8 defensive players who could be secret superstars in the 2025 NFL Draft

Read up on these underrated prospects so you’re not asking, “WHO???” on draft weekend.

Think of the best third-round and lower picks over the last few decades, and how many of them have either slam-dunks or at least future pathways to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Tom Brady was a sixth-round pick in 2000. Marshal Yanda was a third-round pick in 2007. Frank Gore was a third-round pick in 2010. Jason Kelce was a sixth-round pick in 2011. Jason’s brother Travis was a third-round pick in 2013. Richard Sherman was a fifth-round pick in 2011. Fred Warner was a third-round pick in 2018.

On and on it goes.

We never really know how things will turn out for those prospects whose playing potential far outstrips their draft destinations for whatever reasons. Perhaps the prospect in question played at a smaller school, and strength of competition is a question. Maybe they’re pushed down in a class packed with too much talent for everybody to get their just due. Or it could be that off-field issues get in the way.

Regardless, every draft class has those players who ascend far beyond where they were drafted. This list of prospects from the 2025 draft class is meant to feature those players who will likely be selected on the late second or third days of the draft, and who could be NFL starters far sooner than anybody imagined based on what the tape says. Because there are those players every year, and it’s our firm belief that more than one of the names below will make that particular cut.

They’re not future Hall of Famers just yet, but here are our favorite defensive players in the 2025 draft who could make a lot of NFL talent evaluators look silly sooner than later.

Darius Alexander, DI, Toledo

Last season, the 6’4, 305-pound Alexander had four sacks, 37 total pressures, 27 solo tackles, and 27 stops for the Toledo Rockets. And before you slam the strength of competition, consider that Alexander absolutely lit up Pitt’s offense in Toledo’s 48-46 win in the GameAbove Sports Bowl last Dec. 26. The day after Christmas was really Christmas Day for Alexander and his NFL potential, as he logged a sack, four total pressures, three solo tackles, and four stops against an ACC opponent.

Alexander then went to the scouting combine and blew it up in most of the drills, doubling down on what the tape already showed. His high-percentile numbers make you go back to the tape, and you will see a defensive tackle prospect with an unfortunate propensity to come off the snap with high pad level (which leads to less than optimal leverage), but when Alexander has it all together in an technical sense, he’s highly destructive and really tough to stop play after play.

CJ West, DI, Indiana

West was another scouting combine superstar who likely had NFL teams going back to the tape after the fact, and those NFL teams most likely loved what they saw. Last season, the 6’1, 316-pound West had one sack, 25 total pressures, 28 solo tackles, and 22 stops. Factor in the six tackles for loss West had last season, because that’s a big part of his play style.

West’s arm length (31 ½ inches, which is sixth percentile for defensive tackles since 1999), will give some teams pause. But as is always the case, you must go back to the tape to see if the prospect in question has developed the right strategies to overcome and mitigate any physical shortfalls. West explodes out of his stance, and he’s all about striking the first blow, which tends to minimize those short-arm issues. He has also developed an array of moves to blast through single blocks and double teams. Think of how Grady Jarrett has dominated for years everywhere from head-over nose tackle to three-tech outside the guards, and that’s a fair comparison.

Ahmed Hassanein, EDGE, Boise State

Going back to smaller-school players, what NFL teams really want to see is dominance against equivalent competition. Not that Boise State is some Division III school – not with Ashton Jeanty on the roster since 2022 – but in projecting NFL futures for any Broncos of note, you have to see more moments of grown-ass man reps when you’re not playing Ohio State, Michigan, or the SEC week after week.

In the case of Ahmed Hassanein, the dominance is clear on tape, and given Hassanein’s lack of football experience, you start to think of what he could be with a couple years of NFL coaching. Hassanein was born in America, but moved to Cairo, Egypt to live with his father at age six. He didn’t start playing football until 2018, when he moved back to the United States, and his brother (a football coach) got him into it.

You could say that Hassanein is lacking a pass-rush plan given his level of experience, but the same could be said of Texas A&M’s Shemar Stewart, and Stewart has a lot more experience, Stewart will also probably be taken in the first round.

What really shows up on Hassanein’s tape is that at 6’2 and 267 pounds, he’s got a surprising burst off the edge to beat tackles with speed, and he can also push guards right into the backfield when he’s asked to kick inside. I am eager to see what Hassanein can become over time.

Josaiah Stewart, EDGE, Michigan

Some people might not know what to do with Josaiah Stewart, because at 6’1 (second percentile for edge-rushers since 1999) and 249 pounds (13th percentile), he’s not going to fit everybody’s ideal size qualifications. But when you go to the tape, you see that this dude is a power pig trapped in an off-ball linebacker’s body.

