The Georgia Bulldogs are no strangers to edge rusher prospects who test the bounds of physics and reality. With his 2025 NFL Draft scouting report, Mykel Williams falls within that category of talent.
Williams still has room to keep growing, but his natural ability is simply enthralling, and he has the tools to grow to become an X-factor on an NFL defensive line.
Mykel Williams’ Draft Profile and Measurements
- Height: 6’5″
- Weight: 265 pounds
- Position: Edge Rusher
- School: Georgia
- Current Year: Junior
In the 2022 NFL Draft, the Bulldogs saw Travon Walker go No. 1 overall. In the 2025 NFL Draft cycle, Williams is the prospect who’s been compared favorably to his predecessor in Athens.
If you ask me? The Walker-to-Williams comparison doesn’t hold water. Williams might be even more athletic.
There’s still more for Williams to work on before he reaches his ceiling (as we’ll get into below), but he’s long been recognized as a superlative physical talent.
At Hardaway High School in Georgia, Williams closed out his career with three straight double-digit sack seasons. He was a consensus five-star recruit and a dominant performer at the All-American Bowl. Williams’ production in 2022 — 4.5 sacks and 6.5 tackles for loss — was the best by any true freshman EDGE at Georgia in almost a decade.
In 2023, Williams stagnated as a pass rusher, matching his numbers from the previous year. But a strong pressure production performance and a dominant stretch as a run defender earned him second-team All-SEC honors.
As the 2025 NFL Draft cycle carries on, the EDGE1 mantle is up for grabs. And if Williams reaches his full potential, he can snuff out any and all competition for the crown.
Mykel Williams (@MykelWilliams_) stays active & never stops fighting. Chops the arm down, snatches the off-balanced blocker & gets the sack. Effort will never betray you! #passrush #godawgs #nationalchampionship pic.twitter.com/2zpE1euCfW
— DLineVids (@dlinevids1) January 10, 2023
Thus far in 2024, we haven’t seen much of Williams — but what we have seen has been very encouraging. He played less than four quarters of football before an injury took him off the field in Week 1 against Clemson. In that game, however, he was a game-wrecker.
Williams terrorized the Tigers’ blocking front in Week 1, accruing two tackles for loss. His explosive athleticism and length helped him attain a vast range in pursuit, and his pass-rushing upside, with his amalgamation of tools, was also on display.
The hope is that Williams will be back soon from his injury and able to start producing again. There’s still more to be seen from him in the pass-rush phase, but evaluators are well aware of his upside.
Williams’ Scouting Report
Strengths
- Lab-built specimen at EDGE with elite size, athleticism, length, and lean mass.
- Elite explosiveness and nimble change of direction allows him to be weaponized on stunts.
- Moves at a different pace with his supercharged athleticism and menacing motor.
- Can track across formations with his bounding lateral explosiveness and bend.
- Has the hyperactive cylindrical twitch to widen tackles before engaging with power.
- Explosion, lean mass, and overwhelming length combine for elite power capacity.
- Rare flexibility enables him to easily acquire leverage in run defense, in spite of height.
- Has the unique hip flexibility to adjust power channels when keeping speed on rushes.
- Possesses the ankle flexion to pinch tight angles and pry around blocks late in reps.
- Already a high-level run defender who couples natural leverage with workmanlike hands.
- Has the raw strength to stack and shed as a one-gapper, then envelop runners.
- Can use proper base alignment and leg drive to power up devastating long-arm moves.
- Can attack the torso with bull rushes, then stack outside chops to deconstruct blocks.
- Has shown to use his length to occlude passing lanes if unable to reach the quarterback.
- Possesses all-encompassing usage-based alignment versatility from 0-tech to wide-9.
Weaknesses
- Somehow has room to add a bit more mass to better hedge against combo blocks.
- Can be more controlled with pad level while driving his legs and sustaining churn.
- Sometimes works himself too far upright on power exertions, nullifying load and drive.
- At times, diverts too far upright on initial moves, failing to press forward and load up.
- Overall, is relatively raw as a pass rusher, which corroborates middling production.
- Sometimes drifts into contact before loading and properly engaging with his hands.
- Can be very uncontrolled with elbow load and hand carriage, impacting efficiency.
- Hand precision can be cleaner on swim moves to effectively wrench past blockers.
- Still learning how to use upper-lower synergy to offset blockers and capitalize.
- Still fleshing out his counter arsenal past initial power, as rushes stall out at times.
- Sequencing and pass-rush plan can fall apart quickly when he fails to gain an edge early.
- Sometimes experiences time delays between initial moves and counters.
- Is sometimes over-aggressive as an option defender, flushing himself out of pursuit.
Current Draft Projection and Summary
Williams currently grades out as a mid-first-round prospect. That said, no prospect in the entire EDGE class has Williams’ physical upside. That upside could land him in the blue-chip range and earn him top-10 capital in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Williams is essentially a Create A Player. At 6’5″, 265 pounds with arms likely near 34″, he has an elite size profile, which he compounds with quantifiably elite explosiveness, lateral agility and twitch, and logic-defying bend capacity.
Past the patently extraordinary amalgam of physical tools Williams has, he’s also extremely young. He’ll be just 20 years old at the time of the 2025 NFL Draft, and by all accounts, he’s a high-character player with a great work ethic who’s active in his community.
All this is to say that Williams can be as good as Williams wants to be. There might be no ceiling.
Physically, he has the talent to be the No. 1 overall pick at his maximum. However, there’s a long way to go with Williams’ hand usage and pad-level management as a pass rusher, which is a big reason why he hasn’t been more productive.
The silver lining is Williams is already a superb run defender — a stack-and-shed phenom with the athleticism and red-hot motor to cover vast ranges in pursuit. Early-down utility won’t be an issue, and even with his limited hand-fighting skills, Williams can still be weaponized on stunts and looping pressure looks.
Williams will need to upgrade his game as a 1-on-1 pass rusher independent of scheme before he challenges for the EDGE1 mantle, but he undoubtedly has the talent and temperament to reach that point. Ultimately, he has All-Pro upside, and his floor is that of a very solid unit component.