Darius
Muasau.
Darius
Muasau.
UCLA· 6'0"· 225 lb· 4.70s 40
"The instincts arrived in the NFL exactly as advertised, the athleticism never did, and a sixth-round linebacker still logged 18 starts in two years — which is precisely the trade the Giants signed up for."Pre-draft read
Downhill off-ball linebacker who lived between the tackles and played the game with his eyes. Muasau triggered fast on run flow, took on blocks with active hands rather than absorbing them, and finished low and square — 422 career tackles across 63 games is a volume number built on clean angles, not chasing.
The secondary trait was blitz timing: 15.5 career sacks from an off-ball spot came off delayed pressures and A-gap runs he set up over four quarters. Coverage was the split — sound in zone with his eyes on the quarterback, tighter in man against backs. The athletic ceiling was ordinary; the signature was that he set the front, then tackled everything he reached.
One-gap four-man front with two-high shells that keeps him downhill in the box and off islands in coverage.
Year 1: base-down thumper and special-teams staple. Ceiling: two-down starting MIKE who wears the green dot.
Light-box nickel defense that asks its linebackers to run with slot receivers and cover backs man-to-man on third down.
His value climbs the more the defense lets him play forward instead of turning and running.
Darius Muasau UCLA Highlights
NFL Draft Film Ep 647: Darius Muasau / LB / UCLA / 2022 / Full Highlights
NFL Draft Film Ep 982: Darius Muasau / LB / UCLA / 2023 / Full Highlights
A five-year starter's résumé in a sixth-round body. Muasau spent three seasons at Hawai'i and two at UCLA, led the Bruins in tackles both years in Westwood, and earned second-team All-Pac-12 twice. Everything he did well came from processing: identify the concept, fit the right gap, finish the play.
Production backed it up. He piled 108 tackles and 7 sacks in his last Hawai'i season, then handled the Pac-12's speed with 77 and 75 stops and 5 interceptions across a career that never dipped below competent. The flags were physical rather than mental — 6-foot, 225 pounds, a 4.70 forty, short-strided in space, and prone to getting stuck when a guard reached his frame cleanly.
Boards had him as a late Day 3 linebacker with a special-teams floor and a two-down starting ceiling. Big Blue took him at 183 with a room already holding McFadden and Okereke, betting the instincts and the tackling would translate faster than the testing suggested. It was the right kind of sixth-round bet: low cost, immediate role, real football character.
- 01
Diagnosis
Reads guards and backfield flow a beat early, which lets an average athlete arrive on time in gaps quicker players get to late.
- 02
Tackling reliability
422 career stops with very few whiffs; he breaks down under control, keeps his base wide and wraps rather than lunging.
- 03
Blitz feel
15.5 college sacks from off-ball alignments, built on delayed timing and disguised A-gap pressure rather than raw first-step burst.
- 04
Block deconstruction
Uses hands and leverage to stack climbing linemen, keeping his outside arm free instead of getting washed down the line.
- 05
Football character
Five-year starter across two programs who called the front at both and was the defensive voice UCLA leaned on.
- 01
Athletic ceiling
4.70 speed and short strides show up on perimeter runs; he can be outflanked when asked to run sideline to sideline.
- 02
Man coverage
Struggles to mirror shifty backs and move tight ends out of the slot, and recovery speed does not bail him out once he opens his hips.
- 03
Length limits
Six-foot frame with modest arms means good linemen who land first hands can control him and clog the gap he is supposed to fill.
- 04
Play strength
Holds up against reach blocks but gets moved by downhill double teams, which caps him as a full-time short-yardage MIKE.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.70sp50
- Vertical
- 36.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 117inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Hawai'i | 15 | 60 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Hawai'i | 9 | 102 | 4.5 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | Hawai'i | 13 | 108 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 2022 | UCLA | 13 | 77 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 2023 | UCLA | 13 | 75 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Career | — | 63 | 422 | 15.5 | 5 | 12 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Special-teams core with spot defensive starts when injuries hit.
Instinctive box linebacker who out-produced his draft slot on run downs.
Camp-body linebacker whose lack of speed keeps him on the roster bubble.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Started his NFL debut with an interception, logged 54 tackles as a rookie and 49 more with 11 starts in 2025 before an ankle injury ended the year.
The Giants got a starter's snaps out of a sixth-round pick almost immediately. Muasau started his NFL debut against Minnesota in place of an injured Micah McFadden, took an interception on his first day of work, and closed the year with 15 games, seven starts and 54 tackles. Injuries pushed him back into the lineup in 2025, and he answered with 12 games, 11 starts, 49 tackles, a sack and a pass defensed before an ankle injury ended his season in the finale. Two years in he owns 27 games, 18 starts and 100 tackles — a stat line most sixth-rounders never sniff. Entering 2026 the calculus changed: New York cut Bobby Okereke, re-signed McFadden and spent the fifth overall pick on Arvell Reese, dropping Muasau into a rotational and special-teams fight for a roster spot.
In hindsight this was a clean sixth-round call, not a steal. Nothing about the evaluation was wrong — the instincts and tackling travelled, the athletic ceiling capped him exactly where scouts said it would, and he never became a defense you build around. That is the whole point of pick 183. He is a functional NFL linebacker who has already returned more than his contract cost, and whether he sticks now depends on special teams rather than on anything he failed to prove on defense.