NFL Draft
1/27/25
6 min read
Jordan Phillips 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For Maryland Terrapins DT
Height: 6012 (verified)
Weight: 318lbs (verified)
Year: Redshirt Sophomore
Pro Comparison: Alim McNeill
Scouting Overview
Maryland Terrapins defensive tackle Jordan Phillips projects as an athletic starting nose tackle at the NFL level. This is a young talent who, as a redshirt sophomore, posted impressive tape as a point-of-attack defender with lateral range and the anchor ability to hold the point and protect his linebackers.
There’s enough athletic upside with Phillips to warrant consideration for a long-term role that is more diverse and impactful on passing downs, too. He has a good first step and heavy hands that can create momentum for power rushes back into the lap of the quarterback. Phillips is built squatty and low to the ground, which affords him ample natural leverage to anchor double teams. He also shows good technique in dropping a knee and eating combo blocks to clog the interior.
2025 NFL Combine Results
TBD
Positives
- Very powerful frame and natural leverage at the point of attack
- Wrestling background is evident in his hand usage and leverage vs. double teams
- Quick and potent first step with surprisingly lateral mobility for such a dense frame
Negatives
- Pass rush ceiling is modest and predicated mostly on power rushes that heavy-handed centers can offset
- Lacks some consistency with block deconstruction, can lose leverage trying to disengage
- Lacks ideal length as a block stacker
Background
Phillips is from Ocoee, FL, and played high school football for Ocoee HS. There, in addition to football, Phillips was a wrestler and a competitive weightlifter. Phillips was a 3-star recruit (247 Sports) who garnered interest from a number of successful college programs. He ultimately landed on Tennessee and joined the program as a member of their 2022 recruiting class. Phillips played in three games with the Volunteers as a true freshman in 2022, redshirting the season and quickly turning around to enter the transfer portal.
He landed at one of the other programs competitively in the running for his services with his initial recruitment: Maryland. Phillips assumed a starting role immediately and started 11 games in 2023 as a redshirt freshman. He then started every game in 2024 before declaring for the 2025 NFL Draft and foregoing his final two years of eligibility.
Phillips was included on Bruce Feldman’s Annual Freaks List and credited with a 665-lb squat and a 365-lb overhead press (two reps). Thanks to the new league rules for underclassmen admittance, he was invited to and participated in the 2025 East-West Shrine Bowl.
Tale Of The Tape
Phillips is a powerful ball of muscle with an ideal frame to play on the interior at the NFL level. He is a developing talent with loads of potential who boasts a high floor as a gap control player and significant upside thanks to his power, leverage, and agility.
Phillips offers a stiff punch and good flexibility to sit down on his hips and anchor against solo blocks and double teams. He lacks the wingspan, arm length, and reach to consistently lockout and press blockers to clear his chest, but he can continue to refine his hand placement and techniques to shed blocks. His wrestling background shines with his understanding of leverage and ability to work the point of attack and put himself into an adjacent gap.
That said, his stocky build and modest arm length are key elements in just how much force and power he can produce in short spaces; there’s some give and take with his anatomical strengths and weaknesses.
There’s a good amount of explosiveness here, too. It shows up with his initial first step when he can bull rush centers or when he’s playing up and through the ground with his punches to create knockback at the point of attack. The ability to play off of this initial claim of real estate is where Phillips is best positioned to grow and develop his game. His body positioning creates a difficult-to-move presence, but when he tries to unlock from blocks, he can be guilty of popping up his pads and surrendering his chest.
As a lateral run defender, Phillips shows the desired ability to string out the point of attack while engaged with a blocker and the lateral agility to cross face and work over the top of a block on slants and crashes by design. There’s not a lot of explosive speed in the open field, but he’s a nimble dancing bear who has surprising mobility relative to just how densely his frame is packed with muscle.
Phillips has split his playing time the last two years as a starter at Maryland almost equally between A-gap and B-gap assignments. He logged more than 500 snaps apiece in both alignments, and as an odd front defender in gap control schemes, he’s a viable option to take snaps in any of those alignment variations for teams that want to utilize and attack certain personnel matchups.
He’s got enough twitch to become a modest disruptor in the B-gaps, but he is much more profound in loading and stacking the point of attack than pushing through lateral contact and working to the mesh point.
Overall, Phillips should be considered a universal prospect — although his appeal in even front schemes is more modest and would be limited to 1T and 2i alignments vs. unleashing him into a 3T role within the first few years of his development.
Odd front teams will have much more fluidity in his implementation, thanks to just how good he already is at handling double teams, and as such, there are not many solo assignments in either gap that he’d struggle with neutralizing to a stalemate in the run game. His third down role will likely be in short-yardage packages for the foreseeable future.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Phillips projects as an athletic nose tackle at the NFL level. He should be considered a viable NFL starter — likely on a developmental timeline who can warrant rotational opportunities early in his career as he refines his leverage consistency.
Phillips has modest passing down upside and versatility potential to play out in the B-gaps as a 4i or 3T in even fronts but is likely to live most heavily in the A-gaps.
Grade: 74.00/100.00, Third Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
Make sure to check out our new home for all of our NFL Draft content.
