Emmanuel’s 2023 NFL Draft Interior Defensive Lineman Rankings 1.0

The 2022 college football season has so far brought a lot of excitement in the present moment based on how many close games (no pun intended towards coach Scott Frost in this article) and major upsets that occurred in Week 2 of the season. For a draftnik like me, not only is it not too early to look ahead to the next NFL Draft but there is an abundance of games to watch to look for more prospects to evaluate. So far, the defensive tackle class promises to be strong at the top, with more intriguing prospects to watch, study, and evaluate. So here is my initial assessment of the potential Interior Defensive Lineman class ahead of next year’s draft, as well as other names to keep an eye on, and a surprise prediction at the end.

Jalen Carter, 6’3” 300 lbs, Georgia (Junior)

Strengths:

• Has a good combination of size, strength, quickness, twitchiness, and explosiveness for his position.
• Really great overall strength and, punches, and jolts blockers with phenomenal power and grip.
• Excels at controlling single blocks, and displacing double teams with his anchor strength, leveraging blockers with his low pad level, and plays with excellent hand usage to shed blocks.
• Really good at slipping through blocks to make a lot of plays in the backfield, whether it’s rushing QBs from the interior, and making plays versus the run in the backfield, even when double-teamed.
• Plays with a really high motor as he chases down ball carriers laterally and downfield, accelerates through the gaps in his pass rush
• He is really disruptive on special teams as a kick blocker and blocked two field goals as a sophomore, including a key one in the National Championship game/
• Good awareness to raise his hands in pass rush to batt balls down when he doesn’t get by blockers.

Weaknesses:

• Tends to let blockers put his hands on his chest too many times, which limits his opportunities to make even more plays in the backfield
• Unproven as a full-time starter due to playing behind future pro-DTs Jordan Davis and Devonte Wyatt last year, needs to show he can perform when game-planned against.
• Although he has a good array of pass-rush moves, he has to become more consistent in coming up with a clear plan of attack as the lead interior linemen, can be stalled at LOS by powerful and technically sound blockers (see in 2021 vs Luke Fortner of Kentucky)
• Lacks the balance in the open field to finish plays at times where he can either lack control to finish off ball carriers or doesn’t fully trust his speed and tends to lunge instead of closing and wrapping up.

Pro Comparison: Cam Heyward

Profile: 4-3 3-tech or 3-4 5-tech disruptive interior player that can develop into an 8-10 sacks per year player for any defensive scheme. All-Pro level potential.

Bryan Bresee 6’5” 305 lbs, Clemson (Redshirt Sophomore)

Strengths:

• Excellent combination of height, weight, length, quickness, agility, speed, and strength for the position
• Excels at shooting gaps with outstanding quickness, and uses a strong pass-rush plan with a varied array of moves makes him really disruptive in the backfield.
• Really good at playing with leverage considering his height on the interior, plays with a really flexible and bendy lower body and has really good hand placement to shed blocks. 
• Excellent pursue speed takes to his agility and long strides, and he really takes outstanding angles to the ball to finish plays
• Plays with pretty good balance and is rarely on the ground.
• Uses his length well to disrupt passing lanes raising his hands

Weaknesses:

• He is coming off a sophomore season where he only played 4 games, needs to show he can stay healthy again as he did as a freshman.
• Inconsistent at handling double teams, and strong and technically sound blocker with a strong base and anchor, although he shows promise there.
• Although he is an above-average athlete for his position, he lacks the twitchiness and explosiveness of the elite interior linemen in the NFL. 

Pro Comparison: Chris Jones

Profile: 4-3 3-tech or 5-tech, or a 3-4 5-tech that will really be disruptive due to his length, quickness, speed, and surprising leverage and strength. With further development in the pros, he can have a career similar to Chris Jones of the Chiefs, or DeForest Buckner of the Colts, an interior lineman that can consistently get around 7-9 sacks per year with some years pushing for 10+ sacks. Pro Bowl-level potential.

Gervon Dexter Sr (pictured above), 6’6” 312 lbs, Florida (Redshirt Sophomore)

Strengths:

• Huge DT prospect with an intriguing combination of size, speed, strength, length, and athleticism.
• Excels at stacking blockers and the line of scrimmage on run plays, and bull-rushing interior linemen into the QBs on passing plays, displaying excellent overall strength
• Really good explosiveness off the snap, converts explosiveness off the snap to jolt blockers powerfully
• He has a pretty good motor and displays great acceleration to track down ball carriers downfield to cover his teammates’ mistakes.
• Displays nimble feet and smooth hips to change directions when needed for such a big man.

