Adisa
Isaac.
Adisa
Isaac.
Penn State· 6'4"· 247 lb· 4.74s 40
"A hands-and-plan edge rusher whose technique was always ahead of his explosiveness, and whose first two NFL seasons were spent in the training room instead of proving which one mattered more."Pre-draft read
Isaac played as a long-levered 6-4, 250-pound edge in Penn State's four-man front, working from both a three-point stance on early downs and a two-point look on obvious rush snaps. His calling card is hand usage rather than pure burst: a two-hand swipe back inside, a stab-and-rip to clear the outside shoulder, and a bull rush that keeps tackles from oversetting.
Against the run he plays with effort and backside pursuit but gets moved by tight ends when he catches instead of strikes. The signature trait is his work on games and stunts, where he loops inside with almost no wasted motion and arrives clean; with a 4.74 forty and easy lateral agility, he profiled as a scheme-versatile rusher, not a straight-line bender.
Four-man front that rushes with movement — long sticks, twists and games from a wide-9 or 5-technique
Year 1: designated sub-package rusher on 15-20 snaps a game plus core special teams. Ceiling: 600-snap starting edge who produces 7-9 sacks through plan and stunt wins.
Two-gap 3-4 front that asks the edge to hold the point against tight ends and guards on early downs, or a purely speed-based wide alignment that strips away his counters and asks him to win the corner clean.
Best paired with an interior rusher who commands doubles so his inside counters open.
Adisa Isaac 2023 Full Season Highlights | Penn State EDGE
Senior-season tape: the swipe-and-rip package and his inside work on stunts.
Adisa Isaac Senior Bowl Highlights
Mobile week one-on-ones that pushed him up boards late in the cycle.
2024 NFL Draft Highlights: DE Adisa Isaac | Penn State Football
Career reel showing pursuit effort and hand usage across alignments.
Isaac is a technician-first edge rusher whose value comes from plan and counters instead of first-step violence. He wins with a defined rush menu, understands how to set up tackles across a series, and is at his best when the call lets him move — long sticks, twists, and inside rushes off a two-point alignment.
The production followed the health. A top-100 recruit who rotated as a freshman in 2019, he lost the entire 2021 season to an Achilles injury, returned for 4 sacks and 9 TFL worth of flashes in 2022, then finished with a genuine senior year: 13 games, 37 tackles, 16 TFL, 7.5 sacks and a forced fumble. A strong Senior Bowl week confirmed the hands were real. The flags were play strength at the point of attack, ordinary twitch off the snap, and a body that had already broken down once.
The board had him in the late-second to third-round band as a developmental rusher with a starter's toolkit. Baltimore taking him at 93 was on time rather than a reach: a rotational piece for a defense that could redshirt him behind established edges and let the technique catch up to the league's strength.
- 01
Hand technique
Two-hand swipe, stab-rip and long-arm all show up on tape with real intent, and he sequences them across a game instead of repeating one move.
- 02
Stunt and twist work
Loops inside with almost no wasted movement and consistently arrives clean, which made him one of Penn State's most productive designed-pressure rushers.
- 03
Rush plan
Sets tackles up early with speed threats so his inside counters have somewhere to go, playing older than his snap count suggested.
- 04
Backside pursuit
Chases plays down from the far hash and finishes at the ball, a trait that translated straight to special teams value as a rookie.
- 05
Length and frame
At 6-4 with nearly 34-inch arms he can keep blockers off his chest when he strikes first, and the frame carries added weight cleanly.
- 01
Play strength
Gets displaced by tight ends and heavier tackles at the point of attack when he catches blocks rather than delivering the first blow.
- 02
First-step twitch
The 4.74 forty matches the tape; he rarely threatens a tackle's edge with pure speed and needs the plan to work for him.
- 03
Anchor versus double teams
Loses ground when a guard climbs to help, which limits how many early-down snaps he can absorb in heavy personnel.
- 04
Injury history
The 2021 Achilles cost him a full season and a chunk of developmental time, and the durability question resurfaced in the NFL.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.74sp50
- Vertical
- 34.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 123inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Penn State | 11 | 14 | 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Penn State | 9 | 13 | 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Penn State | 13 | 23 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | Penn State | 13 | 37 | 7.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Career | — | 46 | 87 | 14.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Redshirted 2021 after an Achilles injury; pass breakups and interceptions not verified season by season.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Long developmental edge who carves out a 400-500 snap rotational role and contributes on special teams.
Hand-driven, plan-first rusher who turned technique and heavy power into double-digit-pressure seasons despite ordinary explosiveness.
Toolsy Penn State edge whose sack production never matched the flashes — here the downside is injury, not traits.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Baltimore treated him as a project from the start. A hamstring issue wiped out most of his rookie camp and much of 2024, and he finished with four games, four tackles and one pass defensed while contributing mostly on special teams. Then 2025 disappeared entirely: a dislocated elbow in the preseason put him on injured reserve before he ever played a snap. He passed his physical and came off the PUP list on July 31, 2026, entering camp healthy for the first time as a pro and fighting for rotational reps behind Trey Hendrickson and Tavius Robinson.
In hindsight the pick is still unresolved rather than wrong. The traits Baltimore drafted — hands, stunt feel, positional flexibility — were real and remain intact, but two years of the developmental runway a technique rusher needs were simply erased by injury. Teams that took swings on similar bodies in that range at least got snaps to evaluate; the Ravens got four games. The 2026 season is the first honest referendum on whether the tape or the medical file was the truer signal.
Data note: Redshirted 2021 after an Achilles injury; pass breakups and interceptions not verified season by season.