Byron
Young.
Byron
Young.
Alabama· 6'3"· 292 lb
"He was the most technically reliable body on an Alabama two-deep stacked with future first-rounders, a player who won with leverage and hand placement rather than burst, and that is a compliment and a ceiling in the same breath."Pre-draft read
A 6-foot-3, 292-pound base end and 3-technique in Alabama's multiple front, Young was built to hold the line of scrimmage rather than dictate behind it. He played with a wide base and consistent pad level, extended long arms into the blocker's breastplate, and read the puller before committing his hips. Hand placement was the separator: he located the chest plate fast, stacked, and shed late.
As a rusher he leaned on a heavy bull and a long-arm to collapse the pocket rather than on twitch off the ball; his get-off was ordinary and his counters arrived a beat late. He climbed from one sack as a freshman to four as a senior through push and persistence, and 5.5 tackles for loss in 2022 tell the honest story of a leverage-based run defender.
Even front that lets him two-gap or slant in a rotation, using him on early downs and taking him off the field on obvious passing situations.
Year 1: early-down rotational run defender in a six-man line rotation. Ceiling: dependable base 3-technique who plays 400-500 snaps and wins the run downs.
A one-gap, get-up-the-field front that asks its 3-technique to be a designed pass-rush threat on third down — his get-off and counter package cannot carry that role.
His value is in the reps nobody notices, which is exactly what a deep rotation is built to reward.
Byron Young Alabama Highlights
Career highlight reel of Young's snaps across the Alabama front.
Byron Young 2022 Highlights | Alabama DL
Second-Team All-SEC senior season: 48 tackles, 5.5 TFL, four sacks.
“Breakout Defensive Lineman” Byron Young Alabama Highlights
Focus cut on his hand use and leverage at the point of attack.
Young is the kind of Alabama lineman who never headlined a defense and never cost one a game either. He arrived in Tuscaloosa as a four-star from West Jones and spent four years inside a rotation stacked with future first-rounders, carving out snaps by being the most technically reliable body on the two-deep rather than the most explosive one.
The production curve was steady instead of spectacular: 21 tackles as a freshman contributor, 29 in the national title season, 40 with 9.5 tackles for loss as a junior, then a Second-Team All-SEC senior year of 48 tackles, 5.5 for loss and four sacks. The signature tape came against SEC gap schemes, where he squeezed the C-gap, kept his shoulders square and let the linebackers behind him run clean. The flags were just as clear — the pass rush was mostly a bull rush without a second move, and he rarely threatened the pocket's edge.
Boards had him as a mid-Day 2 to early-Day 3 defensive lineman with a starter's floor and a limited ceiling, and taking him at #70 was a bet on the Alabama development track more than on any single trait. It was a fair price for a rotational run defender, but a rich one for a player whose pass-rush win rate never suggested more.
- 01
Hand placement
He located the blocker's breastplate before contact and kept his hands inside, which let him stack and control single blocks instead of absorbing them.
- 02
Pad level
Consistently played under the pads of guards and tackles, generating leverage at the point of attack even against down blocks and combo pressure.
- 03
Run-game reliability
Four years of holding gap integrity in SEC play; he squeezed the C-gap and kept his shoulders square so the linebackers behind him ran free.
- 04
Bull rush
A genuinely heavy first punch that walked interior blockers into the quarterback's lap and reset the pocket depth on obvious passing downs.
- 05
Positional versatility
Lined up from head-up nose to 5-technique in Alabama's multiple front without any obvious drop in technique or effectiveness.
- 01
Pass-rush plan
The bull was the whole toolbox; he rarely showed a counter, and once a blocker anchored the rep was effectively over before the second move arrived.
- 02
First-step quickness
An ordinary get-off for the position meant he almost never won before contact, which caps his ceiling as a designed interior disruptor.
- 03
Athletic testing
A 7.68 three-cone and 26-inch vertical confirmed the tape: limited change of direction and short-area burst for a penetrating role.
- 04
Splash production
Only 7.5 career sacks and one forced fumble across four Alabama seasons; the box score never matched the number of quality reps he stacked.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- —s
- Vertical
- 26inp50
- Broad jump
- 108inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.68sp50
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 24repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Alabama | 9 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Alabama | 13 | 29 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Alabama | 15 | 40 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Alabama | 13 | 48 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Career | — | 50 | 138 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
2020-2022 verified season-by-season on cfbstats (bowl and CFP games included). cfbstats has no 2019 archive, so the freshman line comes from StatMuse; career totals are the sum of the four listed seasons. Career TFL and pass-breakup totals are left blank because the 2019 splits are not verifiable.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Rotational base defensive tackle who holds the point on early downs and comes off the field on third.
Leverage-first interior defender who out-techniques bigger blockers and becomes a quality full-time run-down starter.
Depth interior body who bounces between rosters because the run-down value never outgrows the pass-rush ceiling.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Six games and four tackles as a Raiders rookie, waived in August 2024, claimed by Philadelphia and lost to a hamstring injury before winning a Super Bowl LIX ring off injured reserve. Broke through in 2025 with 17 games, one start, 37 tackles and 2.5 sacks as a rotational interior defender, and remains on the Eagles roster in 2026.
Las Vegas took him to add a body to a thin interior and got almost nothing in year one: a PUP stint in July, six appearances and four tackles as a rookie behind a rotation that never trusted him on early downs. The Raiders waived him in late August 2024, and Philadelphia claimed him the next day — a fit that made far more sense in a front that rotates six or seven linemen and asks its interior to two-gap and hold on early downs. A hamstring injury put him on injured reserve in October and cost him the entire 2024 season, though he was on the roster when the Eagles beat Kansas City in Super Bowl LIX. In 2025 the investment finally paid: 17 games, one start, 37 tackles, 2.5 sacks and a fumble recovery as a genuine part of the rotation, and he entered 2026 still on Philadelphia's roster.
In hindsight, #70 was too early for what he is, but the player himself was evaluated correctly. Everything the tape promised — leverage, hand use, run-down dependability — has shown up in the NFL, and everything it warned about is still true, because the pass rush remains a bull and a prayer. The mistake was the price, not the read: this was a fourth-round profile drafted in the third by a Raiders staff that valued the Alabama pedigree over the win rate. Philadelphia got the version of him that was always there, for free, on a waiver claim.
Data note: 2020-2022 verified season-by-season on cfbstats (bowl and CFP games included). cfbstats has no 2019 archive, so the freshman line comes from StatMuse; career totals are the sum of the four listed seasons. Career TFL and pass-breakup totals are left blank because the 2019 splits are not verifiable.