Jeremiah
Trotter Jr..
Jeremiah
Trotter Jr..
Clemson· 6'0"· 228 lb
"The last name got the attention, but the tape got the grade: a heat-seeking Mike who arrived a half-second early on every run fit and turned instincts into negative plays."Pre-draft read
Trotter was Clemson's downhill middle linebacker, a compact 6-0, 228-pound trigger player who diagnosed run keys faster than anyone in the ACC. He stacked over the ball in even fronts, read guard pulls instantly and shot the gap before the puller could climb, which is how a linebacker of his size piled up 15 tackles for loss as a senior.
The secondary trait was blitz timing: he was a genuine A-gap pressure weapon, 13 sacks across three years by feeling the snap and threading the crease untouched. Against the pass he was serviceable in zone with real ball skills — four interceptions and two pick-sixes — but he plays with a defined tackle radius and average length. The signature is anticipation; he arrives early rather than fast.
Even-front defense with big bodies up front that keeps its Mike clean and lets him run downhill on early downs rather than two-gap in traffic.
Year 1: early-down thumper and core four special teamer. Ceiling: two-down starting Mike who comes off in true sub packages.
A light-front defense that asks its linebacker to take on guards unblocked or to carry athletic tight ends in man across the field.
His value rises in direct proportion to how well the defensive line keeps him free.
Jeremiah Trotter Jr. 2023 Regular Season Highlights | Clemson LB
Butkus finalist season: downhill run fits, A-gap pressures and the pick-six against Syracuse.
Jeremiah Trotter Jr. 2022 Season Highlights | Clemson LB
First full year as the starting Mike, showing the 13.5 tackles for loss and blitz timing.
#7 Clemson LB Jeremiah Trotter Jr. | ACC Top 25 Players 2023
Condensed feature reel on his diagnosis speed and finishing at the second level.
Trotter is an instinct-first stack linebacker whose value lives in the first two steps after the snap. Son of the Eagles' Axe Man, he was never a size or length prospect — he was a heat-seeking diagnostician who turned run fits into negative plays and made the defensive line better by being on time.
The production is the argument. After a rotational freshman year he started 26 straight games at Mike, posting 89 tackles with 13.5 for loss and 6.5 sacks in 2022, then 88 tackles with a team-best 15.0 for loss and 5.5 sacks in 2023 as a Butkus Award finalist and multi-time All-American. Two pick-sixes underlined the ball skills. The flags were physical rather than mental: light frame that can get stuck on second-level blocks, a short strike zone in coverage, and pedestrian testing that capped the projection in space against modern backs and tight ends.
Boards had him as a fourth-to-fifth-round Mike with a special-teams floor — the classic case of tape ahead of measurables. Philadelphia taking him at 155, with the surname and the fit, was low-risk value: a rotational thumper on early downs and a core coverage player from day one.
- 01
Run diagnosis
reads guards and backfield flow instantly, triggering downhill before blockers climb, which is how he produced 29.5 career tackles for loss.
- 02
Blitz timing
a legitimate A-gap pressure threat who felt the snap count and threaded creases untouched for 13 sacks in three seasons.
- 03
Ball production
four interceptions with two returned for touchdowns, plus three forced fumbles, an unusual splash-play profile for an off-ball linebacker.
- 04
Tackling reliability
consistent hip-drop finisher who wraps rather than launches and rarely lets ball carriers fall forward for extra yardage.
- 05
Football IQ and leadership
26 consecutive starts at Mike, made the front's checks, and carried the defense as a multi-time All-American.
- 01
Play strength
light-framed at 228 pounds and can get walled off or stuck on contact when guards and tight ends reach the second level cleanly.
- 02
Length and tackle radius
short arms shrink his strike zone in coverage and against wide zone, forcing him to be exactly on time to make the play.
- 03
Testing profile
pedestrian long speed and change of direction show up chasing backs and tight ends horizontally in the wide parts of the field.
- 04
Man coverage
labors matched against athletic backs in the flat, which caps him as a two-down player in sub packages until it improves.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- —s
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- 7.13sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.40sp50
- Bench
- 21repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Clemson | 13 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Clemson | 14 | 89 | 6.5 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| 2023 | Clemson | 12 | 88 | 5.5 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| Career | — | 39 | 192 | 13 | 4 | 10 | 3 |
Season lines per cfbstats (bowls included); seasons sum exactly to the career totals of 39 games, 192 tackles, 29.5 TFL and 13.0 sacks. Clemson credits him with 202 tackles and 13 pass breakups, a small school-count difference; freshman-year coverage splits and fumble recoveries are unverified and left blank rather than zero-filled.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Long-term roster fixture whose value is core special teams plus emergency defensive snaps.
Undersized instinct linebacker who grew from special teams into a productive starter.
Smart, light linebacker who never held up as an NFL every-down run defender.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Philadelphia used him exactly as a fifth-round linebacker gets used: a rookie season almost entirely on special teams behind Zack Baun and Nakobe Dean, capped by a Super Bowl LIX ring in February 2025. Year two brought a slightly bigger job — 17 games in 2025, 22 total tackles with 14 solo, no sacks — split between core special teams and situational defensive packages, with his most productive outing coming in the January playoff game. Entering 2026 he had the best camp of his career, with coaches publicly pushing him toward a real rotational role next to Baun.
In hindsight the evaluation reads accurately, if slightly pessimistic on the floor. The concerns that dropped him to Day 3 — frame, length, testing — are precisely why he has not been handed an every-down job, and he still has not proven he can hold up against NFL run schemes for 50 snaps a game. But he has already outperformed the median fifth-round linebacker by sticking, contributing, and earning a ring, and at 25 the path to a two-down starting role is genuinely open rather than closed.
Data note: Season lines per cfbstats (bowls included); seasons sum exactly to the career totals of 39 games, 192 tackles, 29.5 TFL and 13.0 sacks. Clemson credits him with 202 tackles and 13 pass breakups, a small school-count difference; freshman-year coverage splits and fumble recoveries are unverified and left blank rather than zero-filled.