Top 10 interior defensive linemen in the 2021 NFL Draft

Just missed the cut:

# 2021 NFL Drat Prospect: Jay Tufele (USC)

6’ 3”, 315 pounds; RS JR

A former top 50 overall recruit, Tufele redshirted his first year on campus, then was named second-team All-Pac-12 in 2018 and improved to first-team all-conference as a sophomore, before opting out of the 2020 season. In his two seasons with the Trojans, Tufele recorded ten TFLs, 6.5 sacks, a pick and a scoop-and-score.

Tufele split time between 1- and 3-technique in the Trojans four-man front, but projects best as a three-technique at the next level. He is very quick off the snap and can be disruptive in a penetrating role. On zone run plays, he slants hard through the inside pad of the blocker to defend his gap and flash color in the backfield.

When he just crashes through his gap, he can truly wreak havoc that way. And he has excellent lateral agility to redirect down the line on counter-type runs or when reacting to end-arounds, screens and other stuff. Plus, you see him drag down running backs coming through the opposite gap that he is shaded towards, thanks to his length and quicks in short areas.

Tufele doesn’t settle with staying blocked, actively looking to disengage and get back into the play. Tufele has the get-off to give guys trouble on passing downs and works into the depth of the pocket, by going through the middle of the man or crash through one shoulder.

He is crafty with the way he lifts up the arms of the blocker and gets into that guy’s chest, but also has the long limbs himself, to beat them with the high swim. And when he follows that up with stepping through with that near foot to clear the hips of the blocker, he can be a problem.

Moreover, he can also knock those blockers off balance, by grabbing underneath their shoulder plate and twisting their upper body that way, Tufele does a great job of attacking the inside shoulder of the tackle and draw the guard with him as the first guy on twists. Comparing this to a lot of other IDL prospects and what they did in their first two years, 46 total pressures on 654 pass-rushing snaps between 2018 and ’19 is certainly not too shabby.

On the flipside, Tufele raises his pads too quickly and gets driven off the ball on plenty of occasions. He gets uprooted on angle-blocks too many times and can’t anchor down against double-teams. And he is caught on the wrong side of blocks quite a bit, because he doesn’t actually read and counter the first step of blockers successfully.

As a pass-rusher, he is not super effective with his hand-swipes, where his aiming points are a little off, And I don’t think he is under great control in that area in general, while lacking any reliable counter maneuvers and being able to string multiple moves together. He really only has the swim and bull-rush as a pass-rusher right now.

The reason I – unlike most rankings I saw out there – don’t have Tufele in my top ten (even though he obviously isn’t far off), is that inability to hold his ground on gap run schemes, if caught on an angle. There is certainly a lot of potential, but his teammate Marlon Tuipulotu absolutely had a better season in 2020 than he did when last seen and he offers little versatility across the front. To me, he is a pure three-technique in an even front.

# 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Cameron Sample (Tulane)

6’ 3”, 275 pounds; SR

Once just a two-star recruit without any Power-Five offers, Sample increased his role with the Green Wave every single season, recording 18.5 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks combined over these last three seasons, but never got any recognition for it by AAC coaches. However, Pro Football had him as a first-team all-conference edge defender last season, as he transitioned into more of a hybrid outside linebacker role.

Sample has plenty of pop in his hands, to knock blockers backwards at first contact, and he can even bench-press guards at times in the run game, while squeezing down from the backside. He has so much natural power and he plays with some of the best leverage you will find up front. You saw him absolutely destroy some tight-ends in that area.

Sample has shown the ability to deal with blocks on the edge and the interior, while being able to discard them at the right moment on several occasions, as he came up with 31 defensive stops in 2020. When unblocked away from the play, he gets around blockers tightly and shows good pursuit.

He had this one snap last season versus SMU, where was the unblocked end-man on a speed sweep and he just kept chasing, barely not being able to push the receiver out of bounds at the pylon. In the pass game, the explosion for a guy at 275/280 pounds is pretty crazy and he can bend better than a lot of pure edge rushers.

Moreover, he has the power to rip and run through the inside shoulder of the offensive tackle, as well as routinely shorten the arc with power and flush the quarterback. And he was more consistent with hitting inside counters this past season.

Sample’s quickness can create major issues as an interior rusher, while having the sturdiness to stay there for base downs in sub-sets. He tremendously improved his pass-rushing grade from 69.1 to 90.4 last season and recorded an incredible 48 pressures on a little over 300 opportunites, giving him pressure-per-rush rate of 15.2 percent.

What really has me intrigued about Sample’s potential on passing downs is the work he put in at the Senior Bowl, where he was arguably the top front-seven defender over the week. He routinely impressed me with being lined up shaded to one side and then when the blocker stepped that way, going around those guys and into the opposite gap with effective hand-swipes, clearing their hips effectively.

