Byron
Young.
Byron
Young.
Tennessee· 6'2"· 250 lb· 4.43s 40
"Everyone in the building graded the birth certificate and slid him down the board; the Rams graded the get-off instead, and turned pick 77 into a Pro Bowl pass rusher on a rookie contract."Pre-draft read
Young is a stand-up rush linebacker in an odd front who wins with get-off before he wins with technique. His first step out of a two-point stance is elite for the position: he times the snap, gets skinny at the top of the arc, and forces tackles to open their hips a beat earlier than they want to. He can drop his inside shoulder and flatten to the quarterback without decelerating.
The counter game is more encouraging than the box score. He pairs a long-arm with a late cross-chop and has a functional inside spin when a tackle oversets. Against the run he is a spill-and-chase defender who plays with leverage rather than mass. The athletic profile at 250 pounds is starter-caliber, and the motor shows up on every rep, not just the fresh ones.
Odd-front 3-4 defense that lets him rush from a two-point stance on early downs and slide wide as a designated rusher on passing downs
Year 1: sub-package speed rusher and rotational starter opposite an established edge. Ceiling: full-time 3-4 OLB and double-digit sack producer who wins with burst, bend and a real counter plan.
A four-man even front that asks him to set a hard edge with his hand in the dirt against 320-pound tackles on early downs; his frame gets covered up and his best trait is neutralized.
Best used with stunts and games that let his first step attack a half-man surface rather than a two-way go.
Byron Young 2022 Tennessee Highlights
Full All-SEC senior season reel: get-off, arc bend and the counter wins that drove 12.0 TFL.
Byron Young Senior Bowl Highlights
One-on-one rush reps in Mobile against draftable tackles, the week that firmed up his Day 2 grade.
Byron Young Top Plays From The 2025 Season
Pro Bowl season with the Rams: 12 sacks, expanded rush plan and finishing speed.
Young is a speed-to-power edge whose evaluation is inseparable from his path: two years out of football working at Dollar General, a season of junior college, then two years in the SEC. On the field he is an alignment-flexible rusher, most comfortable wide of a tackle on third down, with the burst and ankle flexion to threaten an outside track on every snap and enough hand usage to punish a tackle who commits early.
The 2022 tape backs it up. He posted 36 tackles, 12.0 tackles for loss and 7.0 sacks as a first-team All-SEC selection by the coaches, and his 14 quarterback hurries said he was closer more often than the sack total suggested. The flags are honest. He is light in the frame and can be walled off by long, patient tackles who get hands on him first. His run defense is more chase than anchor, and he leaves plays on the field when he tries to run the arc rather than convert speed to power.
The board had him as a late-second to third-round rusher with a fourth-round age concern attached; he turned 25 before his rookie year. Los Angeles took him at 77 because they were buying the trait that translates fastest, first-step explosiveness, and betting the age question mattered less to a team drafting for immediate rotation snaps.
- 01
First-step explosiveness
Elite get-off for the position; times the snap and threatens the tackle's outside shoulder before the offensive lineman can gain depth.
- 02
Bend and flexion
Can drop his inside shoulder at the apex and flatten to the quarterback without losing speed, which is the trait that translates to Sunday pressure.
- 03
Counter arsenal
Long-arm, late cross-chop and an inside spin off an overset give him more than one way to win when the arc gets closed off.
- 04
Motor and effort
Chases plays 20 yards downfield and finishes reps that most rushers concede; the fourth-quarter tape looks like the first-quarter tape.
- 05
Testing profile
4.43 in the 40, a 38-inch vertical and an 11-foot broad jump at 250 pounds confirm the explosiveness the film shows.
- 01
Play strength
Light in the frame and can be caught and walled off by long, patient tackles who land hands first and steer him past the pocket.
- 02
Run anchor
Plays the run on the move rather than at the point of attack; gets displaced when tight ends and tackles get into his frame on down blocks.
- 03
Age curve
Turned 25 before his rookie season with only two Power Five years of tape, which compresses the development window teams pay for.
- 04
Rush plan discipline
Defaults to the speed rush too often and can string together arc-only reps instead of converting speed to power against sets he has already tested.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.43sp50
- Vertical
- 38inp50
- Broad jump
- 132inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 22repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Tennessee | — | 46 | 5.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2022 | Tennessee | 13 | 36 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 13 | 82 | 12.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Tennessee only (2021-2022). Junior college production at Georgia Military College is not included; FBS totals verified against CFBD season ledgers. Unpublished categories left null.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Productive 3-4 outside backer who starts, rushes on all three downs and lives on burst rather than power.
Undersized speed rusher who became a double-digit sack producer once a defense built a rush role around his get-off.
Solid rotational-to-starter edge whose sack totals swing with the quality of the rusher next to him.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Three-year starter for the Rams with 27.5 sacks in 51 games and a first Pro Bowl in 2025 (12 sacks); entered 2026 in a contract year opposite Myles Garrett.
The Rams did not treat him like a project. Young started as a rookie and played all 17 games, finishing with 8.0 sacks and 50 tackles, an unusual first-year workload for a third-round rusher. Year two brought the classic sophomore squeeze: more attention, more chip help, 61 tackles and 7.5 sacks in another 17-game season, with the production sitting slightly below the snap count. The 2025 season is when the counters he flashed at Tennessee turned into a plan. He posted 12 sacks and a career-high tackle total, made his first Pro Bowl, added eight tackles in the playoffs while managing a knee issue, and landed in the NFL Top 100 heading into 2026, when he entered a contract year lined up opposite Myles Garrett.
In hindsight the age concern that pushed him to 77 was the market mispricing the wrong variable. Teams discounted the calendar; the Rams bought the get-off and the motor, and got 27.5 sacks in three seasons plus a Pro Bowl from a pick that costs almost nothing against the cap. The weaknesses that were real are still real, and he is not the defender you want anchoring against a heavy run team, but Los Angeles built a role that hides that and monetizes his burst. This is the kind of pick that makes a third round look like the smartest part of a draft class.
Data note: Tennessee only (2021-2022). Junior college production at Georgia Military College is not included; FBS totals verified against CFBD season ledgers. Unpublished categories left null.