Cedric
Gray.
Cedric
Gray.
North Carolina· 6'2"· 234 lb· 4.64s 40
"A day-three linebacker whose only elite trait was speed to the football, which turned out to be the exact trait Tennessee could not coach into anybody else already on the roster."Pre-draft read
Gray is a downhill Will linebacker who plays with his eyes in the backfield and turns a run read into contact in a hurry. North Carolina let him roam from the weak side, and he attacked front-side gaps with tempo, ducking under blocks instead of stacking them and finishing with a wrap-and-drive tackle that rarely leaked yards.
The secondary trait is perimeter range: he runs down screens and outside zone with real closing speed and blitzes with timing off the edge or through the A-gap. In coverage he is more athlete than technician, carrying crossers on speed and passing off verticals a beat late. The signature is volume without waste, four seasons of climbing tackle counts from a linebacker who diagnoses fast and never ducks a collision.
4-3 weak-side linebacker in a one-gap, spill-and-chase front
Year 1: core special-teams player and sub-package Will who is protected from guards by a two-gapping nose. Ceiling: full-time three-down Will who leads a defense in tackles and adds five to seven pressures on timed blitzes.
A two-gap 3-4 that asks its inside linebackers to take on pulling guards head-up in the B-gap, or a heavy man-match system that leaves him alone on tight ends down the seam.
Best behind a front that keeps guards off the second level; his value collapses when he has to defeat blocks rather than run around them.
Cedric Gray 2023 Regular Season Highlights | North Carolina LB
Senior-year cut-up showing the downhill trigger, chase range and delayed blitz sacks.
Cedric Gray UNC NFL Pro Day Highlights
Pro day workout, useful for the change-of-direction and drop mechanics scouts questioned.
Cedric Gray | Titans Playback
Titans feature on his 2025 breakout as the team's leading tackler.
Gray is a four-year Tar Heel who grew from special-teams depth into the most productive linebacker in the ACC, a 6-foot-2, 234-pound weak-side player whose identity is speed to the football rather than point-of-attack thump. He is a see-ball, get-ball defender, and the tape is full of tackles made two gaps away from where the play started.
The production is not a fluke of scheme. He posted 99 tackles as a first-year starter, 136 the next fall with 10 tackles for loss and two interceptions, then 121 with 11 tackles for loss and five sacks as a senior while Carolina's front asked him to blitz more. He also flashed ball skills unusual for an off-ball defender, five career interceptions and six fumble recoveries. The flags are real, too: he plays lighter than his listed weight, gets swallowed when a guard reaches the second level clean, and his coverage detail lags his athletic tools.
The board saw a productive, slightly narrow-framed linebacker with fourth-round athletic testing and third-round instincts. Tennessee took the trade-off at 106, betting that special-teams value and elite tackle production would eventually translate to a starting job even if he never became a coverage chess piece.
- 01
Trigger speed
He diagnoses run keys almost instantly and is moving downhill before the guard climbs, which is how he stacked 356 tackles across three starting seasons.
- 02
Chase range
Sideline-to-sideline speed shows up on screens, tosses and outside zone, where he consistently beats blockers to the alley and makes the tackle at or near the line.
- 03
Finishing tackler
Low pad level and a wrap-and-drive finish give him a very low miss rate for a linebacker asked to make contact in space this often.
- 04
Blitz timing
Five sacks as a senior came mostly on delayed pressures, where he reads the protection slide and hits the open gap without wasted steps.
- 05
Ball production
Five interceptions and six fumble recoveries in college; he attacks the football at the catch point and rakes at the ball through the tackle.
- 01
Block deconstruction
When a guard or tight end gets clean hands on him he stays blocked; he wins with avoidance rather than stack-and-shed strength.
- 02
Play strength
At 234 pounds with a narrow build he gets displaced in short-yardage and can be washed out of gaps by double-team spill.
- 03
Coverage detail
Zone drops are inconsistent in depth and he passes off vertical routes late, letting tight ends stem free behind him.
- 04
Overrunning angles
The same aggression that creates tackles occasionally takes him past the football on cutbacks and quarterback keeps.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.64sp50
- Vertical
- 35.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 120inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 17repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | North Carolina | 11 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | North Carolina | 13 | 99 | 2.5 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| 2022 | North Carolina | 14 | 136 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
| 2023 | North Carolina | 12 | 121 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| Career | — | 50 | 359 | 8.5 | 5 | 13 | 0 |
CFBD verified; season totals sum exactly to career line (50 G, 359 tkl, 27.0 TFL, 8.5 sk, 5 INT, 13 PD, 6 FR). 2020 freshman year: only games and tackles recorded.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- First-Team All-ACC (2022)
- First-Team All-ACC (2023)
- ACC tackles leader (2022)
- Four-year starter, North Carolina
Instinctive, undersized run-and-chase linebacker who earns snaps on production and special teams.
Rangy, high-volume off-ball starter who tackles everything in space without being a thumper.
Special-teams core linebacker who never holds a defensive starting job against NFL guards.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Tennessee redshirted him in practice terms: Gray played seven games as a rookie in 2024, logged 48 defensive snaps and made his money on special teams while Kenneth Murray and Jack Gibbens handled the middle. The 2025 season flipped that entirely. Given the weak-side job next to Cody Barton, he played 917 defensive snaps and finished with 160 tackles, fifth in the NFL and the second-highest single-season total by a Titans defender since 2000, adding seven tackles for loss, a sack, four passes defensed, a fumble recovery and 15 pressures. PFF graded him 78.9, seventh among 88 qualifying linebackers, and his run-defense tackle rate led the league. Heading into 2026 he is the returning starting Will in Robert Saleh's new 4-3, adjusting from a match scheme to a spot-drop, vision-based system, with second-round rookie Anthony Hill Jr. added behind him.
In hindsight the fourth round was a bargain, and the reason is exactly the trait the board undersold. Everyone agreed Gray could run and tackle; the doubt was whether a 234-pound linebacker who avoids blocks instead of shedding them could survive full-time snaps. He answered by playing so fast that blockers rarely reached him. Coverage remains the swing skill and the new scheme will test it, but a starter with league-leading run-defense efficiency out of pick 106 is a clear win.
Data note: CFBD verified; season totals sum exactly to career line (50 G, 359 tkl, 27.0 TFL, 8.5 sk, 5 INT, 13 PD, 6 FR). 2020 freshman year: only games and tackles recorded.