Weaknesses:

• Inconsistent leverage as he plays a lot with a high pad level, and it can leave his chest too exposed and can be moved off the line.
• Inconsistent hands usage to disengage from blockers, but has the tools to improve there.
• Lacks pass-rushing production, either because he tends to stall at the line of scrimmage, or seems he may have been asked to stack and read the backfield and be the last line of defense for the d-line.
• Lacks the snap reaction quickness to consistently shoot gaps, seems a tad late off the snap.
• Lacks pass-rush moves, and needs to expand his repertoire.
• However, all of his weaknesses are correctable with pro coaching and his really high ceiling.

Pro Comparison: Javon Kinlaw

Profile: 4-3 1-tech and 3-tech, or a 3-4 5-tech in any scheme that can handle reps as a nose tackle due to outstanding strength and play size. Although he shows flashes of pass-rushing potential and the new Florida Gators’ coaching staff has currently used more attacking gaps and rushing the passer, Dexter Sr. will make his niche in the NFL as a high-impact run-stuffer that can be disruptive at times on passing downs. Look for him to be a hot commodity during the draft season should he come out after the 2022 season.

Siaki Ika 6’4” 358 lbs, Baylor (Junior)

Strengths:

• Enormous sized-DT with pretty good athletic tools, namely incredible strength and the point of attack, nimble feet, the agility to change direction, and straight-line speed to shoot thru gaps and pursuit ballcarriers 
• Excellent at driving blockers back after initial powerful jolts, creating a lot of linemen driven back into ballcarriers and even their own QBs
• He is really good at changing directions versus misdirection plays due to his smooth hips and lower-body flexibility for such a huge man.
• Seems to carry his weight fairly well for a sub 360lbs player, and he sustains his motor really well from snap to snap, I have not seen him exhibiting a winded body language.

Weaknesses:

• Lacks a diversified pass-rush repertoire, and is really reliant on swim moves, or shooting his gaps for now but he really shows good upside there with his combination of athletic ability and quickness off the snap.
• Lacks the length of most elite interior d-linemen to help him create more separation from blockers when he cannot out-leverage them.
• Style of play is not conducive for lots of sack production, which can somewhat negate his value if perceived by a lot of teams to strictly be a nose tackle, regardless of his athletic abilities

Pro Comparison: Vince Wilfork

Profile: Ideal Nose tackle for any 3-4 schemes, or Nose Guard/1-Tech for gap schemes. Does bring upside as a pass-rushing option on passing down, but will most likely not be his forte or niche. He will most likely be high on draft boards for 3-4 teams, and maybe off some teams’ boards who run a 4-3. Regardless, he is an excellent Nose Tackle prospect who can start from Day 1. 

Jalen Redmond, 6’3’’ 298 lbs, Oklahoma (Junior)

Strengths:

• High-motor interior lineman as he is reliable on almost every snap, and competes on every play.
• Excellent pass-rush repertoire of moves that includes swim, club, speed rush, and shooting gaps with excellent timing off the ball
• Can really turn the corner and bend when asked to speed rush
• Good anchor to sit down versus blocks and hold the point of attack
• He has pretty good balance versus power and is never on the ground.
• Productive pass-rusher on a limited snap count.

Weaknesses:

• Undersized for the position, lacks the girth and width to take space versus blockers.
• Lacks snap count experience due to deep rotation played last year at Oklahoma, will need to step up handling a higher workload and more game-planning attention
• Inconsistent strength and hands usage at disengaging from blocks when blockers put their hands on him
• Although he is quick off the ball, lacks the elite twitch and explosive movements that elite DT prospects who are undersized (i.e. Aaron Donald, Ed Oliver) and play a similar style of play possess, but this is where his high motor and relentless effort stand out.

Pro Comp: Josh Paschal

Profile:  4-3 3-tech/5-tech that can be a DT-DE tweener. Maybe a good thing for some teams, and bad for others. Regardless, Redmond will be a productive player as an interior pass rusher with outside flexibility for an attacking scheme, regardless of if he shows an adequate athletic profile or not during the pre-draft season.

Other names to watch: Keeanu Benton (Wisconsin), Calijah Kancey (Pittsburgh), Mazi Smith (Michigan), Zacch Pickens (South Carolina), Jaquelin Roy (LSU)