Top 5 interior defensive linemen in college football right now
Now a month into the 2022 college football season, I decided it was time to rank the five best players for each position at this very moment. For clarification, these lists are based on where these young men are today as college football players. I’m in the business of projecting forward and evaluating them as draft prospects, but for this exercise, I tried to isolate them from their team and purely judge them on who could help me win games at the CFB level right now.
Let's continue with the best interior defensive linemen in college football:
#1. Jalen Carter, Georgia
Once again, the number one spot among the interior defensive line was fairly easy to figure out. Right now, Jalen Carter is a close second in terms of my overall big board for next year’s draft. In terms of the athletic phenom, I might actually say he’s more naturally gifted than Alabama’s Will Anderson. Georgia had three first-round picks among the defensive line alone back in April and Carter is better than all of them.
“Jalen Carter, Mike Tomlin Pittsburgh Steelers”
https://t.co/O9eElmkkI9
Jordan Davis had a phenomenal 2021 season and the junior may not be asked to control the interior as much at the nose, even though he’s certainly capable of it. But it’s the pure force he has, even with even pad-levels, to just drive solo-blockers into the backfield and toss them to the side as he sees the ball-carrier approach. We saw him do so in their season-opener this year to a 330-pound senior guard for Oregon. On passing downs, he can obviously yank blockers of him as well, but his ability to torque his body, his nimble feet to work across his man’s face and how he can loop all the way across the formation just stands out.
#2. Bryan Bresee, Clemson
I did not expect us to land here coming into the season, because with full transparency – I was underwhelmed with Bryan Bresee’s tape. For a former number one overall recruit, I thought he wasn’t playing with great urgency, wanting to make plays, and there were way too many wasted reps rushing the passer. This college football season, he has come off the ball with a different attitude and is looking to create chaos.
Bryan Bresee https://t.co/3dDI07k7Me
He’s obviously immensely strong and willing to do the dirty work in the run game. But he’s gotten much better at pressing off linemen and creating angles towards the ball for himself to shut down plays. When he’s lined up on the shoulder of a guard or center, he has the power to rip through and take people with him as he actively shortens his path. This gives quarterbacks very limited room to operate between the tackles. He still only has a couple of TFLs and half a sack, but he’s been in on the action for several no-gain carries and has made passers land on their backside.
#3. Siaka Ika, Baylor
At number three, we have another guy where the production simply hasn’t been there (just seven tackles, no sacks and two PBUs). Considering his role, it probably won’t really come either this year. Since Siaka Ika transferred alongside his former defensive coordinator Dave Aranda a couple of years ago, he has been a rock in the middle of Baylor’s formidable defense. In 2021, they finished top-ten in points allowed and surrended a miniscule 3.4 yards per carry. This season, they’ve even decreased that number to 2.6 yards a pop.
Ika constantly demands double-teams and can own his space by reducing his surface area and standing in the crease between the two blockers. But if he’s lined up as a shade nose, he can also knife upfield and disrupt the run. He may not be a prominent third-down contributor, but he can surprise blockers with sudden push-pull combinations. Giving him a runway as a three-technique allows him to create serious power to push up the middle. Last college football season, he earned a 85.7 pass-rush grade by PFF.
#4. Dante Stills, West Virginia
One of my personal favorites for a couple of seasons now (and it certainly has something to do with his brother Darius Stills being a draft prospect two years ago, making me believe Dante has been there for such a long time) is Dante Stills. Unlike his brother, who was more of a dense three-technique, Dante Stills features great length and with his active hand-usage, he can really create problems for blockers.
He can two-gap as well as slant across gaps and routinely throws off the timing of run concepts. While I’d like to see him play under a little more control and be able to reduce his height (whether it’s bull-rush, pulling cloth to toss guys aside or the ability to corner his rushes off rip-moves), this guy has a lot of clubs in his bags and he’s relentless with the way he continues to work in that regard.
T-#5. Colby Wooden, Auburn & Jaqueline Roy, LSU
We have another tie at number five. If I wanted to, I could have easily made this a three-man affair here, considering how disruptive Pitt’s Calijah Kancey has been over the last couple of seasons. Instead, I wanted to focus on two SEC studs here. Colby Wooden presents an old-school 3-4 defensive end build at 6’5” and 278 pounds, but he's being used all over the line by the Auburn Tigers. His motor is always running hot, he’s active with disengaging from blocks in the run game, and he's good at clearing the chests of blockers. He can really bury his hands in there and take guys for a ride in passing situations.
Jaqueline Roy has more of a trunky build at 6’4”, 300 pounds, and is more focused on holding his ground in run defense. However, he showcases impressive lateral agility to mirror lateral schemes. As a pass-rusher, I thought there were too many wasted reps on his 2021 tape, but he does showcase cat-like quickness for that size. He can blow through one half of his man once he gets him to stop his feet.
Honorable mentions: Calijah Kancey (Pittsburgh), Mazi Smith (Michigan), Zacch Pickens (South Carolina), Dom Peterson (Nevada), Keion White (Georgia Tech) & Elijah Chatman (SMU)
You can check out all my other college football positional rankings here or as one piece on halilsrealfootballtalk.com