HEIGHT: 6'6"

WEIGHT: 345

POSITIVES

— Great size and moves well for his size, heightening his ceiling at the next level.

— Against the run, he has the upper body strength to lock out offensive linemen and shed blocks. He's shown swim and hump moves to get off blocks too.

— Can take away two gaps with his strength at the point of attack and agility to work across the offensive lineman's face to make tackles in the adjacent gap.

— As a pass-rusher, he's decent at keeping his feet moving through contact to collapse the pocket as a bull rusher.

— Also uses a swim move to win as a pass-rusher and has fairly limber hips to clear his lower half when winning as a rusher.

— Used at several different alignments from nose tackle to standup outside linebacker/edge at Kentucky.

NEGATIVES

— Consistency throughout the game is a major issue, as his conditioning needs improvement. Could benefit from some weight management. He will show laziness either at the beginning of games to conserve energy or at the end when he runs out of gas.

— Stands up out of his stance and plays with very high pad level, causing him issues against offensive linemen who play with good leverage and combo blocks/double teams.

— Isn't explosive off the ball outside of short-yardage situations.

— Sub-par accuracy with his hands as a pass-rusher.

NOTES

— Born Mar. 11, 2004

— 4-star recruit in the 2022 class, per 247Sports

— No major injuries

— 2023 All-American; 2023 First team All-SEC 2023

— 2022 Freshman All-American; 2022 Second team All-SEC

OVERALL

Deone Walker is a massive human with a basketball background that shows up in his movement skills on the gridiron. He's pretty quick for his size and has the agility to beat offensive linemen across their faces.

With his combination of upper body strength and size, Walker can win at the point of attack to be hard to move as a run defender against one-on-one blocks and can collapse the pocket when bull rushing. He's also flashed an impressive swim move and shown the ability to use his quickness to win as a pass-rusher and defeat blocks against the run.

Ultimately, the Kentucky product can be physically dominant when he wants to be or has a full tank of gas. The problem is he can get lazy, and his conditioning is poor, leading to him getting beat at certain points during a game more often than he should be losing for someone with his profile.

That and playing with high pad level are Walker's most significant issues heading to the next level, and it seems like those two weaknesses correlate. The good news is he has plenty of size to spare if he can get in better shape.

Schematically, Walker is somewhat unique since he has the size of a nose tackle but the quickness of a 3-technique. Until he starts playing with better leverage and improves against double teams, he'd probably be best lining up at the latter, though.

GRADE: 8.0 (Year 1 Starter, Late 1st - Early 2nd)

OVERALL RANK: 18

POSITION RANK: DL3

PRO COMPARISON: Gervon Dexter

Written by B/R NFL Scout Matt Holder

Prospect workout numbers, measurables (40-yard dash, hand size, etc.) and 2024 statistics will be added at a later date.