Ohio State DT Tyleik Williams is facing Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff National Championship tonight, giving him another chance to help his NFL Draft stock.
After a strong season, Williams is widely regarded as one of the top running backs in the 2025 NFL Draft. Let’s examine his scouting report, Mock Draft Simulator trends, and where he went in our latest mock draft.
Tyleik Williams Scouting Report
- 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.
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.
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.
Latest 2025 NFL Mock Draft Projection
Williams’ current ADP in Pro Football Network’s Mock Draft Simulator is 30.4.
Users controlling the Houston Texans are selecting him with 24.4% of picks in the first round. The next highest percentage of selections for Williams in the first round are 11.4% of Pittsburgh Steelers’ users and 10.6% of Green Bay Packers’ users.
Here is how Henderson’s ADP data has changed over time:
In PFN’s latest seven-round 2025 NFL mock draft, Henderson is projected to get picked No. 47 overall by the Arizona Cardinals.
Here’s what PFN’s Dalton Miller had to say about the projected pick: “There were none and have been no such inconsistencies with Williams over the past two seasons. Although Williams hasn’t developed into a true three-down threat, he is one of the most consistent run defenders we’ve seen over the past few cycles. He’s quick-witted, powerful, and energetic against the run while providing a bit as a pass rusher when he really pins his ears back.”
He is the No. 42 player on Miller’s Top 100 NFL Draft Big Board: “Rumor has it Williams hasn’t played a bad game since arriving on campus in Columbus, Ohio. Although he’s never consistently flashed as a pass rusher, he’s also largely been deployed as the yin to Mike Hall Jr. and Ty Hamilton’s yang. He does the dirty work while they have all the fun.
“Williams possesses eye-popping torque strength and consistently stuns blockers with a quick first step to reset the line of scrimmage. He’s quick to read run keys, and his peripheral vision and insane flexibility allow him to drop anchor against double teams with ease.”
