Ohio State defensive tackle Tyleik Williams could have declared for the 2024 NFL Draft, but instead, he’s a favorite in the 2025 NFL Draft class with his scouting report. Can Williams fight to be one of the first DT prospects off the board?
Tyleik Williams’ Draft Profile and Measurements
- Height: 6’3″
- Weight: 327 pounds
- Position: Defensive Tackle
- School: Ohio State
- Current Year: Senior
Williams is an easy prospect to bank on. He was a four-star recruit out of Manassas, Va., who immediately made an impact with the Ohio State Buckeyes as a true freshman.
In his very first season at the collegiate level, Williams established a career-high that still stands to this day with five sacks in that season. And last year, in 2023, he notched a career-high 10 tackles for loss while also adding three sacks and five pass breakups.
Across his three-year career, Williams has played in 38 games — many of which he started — and he was a second-team All-Big Ten honoree in 2023 while playing alongside Michael Hall Jr. and Ty Hamilton.
Williams could have declared for the 2024 NFL Draft, and he would’ve assuredly been an early-round pick. But he chose to return to school and compete for a Big Ten title and National Championship. All the while, the first round is still on the table for him.
Williams’ Scouting Report
Strengths
- Explosive athlete with a low-cut frame who can generate instant momentum off the line.
- Massive, dense, and well-leveraged lineman with suffocating take-on strength.
- Has the strength to eat combo blocks and stall displacement at the line in run defense.
- Low-cut frame, density yields awesome raw power, which he maximizes with alignment.
- Able to violently torque and swim through blockers 1-on-1 in run defense, erasing gaps.
- Has the hip flexibility to freely adjust his hip leverage while playing contain on blocks.
- Has the foot quickness, lateral burst, and ankle flexion to stunt and test rushing angles.
- Hands are regularly active and variable, and properly channel knockback force.
- Can bait blockers into extending with his twitch and then pry past blocks through gaps.
- Able to combat extensions with successive swipes while working across face.
- With high-end strength, can hold off backside reach blocks and make plays in pursuit.
- Has shown he can precisely target extensions with chops and swipes, then power past.
- Proactive in using his proportional length to extend and clog passing windows.
- Has uncommon alignment versatility for his size, taking reps from 0-tech to 5-tech.
- Hot-motor DT who persists through contact and chases plays with energy in pursuit.
Weaknesses
- Sometimes drifts too far upright with his pads while stunting across alignments.
- Length is closer to average than elite, which slightly detracts from raw power output.
- Lack of elite length can make it difficult to deconstruct blocks as a one-gapper at times.
- Upper body is a bit narrow and doesn’t as easily channel torque while stunting.
- Tall, narrow play style on stunts can impact his ability to align his pads and base.
- Doesn’t quite have the control and change of direction to suddenly redirect vertically.
- Can be more consistent building off of initial power exertions with counters.
- Sometimes fails to sustain power exertions and leg drive after initial contact.
- Sometimes flushes himself upfield too quickly as a run defender, opening paths inside.
- Occasionally retracts his base when processing reach blocks, losing his leverage.
- Moderate torso stiffness can impact finishing ability and recovery capacity.
Current Draft Projection and Summary
Entering the 2025 NFL Draft cycle, Williams grades out as a top-50 prospect who could eventually earn late-Round 1 capital. He’s extremely athletic, productive, well-sized, and his unique alignment versatility is a quality few in the 2025 NFL Draft class can match.
Williams is one of the most unique DT prospects to hit the circuit in recent years. He’s every bit of 327 pounds at 6’2″. And yet, he carries that mass with effortless ease, exploding off blocks and freely stunting across alignments with his burst, lateral agility, foot quickness, and range.
Williams effectively uses his mass, lower body strength, and natural pad level to encumber offensive linemen, absorb combo blocks, and minimize movement at the point of attack in the run game, and he also has the power element and point-of-attack strength to slab tackles at 5-tech.
Beyond his all-around, alignment-diverse run utility, Williams is also an exciting pass rusher. He can be used as a battering ram on stunts with his explosiveness, mass, and power, but he also has the active hands to win 1-on-1 and pry his way through gaps.
Where Williams stands to improve the most is as a leverage manager. He has great natural leverage, but even he has a tendency to drift upright through reps, which can impact pad level and base load. This upright nature can also render his upper body too narrow and tight, which can limit torque output on power exertions.
Having said all this, if Williams can continue to play to his natural leverage profile and stay low, he has the tools to be a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, as a productive multi-year starter who’ll still just be a 22-year-old rookie at the NFL level.
With his skill set, Williams can function as a 0- and 1-tech in odd and hybrid alignments, as an even-front defensive tackle, or play as wide as 5-tech and stunt across gaps. Overall, he’s the rare nose-capable DT with universal alignment versatility and two-phase upside.
At his peak, Williams can be an impact starter.
