You can find the rest of my positional draft rankings at the bottom of this feature. See below for my NFL Draft defensive tackle rankings (iDL).

2025 NFL Draft Defensive Tackle Rankings

Read THE THOR 500 here — Thor Nystrom's full ranks of the 500 best players in the 2025 NFL Draft!

Defensive Tackle Rankings Analysis For The 2025 NFL Draft: The Top Six

1. Mason Graham | Michigan | 6034/296 | RAS: N/A | Comp: La'Roi Glover

Graham is a two-way bully of a three-technique. He gets after the quarterback and is a disruptive force against the run. Graham was a low four-star recruit—No. 298 overall in the 2022 recruiting class per the On3 Consensus—who made good immediately, earning PFF Freshman All-American honors as a rotational iDL his first season on campus. Graham entered the starting lineup in 2023 and was utterly dominant the past two seasons.

During that span, according to PFF, Graham was 96th percentile or higher in all six of these categories: Pass Rush Grade, True Pass Rush Grade, Pass Rush Grade w/o Play Action, Pass Rush Win%, Run Defense Grade, and Run Stop%.

The high school wrestler knows how to grapple, and he always wins the leverage game. Graham has violent hands and rock-em-sock-em shock-absorbing core strength. He gets nitpicked for small hands and short arms. In his defense, Graham’s wingspan is longer than Byron Murphy, Jer'Zhan Newton, and Braden Fiske from the last class, and nearly identical to Walter Nolen’s in this class. Graham projects as a disruptor at the three-technique from Day 1.

2. Walter Nolen | Mississippi | 6036/296 | RAS: N/A | Comp: Gerald McCoy

A former five-star recruit, Nolen’s game is led by a primo combination of quickness and country strength. That dichotomy in an undersized package is the reason some compare Nolen to Aaron Donald, including Nolen himself. That’s overstating it, but Discount Donald is still worth a top-20 overall slot. What Nolen does best is simply get into the backfield—run or pass, you can count on him shedding and hunting quickly. Nolen is seen as a mercenary because he was enrolled at four different high schools, and he played at two different SEC schools. Perhaps because of that, Nolen does not get the credit he deserves for the evolution of his game these past few years.

Nolen’s work in run defense, in particular, grew by leaps and bounds in 2024. He finished No. 2 in the FBS behind the aforementioned Mason Graham in PFF positively graded run plays. There was play-in-play-out, havoc-wreaking consistency: Nolen was the only player in the nation to have 35-or-more pressures with a missed-tackle rate under 5%. This is a difference-making, three-down three-technique at the NFL level.

3. Kenneth Grant | Michigan | 6035/331 | RAS: 7.17 | Comp: Chester McGlockton

Grant is a freak, a 331-pound load with a nearly 7-foot wingspan who had an 82nd-percentile 10-yard split and 81st-percentile vertical jump. Grant is well-proportioned and could easily play at 350 pounds, his weight leaving high school. Grant is an interesting evaluation in that his size/athleticism combination screams 0- or 1-technique—ie, between the guards—but his playstyle can evoke more of a three-technique (ie, lined up outside the OG’s shoulder). Grant has the quickness to shoot gaps, and the pursuit speed and length to short-circuit plays.

The last two seasons, Grant was 81st-percentile in PFF pass-rushing grade, a superb showing for a player his size. Over that same span, Grant was 80th percentile in PFF run-defense grade. In the run game, he’s more of a hunter than an occupier, looking to shed and make the play himself, not plant himself like an oak for everyone else to have fun.

Grant’s flash plays are some of the flashiest in this entire position group. He just needs to play with more consistency—Grant starts to play higher and higher the more tired he gets, making him easier to block. It would probably be beneficial if he could begin his career as part of a rotation, working up to every-down snaps. I’m curious how he’ll be viewed by the team taking him—do they want him over center, as a three-tech, or perhaps a 3-4 five-tech?

4. Derrick Harmon | Oregon | 6044/313 | RAS: N/A | Comp: Marcell Dareus

This Detroit native spent three years at Michigan State after signing as a consensus four-star recruit. Harmon started in 2022-2023, breaking through in ‘23.

As a Spartan, Harmon played in the 320-330 pound range. Harmon transferred to Oregon and cut to 310 pounds for the 2024 season. Harmon’s pass-rushing effectiveness spiked at the lower weight last fall. He led all FBS interior defensive linemen with 39 hurries and 55 pressures in 2024, while finishing 99th percentile in PFF pass-rush win rate. Harmon is long-legged and naturally plays a bit high, but his length and strength are formidable weapons in helping him stand his ground in the run game. You can line him up nearly anywhere on the line, and he’s a fit for both 3-4 and 4-3 fronts. 

5. Darius Alexander | Toledo | 6037/305 | RAS: 9.16 | Comp: Christian Barmore

Alexander starts out each rep with a head start thanks to a long first step that erases distance and the defibrillators attached to his long arms. Alexander is an angular long-strider, and thus not as sudden or quick side-to-side in a phone booth—he’s looking to win with power, not agility.

When Alexander gets into the offensive linemen’s pads, he steers him like a wheel before discarding him like a wrapper. Alexander has developed a nifty swim move to free himself from offensive linemen who get their cleats planted too deep out of respect for his power. Over the past two seasons at Toledo, Alexander posted an impressive 87 pressures and was 96th percentile in PFF pass-rush win rate. During that same timeframe, Alexander’s 27.7% positively graded run-play rate ranked No. 9 in the country, while his PFF run-defense grade checked in at 89th percentile. Developing a deeper reservoir of counter moves to play off his power will only elevate Alexander’s game more at the next level.

6. Alfred Collins | Texas | 6055/332 | RAS: N/A | Comp: John Henderson

In this deep DT class, Collins gets slept on. He has white-collar physical ability with a blue-collar ethos on the field. A multi-sport high school star, Collins is a former five-star football recruit. He has a ridiculous frame, rangy, wide, and well-proportioned, with the longest wingspan in this iDL class (over 7 feet!).

For four seasons—starting his true freshman campaign in 2020—Collins was a heavily-used rotational player, logging, on average, a tick over 300 snaps per season. Collins started to show signs of being a potential force in 2023, when he’d come in off the bench for Byron Murphy or T'Vondre Sweat (what a rotation!).

Collins’ big moment came in 2024, with Murphy and Sweat off to the NFL. Only four FBS iDL had PFF overall and run defense grades above 85.0 with 27-or-more run stops: Mason Graham, Walter Nolen, Darius Alexander, and Collins. Collins has vice-grip mitts, but he needs to keep working on his hand technique to fully maximize that ridiculous wingspan. Collins will never dominate the leverage game, but he could also work on trying to lower his pad level a bit.

More 2025 NFL Draft Positional Rankings

• Quarterback Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Running Back Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Wide Receiver Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Tight End Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Offensive Tackle Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Offensive Guard and Center Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Defensive Tackle Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• EDGE Rusher Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Linebacker Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft

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