Nevertheless, Sample at this point is just a little reckless as a player, who needs to use technique more altogether, in order to defeat blocks. He will probably end up putting those guys on their asses, but at times you see him get sealed by tight-ends on the backside of run plays, because he doesn’t react to blocking schemes or the first step(s) of the offensive accordingly.

In the pass game, he needs to keep his frame clean more consistently and keep adding to his pass-rush tool box, as he still relies heavily on his power at this moment. At his current size, he is kind of a tweener, with excessive weight in the mid-section for an edge and undersized as an interior defensive lineman.

I recognize that I’m probably higher on Sample than most analysts out there and he is primarily evaluated as an edge rusher. However, while I believe he could certainly play defensive end in a 4-3, before kicking inside on rush downs, zo me fits best as a three-technique or 4i in hybrid fronts. He is more than capable of holding his ground in the ground and he can create plenty of disruption, if you allow him to get upfield. No matter what you look at his as in base, he should be a problem for guards on passing downs.

#2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Tyler Shelvin (LSU)

6’ 5”, 350 pounds; RS JR

Just outside the top 50 overall recruits in the country, Shelvin was an academic redshirt his first year in Baton Rouge and it took until year two for him to crack the starting lineup right in the middle of LSU’s defense, recording with three TFLs and two passes batted down, leading up to winning the National Championship. He had planned on coming back to school in 2020, but opted out of the COVID-affected season.

Shelvin was an absolute rock in the middle of the Tigers defense, lining up almost exclusively right over the middle or as a shade nose. He gets his hands inside the chest of centers and controls them throughout the play.

Moreover, if the running back is in range, Shelvin can also bench-press and push off the blocker, or at times even putting guys flat on their back, to make first contact with the ball-carrier. And when he can grab a leg or something, that guy usually isn’t getting away from him.

Shelvin can get doubled constantly, but there was just nobody, who could move this guy off the spot and he kept the LSU backers really clean. His base is just so sturdy, that getting banged from the side barely affects him and you see him actively shift his weight to that near-leg, in order to hold his ground.

Every once in a while, you will see him arm-over centers, to get into the backfield. I watched opposing teams consciously running away from Shelvin, because they knew there was nothing happening up those A-gaps. On pass plays, Shelvin actually has a pretty impressive get-off and when he runs into basically anybody in protection, he will whack that guy’s pads backwards.

Shelvin has those forceful hands, to pull blockers off himself, if they just get off balance momentarily, and you see those guys try to grab him a lot. Or he can rip underneath and fight through those holds. You saw blockers do everything they could, in terms of kicking their feet back an trying to grab as much grass as possible with their cleats, but they still ended up getting rocked backwards step-by-step, Because of that, offense routinely had to slid the guard over, to protect the integrity of the pocket.

While Shelvin eating up space in the middle can be valuable asset, don’t expect too much away from that. On zone runs, he may not get moved, but because he doesn’t flow with the play at all, if you get good movement on the front-side, there will be space anyway.

He doesn’t have that quickness to work across a blocker’s face on outside zone runs and while he may push that guy down the line, he often gets sealed away from the run. For me, Shelvin is a pure two-down run-plugger and LSU mostly agrees – he barely saw the field for third downs. You get a slow-burn push up the pocket usually or once in a while he will hit the rip successfully.

There are no secondary moves, he doesn’t even show the want to attack the edges of blockers and when he was getting doubled, there was no plan of how to make an impact anyway­. Overall, he recorded only two sacks and 10 total QB pressures on just under 400 pass-rushing snaps in his career with the Tigers.

This guy is a like a one-family house right over the ball and you will not move him in the run game. So if you need somebody to instantly upgrade your interior run defense, there are maybe one or two other names that can fill that void as well as Shelvin. However, I just don’t see much beyond that and in a league that throws the ball more every single year. Shelvin still hasn’t even played two full seasons and there is plenty of room to grow, but I didn’t see a versatile enough skill-set to make him a priority early on in the draft. Weight control could be a major issue and his snap total could also be pretty limited.

---

2021 NFL Draft Prospect: The next names up:

Marvin Wilson (Florida State), Jalen Twyman (Pittsburgh), Khyiris Tonga (BYU), JaQuan Bailey (Iowa State), Carlo Kemp (Michigan) & Ta’Quon Graham (Texas)

---

If you enjoyed this breakdown, I would really appreciate if you could visit the original piece here.

I also put out a video version of this top ten list on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF-SewFTMO8

Make sure to check out my social media outlets for much more draft coverage: Twitter - @halilsfbtalk , Instagram - @halilsrealfootballtalk, Facebook - facebook.com/halilsrealfootballtalk/