Chris
Braswell.
Chris
Braswell.
Alabama· 6'3"· 251 lb· 4.60s 40
"A five-year Alabama edge who waited behind two first-round rushers and then packed an entire evaluation into one senior season of get-off, strip attempts and eight sacks."Pre-draft read
Braswell was Alabama's stand-up outside linebacker in an odd front, rushing from a two-point stance off the left edge and dropping into curl-flat zones on early downs. The defining trait is burst: he times snaps better than almost anyone in the class, gets skinny through the B-gap on twists, and turns a half-step head start into pressure before the tackle sets his feet.
The rush is speed-first with a workable counter — a long-arm to a rip that crosses the tackle's face when the set gets soft. Against the run he spills and chases rather than walls, quick to knife into the backfield but light in the hips when a tight end gets into him. The signature is the finish: he strips at the ball and forced three fumbles in his one year as a starter.
Odd-front or hybrid defense that lets him rush from a two-point stance on the open side and stunt from wide alignments on passing downs.
Year 1: designated third-down rusher and core special-teamer. Ceiling: starting weak-side outside linebacker who wins with get-off and stunt timing.
A two-gap 3-4 asking him to hold the point with a hand in the dirt against 320-pound tackles, or a front that plays him as a base strong-side end on early downs.
Protect him from tight-end power and let him rush the open edge; his value is in the first three steps and on games.
NFL Draft Film: Chris Braswell / EDGE / Alabama / 2023 Full Highlights
Complete 2023 cut-up of his only season as an Alabama starter: get-off, arc bend and strip attempts.
Chris Braswell 2024 NFL Draft Scouting Report
Pre-draft breakdown of the speed rush, the thin counter package and the one-year sample question.
Chris Braswell 2025 Season Highlights | Tampa Bay Buccaneers
His second NFL season in the Buccaneers rotation, showing the role he settled into behind the starters.
A one-year Alabama starter with two years of situational tape behind it, Braswell is a converted outside linebacker who spent 2021 and 2022 waiting behind Will Anderson Jr. and Dallas Turner before finally getting the job as a senior. He is a stand-up edge with real get-off, loose ankles and a strip-happy motor, and he plays the game at one speed.
The production is a single season. He had 13 tackles as a sophomore and 20 as a junior, then broke out in 2023 with 42 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, 8.0 sacks, three forced fumbles and a 28-yard pick-six. That is a real senior year, but it is the whole book: he never carried a heavy rush workload before it, and at 6-foot-3, 251 pounds he was already a fifth-year player getting his first extended reps. The counter package is thin, and against tackles who mirrored his first move he stalled.
Boards had him as a clean early Day 2 evaluation with a first-round athletic profile — 4.60 at the Combine with a 1.59 ten-yard split — and a resume that raised the sample-size question. Tampa Bay took him 57th as a developmental rusher behind Yaya Diaby, betting the Alabama pedigree and the burst would harden into a starting-caliber third-down piece.
- 01
Get-off
Times the snap as well as any edge in the class and covers the first two yards before the tackle finishes his kick slide, which is where most of his pressure starts.
- 02
Bend and ankle flexion
Loose enough in the hips and ankles to flatten the top of the arc without losing speed, turning the corner rather than running past the quarterback.
- 03
Ball awareness
Attacks the football at the point of contact; three forced fumbles and a 28-yard pick-six for a touchdown in his only season as a full-time starter.
- 04
Twist and stunt quickness
Genuinely good on games and loops, getting skinny through traffic on inside stunts and beating guards to the spot as the looper.
- 05
Motor and pursuit
Chases the ball sideline to sideline and finishes plays 15 yards downfield; the effort snaps show up on every cut-up of his 2023 tape.
- 01
One-year sample
2.5 sacks across his first three seasons and 8.0 in his last; the evaluation rests almost entirely on one senior year of starter reps.
- 02
Rush counters
Speed-to-power and a rip are the plan; when a tackle absorbs the first move he lacks the second and third options to reset the rep.
- 03
Play strength
At 251 pounds he gets moved by tight ends and pulling guards at the point of attack and can be walled out of run fits on the front side.
- 04
Anchor versus power
Struggles to hold ground when he is asked to set a hard edge in a two-gap look; better spilling the run than squeezing it.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.60sp50
- Vertical
- 33.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 115inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Alabama | 12 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Alabama | 13 | 20 | 2.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2023 | Alabama | 14 | 42 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Career | — | 39 | 75 | 10.5 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
Verified line by line against cfbstats.com official NCAA box scores for 2021, 2022 and 2023; the three seasons sum exactly to the career total (39 games, 75 tackles, 15.5 TFL, 10.5 sacks, 4 FF). No 2020 season is listed: he did not record a statistic as a true freshman, so no phantom row is created. Fumble recoveries are not tracked in that source and are left blank rather than zero-filled. His 2023 interception went 28 yards for a touchdown.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- CFP National Champion (2020)
- SEC Champion (2021, 2023)
- Senior Bowl invitee (2024)
Rotational speed rusher who plays big special-teams snaps and settles into a four-to-six sack complementary role.
Slightly built stand-up edge who converted burst and effort into an eight-to-ten sack starter once he added a counter and a role.
Athletic edge who takes several years to find snaps and never becomes more than a situational third rusher.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Tampa Bay used him as a rotational rusher from day one, and the snaps came without the production. He played all 17 games as a rookie in 2024 behind Yaya Diaby and Randy Gregory, finishing with 18 tackles, 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble on roughly a third of the defensive snaps, plus special-teams work. Year two brought more responsibility and a similar answer: 17 games again in 2025, 30 tackles, one sack and 3.5 tackles for loss, with his role shifting between the third rusher and a run-down complement rather than growing into a starter's job.
Two seasons in, the pre-draft flag looks like the story. The burst is still real, the effort still shows up, and he holds down a roster spot on athletic traits and special-teams value — but the pass-rush plan he needed to build in the pros has not shown up yet, and 2.5 career sacks in 34 games is what happens when a rusher wins with speed and nothing else. Tampa did not overpay at 57 and there is time left; this is a pick that still needs a third-year jump to be a hit.
Data note: Verified line by line against cfbstats.com official NCAA box scores for 2021, 2022 and 2023; the three seasons sum exactly to the career total (39 games, 75 tackles, 15.5 TFL, 10.5 sacks, 4 FF). No 2020 season is listed: he did not record a statistic as a true freshman, so no phantom row is created. Fumble recoveries are not tracked in that source and are left blank rather than zero-filled. His 2023 interception went 28 yards for a touchdown.