Mekhi
Wingo.
Mekhi
Wingo.
LSU· 6'0"· 284 lb· 4.85s 40
"An undersized three-technique whose entire case is the first step: Wingo was in the backfield before SEC guards could set, and the only questions that ever mattered were how much mass and how many healthy games came with it."Pre-draft read
Wingo is a compact 6-0, 284-pound three-technique who plays with a low center of gravity and wins before offensive linemen finish their kickslide. His get-off is the calling card: he times the snap, fires flat out of a two-point-heavy stance and is into a guard's chest before the block sets, then finishes with heavy, active hands that swipe and rip through contact. Leverage is his equalizer at every rep.
Against the run he is a penetrator rather than an anchor, shooting gaps to blow up pulls and reach blocks instead of stacking and shedding. As a rusher he counters well inside, converts speed to power on guards who over-set, and slants effectively in movement fronts. The signature is relentless motor with genuine twitch in a short frame.
Attacking one-gap four-man front that lets him shoot a gap from the three-technique instead of reading blocks.
Year 1: designated interior pass rusher on 25-30 snaps a game. Ceiling: starting three-technique in a penetrating front.
Two-gap 3-4 or an even front that asks him to hold the point against down blocks and control both A gaps.
Every rep of value comes from moving forward at the snap; scheme has to let him play in the offense's backfield.
Mekhi Wingo Highlights | 2022 LSU Season
Full sophomore-year reel: get-off, leverage wins and interior penetration during his third-team All-America season.
Mekhi Wingo Highlights | 2024 NFL Draft
Pre-draft cutup showing hand usage and gap-shooting against SEC interior linemen.
Mekhi Wingo vs Mississippi State | LSU Feature
Single-game look at his best 2023 pass-rush reps before injuries shortened the junior year.
Wingo arrived in the 2024 class as one of the more disruptive interior linemen in college football, a St. Louis native who started as a Missouri true freshman, transferred to LSU and immediately became the most consistent penetrator on a defense that badly needed one. He is not a nose tackle and never pretended to be — his identity is quickness, leverage and hand violence from the three-technique.
The production tracked the tape. He posted 46 tackles with 6.0 TFL and 3.0 sacks in 2022 on his way to third-team All-America and second-team All-SEC honors, then was even more efficient as a junior, generating 5.0 TFL and 4.5 sacks in only eight games before injuries ended his season. That eight-game junior year is also the flag: durability and a short, light frame that big SEC guards could wash out on down blocks.
Boards had him graded in the third-to-fourth-round range on traits, and he slid because of the size and medical questions. Detroit traded up for him at 189 and treated it as a value swing — a rotational interior rusher in a front that asks its tackles to attack a gap rather than two-gap. At that price, the risk was almost entirely upside.
- 01
Elite get-off
times the snap as well as any interior lineman in the class and is on a guard's chest before the block sets.
- 02
Natural leverage
plays under the pads of much bigger linemen and converts a low pad level into functional power on the bull rush.
- 03
Hand violence
swipe, rip and club combinations are quick and purposeful, and he keeps his frame clean instead of absorbing blocks.
- 04
Gap penetration
shoots into the backfield to blow up pulls and reach blocks, creating negative plays rather than just occupying bodies.
- 05
Motor and conditioning
chases down the line, rushes late in downs and keeps the same tempo on his 40th snap as on his first.
- 01
Frame limits
at 6-0 and 284 pounds he lacks the mass to anchor against double teams and can be displaced on downhill duo runs.
- 02
Two-gap reps
asked to hold the point and read, he gives ground; his value collapses the moment he is a stack-and-shed defender.
- 03
Durability
injuries cost him five games as a junior, and the knee questions were part of why he fell to the sixth round.
- 04
Pass-rush plan
the win rate is more first-step and effort than sequenced counters, so a set that absorbs his initial move can stall him.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.85sp50
- Vertical
- 31.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 109inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 25repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Missouri | 12 | 27 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | LSU | 14 | 46 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| 2023 | LSU | 8 | 25 | 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 34 | 98 | 8.5 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
Verified against cfbstats.com season pages (2021 Missouri, 2022-2023 LSU). Season sums match the career line. Fumble recoveries are not tracked on those pages, so they are left null rather than zero-filled. The 2021 interception was returned 40 yards for a touchdown.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- Third-team All-American (2022)
- Second-team All-SEC (2022)
- SEC All-Freshman (2021)
Rotational interior defender who carves a role on passing downs without ever becoming an every-down anchor.
The undersized-but-leveraged three-technique outcome: wins with get-off and hands and becomes a genuine starter.
Traits show in flashes but injuries and size keep him a fringe roster body who never sticks as a rotation piece.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Sixth-round interior rusher whose Lions career has been defined by availability: nine games as a rookie before a December knee injury, an active/PUP start to 2025, and a healthy spring 2026.
Detroit traded up for Wingo at 189 and used him exactly as scouted: a rotational interior rusher in Aaron Glenn's attacking front. He appeared in nine games as a rookie in 2024, playing regular defensive snaps in the tackle rotation before a knee injury ended his season in December. The knee lingered — he opened 2025 on the active/PUP list, missed the front half of the year, and was limited to a handful of appearances once activated, finishing with three tackles. Across 2024 and 2025 he has appeared in 13 games and recorded 12 tackles for the Lions, and he was on the field and working normally at Detroit's spring 2026 offseason program.
In hindsight the evaluation was right about the player and honest about the risk. The traits that made him a top-100 talent on tape — get-off, leverage, hand speed — are real and still show in flashes. What has decided his career so far is availability, not ability. Two seasons in, he is a developmental rotational tackle who has not yet strung together the healthy year that would let the disruption translate. The sixth-round price still looks like sound math; the return simply has not arrived yet.
Data note: Verified against cfbstats.com season pages (2021 Missouri, 2022-2023 LSU). Season sums match the career line. Fumble recoveries are not tracked on those pages, so they are left null rather than zero-filled. The 2021 interception was returned 40 yards for a touchdown.