part of the defensive line rotation. Caldwell earned Second Team All-Big 12 honors for his play in 2023.
When Caldwell entered the transfer portal ahead of the 2024 season, he was ranked as a 4-star transfer (247 Sports) and landed with the Ducks. He played in 14 games before foregoing his final season of college eligibility. Caldwell accepted an invitation to the 2025 Reese’s Senior Bowl.
Tale Of The Tape
Caldwell is an active and physical defender at the heart of Oregon's defense. He boasts the ideal frame for playing as a two-gap defender and nose tackle — don’t let anyone tell you otherwise or that he’s too short. Caldwell, at 6-foot-2, offers the exact kind of natural leverage that you hope to find for a space-eater, and he does well with his anchor to drop his hips and provide a ball of mass that opposing combination blocks struggle with.
As a run defender, Caldwell can tackle double teams in a variety of ways. He can drop a knee and immediately pull the e-brake on movement when feeling himself losing ground at the point of first contact. He offers good recovery ability in these instances and will latch onto the frame of blockers to reset himself and ensure he isn’t bowled backward. He can attack half a man and deteriorate blocks from the middle as well.
Caldwell doesn’t boast top-end length, which necessitates how effectively he can leverage the line of scrimmage with his build. He has just over 32-inch arms, which give him enough extension to bench press blockers off of his chest, but longer blockers can maintain pressure on his frame. When the point of attack creates flow, he can get run past a disengagement and miss a clean fall back into the gap. When Caldwell plays these blocks square, he’s more effective in maintaining his functional strength and challenging the back.
There’s a surprising amount of initial quick twitch to Caldwell’s athletic profile. During his time in Houston, he played much more prominently in the B-gap and overtop of tackles as an alignment-diverse talent. The wiggle room there was lessened when making the leap to Big Ten play, and when projecting Caldwell forward to the NFL, he feels unlikely to find robust success or even modest consistency in his disruption opportunities on passing downs. Still, he’s quick and nimble enough that you can live with some ability to push the pocket or overtake soft sets by centers in neutral down passes.
Part of Caldwell’s limitation in his valuation is that he will likely be capped at around a 40-45 percent snap share due to his projected ideal role. How do teams value that in a relatively deep defensive tackle class?
If a team sees a pathway or opportunity to align him more in B-gap opportunities, he may see his name called on Day 2.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Caldwell projects best as a 2-gapping nose tackle at the NFL level. He offers pleasant upside as a supersized A-gap rusher, but his marquee role is that of a space-eater in base defense and on short-yardage down and distance opportunities.
Grade: 73.50/100.00, Fourth Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
Make sure to check out our new home for all of our NFL Draft content.
