NFL Draft
3/3/25
5 min read
Barryn Sorrell 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For Texas Longhorns EDGE
Height: 6030 (verified)
Weight: 256lbs (verified)
Year: Senior
Pro Comparison: Brennan Jackson
Scouting Overview
Texas Longhorns edge defender Barryn Sorrell projects as a successful piece of a defensive line rotation at the NFL level. He appears to have the baseline skills of an early-down defender, thanks to his active hands and good leverage to the play side, while also sporting good motor as a second-effort pass rusher.
He’s an instinctive player who processes block keys well and boasts a good reflexive shedding technique. You do wish he offered an extra gear of explosiveness to be a viable impact player, but he should be a high-floor defender who has some more room for production in a different scheme.
2025 NFL Combine Results
TBD
Positives
- Showcases good hand punch and deconstruction ability to pull tackles and ends off their base in the run game
- High-motor pursuit player who has chased down runs from the backside or found added pressures by peeling back up his rush track
- Offers good density and functional strength to play as a hand-down end
Negatives
- Lacks first-step explosiveness or second gear as a pursuit player to finish disruption opportunities
- Does not have the ideal length to play as a gap-control player to separate against NFL blockers
- Can improve initial punch placement to stave off blocks more efficiently
Background
Sorrell is from New Orleans, LA, and played high school football for Holy Cross School. There, he was a standout 3-star recruit (247 Sports) who initially committed to play at Northwestern. An offer from the Texas Longhorns changed the dynamic of his recruitment, however, and he enrolled at Texas as a member of their 2021 recruiting class.
Sorrel played in six games as a true freshman in 2021 before assuming a starting role with the Texas defense as a true sophomore in 2022. He started 10 out of 13 contests that season and then started all 14 games for Texas in 2023 amid their run into the National Championship landscape.
Sorrell finished his career with 16 games in 2024 and career-best marks for sacks (six) and tackles for loss (11) and accepted an invitation to the 2025 Reese’s Senior Bowl in January.
Tale Of The Tape
Sorrell is a sturdy end whose versatility was on full display for the Longhorns' defense. Optimizing his NFL role will likely render some of his college reps irrelevant — as he’s not an ideal fit to play in a 4i and live in the B-gap as he did at Texas.
However, Sorrell does offer the right level of physicality and density to play overtop of tackles. He’s got good pop through his hands, and when well placed, he can draw stalemates that keep him on an even level with the line of scrimmage.
Sorrell is a tough assignment for skill players in the run game. He offers savvy with his deconstruction skills to either yank blockers off their base or use his hand counters to attack the wrist or elbow of a blocker and fall off a block to mirror the ball carrier. He offers good vision through the block and a nice sense of pressure to fight against and hold ground.
That said, he isn’t the most explosive or powerful player, which can leave him vulnerable at times to secondary pushes, double teams, or lengthy blockers with good balance. He isn’t a slow-burn athlete, and he does offer fluidity along the line of scrimmage, but he’s missing the identifying power and/or initial burst to dictate terms consistently and punish offensive linemen.
These issues put his hand placement and punch timing under the microscope. If he misses in this regard, he’ll have a hard time compensating to win the rep.
As a pass rusher, Sorrell’s lack of high-end gifts poses challenges he has to win in spite of. If he times up his snap releases well, he has enough juice to turn the corner on heavy-footed tackles, but top-tier and good pass protectors can claim angles against his outside rushers.
When he’s rushing in tight, he lacks the power to consistently convert speed to power and play through the edges of a tackle. He is sharp with his stunt game execution and does succeed in loops, stunts, and twists to manipulate and attack protections. As the looper, he shows good anticipation when a blocker is looking away to help a teammate and can smoothly redirect himself into the vacant crease and pressure the quarterback.
His lack of length and explosiveness have cost him some splash production. He’s gotten outrun or lost angles on mobile quarterbacks as they flush the pocket, and his tackle radius lacks the reach to pull down the ball carrier at the fringes of his wingspan.
Sorrell is, however, a physical wrap-up tackler. When he catches opponents in close quarters, he typically does well to stonewall with his pads and deter from giving up additional yardage.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Sorrell projects as a hand in the dirt end who can be a valued part of an NFL rotation. His run defense and alignment usage at Texas have him well-prepped for playing as a tight alignment end, and he should be afforded opportunities to play on early downs while trying to further develop his pass rush game to earn more opportunities to disrupt passers.
He’s a fluid talent but will need to become overly technical to compensate for modest length and first-step explosiveness.
Grade: 74.00/100.00, Third Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
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