Over and over, Stewart will work speed into power off the edge, and the results for offensive tackles can be downright embarrassing. You don’t want to be thrown around by somebody you outweigh by 80 pounds, but when Stewart gets up to full speed (which doesn’t take long at all), the power of a man weighing 30 pounds more kicks in, and the kung-fu starts to happen.

Last season, the 2023 transfer from Coastal Carolina had nine sacks and 37 total pressures in just 247 pass-rushing reps. And that’s no one-year wonder; Stewart had six sacks and 29 total pressures in 177 pass-rushing reps for the Wolverines in 2023. He also had 22 solo tackles and 28 stops in 2024, so Stewart can defend the run just fine.

Shaun Dolac, LB, Buffalo

Talk about underrated guys – Dolac wasn’t even invited to the scouting combine after a 2024 season in which he totaled (deep breath) five sacks, 16 total pressures, 125 solo tackles, 76 stops, 13 tackles for loss, and he allowed 43 catches on 58 targets for 317 yards, 220 yards after the catch, one touchdown, five interceptions, two pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 56.5.

Anytime you have a linebacker with the same number of sacks as interceptions in a season, that’s a pretty good indicator that he’s an ideal candidate for the NFL, which demands just about everything from the position these days. Dolac does indeed have the ability to win in all kinds of roles – everywhere from the line of scrimmage to curl/flat coverage – and this is another case in which the dominance against smaller-school opponents is both evident and transferable to the next level.

Jordan Oladokun, CB, Bowling Green

Another combine snub, Oladokun had his best season to date in 2024, The 2022 transfer from Samford allowed 26 catches on 61 targets in 2024 for Bowling Green for 219 yards, 128 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, five interceptions, nine pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 18.4. That was the second-lowest opponent passer rating in the 2025 FBS draft class among cornerbacks taking at least 50% of his team’s snaps.

Who ranked first? We’ll get to that guy in a second.

In Oladokun’s case, it’s not just what he did against Arkansas State and Miami of Ohio. Against both Texas A&M and Penn State, Oladokun gave up easy hitches and curls when he was playing 10 yards off the ball, but when he was asked to trail big-school receivers downfield, those receivers didn’t do much. Oladokun also has an innate feel for the timing and progression of route concepts; it’s why so many of his deflections and interceptions are route jumps in which Oladokun appears to know what’s coming as much as the offense trying to deliver it.

Hopefully, Oladokun’s NFL team will allow him to play closer to the receiver more often, where his acumen and athleticism can combine for some potentially stellar results.

Darien Porter, CB, Iowa State

Porter is another guy on this list with an outstanding combine, and when teams went back to the tape after that, they saw a cornerback who in 2024 allowed five catches on 17 targets for 70 yards, 22 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, three interceptions, two pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of… 4.7.

There’s your FBS leader in the 2025 draft class for cornerbacks when it comes to that all-important metric.

Porter’s on-field movement skills would be more than acceptable for a 5’9, 180-pound slot guy; to have a gentleman getting it done with speed and agility at this level at just over 6’3 and 195 pounds is pretty ridiculous.

I like Porter in all types of coverage, but he’s especially problematic for receivers when he’s allowed to press right up with them at the line of scrimmage, using his match speed through any route, and then pulling in his 80-inch wingspan (95th percentile among cornerbacks since 1999) to deflect just about anything in his general vicinity. The NFL is in the middle of a press coverage revolution, and press-match coverage is especially important. Having a speed pterodactyl like Porter in your secondary should be seen as a bonus at all times.

Jaden Voisin, Safety, South Alabama

The days of the free and strong safeties are over, both at the NCAA and NFL levels. Those designations are meaningless in an era where positional versatility isn’t just a fad; it’s the default. If all you can do is play the deep third, you’d better be Ed Reed or Earl Thomas, and most people aren’t. Most of today’s safeties are asked, based on their physical attributes, to play different but meaningful rep rates everywhere from box to slot to free.

Given that reality, one particular safety prospect really stood out in this draft class when it came to that versatility, and how it might be overlooked in his case. That’s South Alabama’s Jaden Voisin, who did most of his work in the box last season for the Jaguars, but also had meaningful snaps in the slot and at free safety.

Overall, Voisin allowed 21 catches on 34 targets for 234 yards, 86 yards after the catch, one touchdown, five interceptions, four pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 52.5. He also had 64 solo tackles, five tackles for loss, and 31 stops. While the 15 missed tackles imply some cleanup work at the next level, Voisin does project well as a do-it-all guy at the NFL level.