Top 10 interior defensive linemen in the 2021 NFL Draft

#3 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Dayvion Nixon (Iowa)

6 ’3”, 305 pounds; RS JR

Dayvion Nixon

After starting his career at Iowa Western Community College, Davyion Nixon qualified academically for D1 football and committed to the Hawkeyes as a top 50 overall recruit, where he had to redshirt his first season.

In 2019 he was more a rotational player and only started one game, recording 5.5 tackles for loss and three sacks along the way. Then he exploded out of nowhere last season, improving to 13.5 TFLs and 5.5 sacks, to go with a pick-six against Penn State, earning himself Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and unanimous first-team All-American honors along the way.

Nixon presents kind of a stocky build and plays strong. He equally dominated from three- and one-tech alignments. His snap anticipation and get-off were much improved in 2020 and he really looked like a different player to be honest. His upfield burst jumps off the screen and he can tear through the reach of blockers on the front side of zone run plays, while continuing to work through contact to get to the ball, when he is lined up away from it.

However, he also has a really strong base and initiates contact with great pad-level, to anchor against down-blocks, while twisting his body to split double-teams and create a moshpit in the middle on several occasions. And while it’s sort of an odd skills, he sells holding calls really darn well, when he doesn’t get to the ball. Nixon displays impressive change of direction and fluidity in his lower half.

When reacting to screens, he has the quick burst to chase those down, and he just doesn’t look like an interior lineman when he is running around in open space. Just go back and watch his pick-six against Penn State. That was such an athletic play from start to finish, especially when he crossed over the quarterback at the end of it.

This guy also brings a lot of force at first contact in the pass game and has plenty of twitch as a rusher. He displays sudden hands, with a powerful club and a quick swim or rip to follow that up. Plus, when he gets underneath the blocker, he can ride that guy all the way back into quarterback’s grill and just force him to move around.

Nixon’s natural power often shows up when he knocks centers to the turf, as he slants into the A-gap and inadvertently crashes into them from the side. That makes him a great table-setter for any stunts, while showing good timing to work as the secondary guy on interior twists or even loops all the way out to the edge.

He is a problem when crossing the face of the blocker in solo situations thanks to his quickness in short areas and then off that, I’ve seen him jab as if he was going cross and win towards the side he was originally aligned on. Overall, Nixon provided 44 total pressures on 503 pass-rushing snaps these last two years combined and 31 run stops on 338 snaps defending it.

While he did show tremendous growth from the 2019 season, the biggest area of improvement for Nixon is still recognizing blocking schemes and countering the first step of blockers. Too often you see him straight up on the man and only getting hands on the ball-carrier from the side or backside linemen be able to scoop him up in the zone run game, if initial contact can keep him from shooting through the gap.

He allows blockers to get too close to his chest in general and he loses vision on the ball-carrier because of it. As a pass-rusher, Nixon needs to become more effective and pro-active with his hands and get around the blocker more tightly, actually clearing their hips rather than wasting steps laterally. While he did have a limited snap count and wasn’t nearly his dominant 2020 version, he got completely shut down by USC’s Alijah Vera-Tucker in their bowl game two years ago. There’s still a very up-and-down nature to Nixon’s game and he really only has eight contests, where he looks like that player he was last season.

Even though we have to be a little hesitating with overhyping physically talented players, who really excelled in a COVID-shortened season, I think Nixon has shown enough to warrant top 50 consideration.

After all, players are allowed to grow and you see plenty of that upside in 2019, when you watch the tape, but he simply didn’t know to unleash it yet. And with more focus on that area, that should only improve going forward. Coaching will be huge to create consistent urgency on every snap. I believe Nixon’s best fit is as a penetrating three-technique in an even front.