Elijah
Roberts.
Elijah
Roberts.
SMU· 6'4"· 285 lb· 4.78s 40
"A stout, powerful interior defender, Roberts consistently plays with impressive leverage and violent hands to disrupt the line of scrimmage, though his limited pass-rush repertoire caps his ultimate upside."Pre-draft read
Roberts plays with his hands and his pad level. He fires out low, lands first and works half-man leverage until he can rip through, which is how a 285-pound defender ends up with 24 career tackles for loss. The get-off is quick and the effort is constant — he chases plays down from the back side.
The pass-rush plan is still developing. He wins with power and hand violence more than with a counter tree, and when the first move is stopped he tends to grind rather than convert speed to a second option. Against double teams he can be displaced, and he lacks the anchor to hold up as a base-down nose. He is an upfield disruptor in an attacking front, not a two-gap holder.
He's an ideal fit for an attacking 4-3 one-gap penetrating front, leveraging his explosiveness and quickness off the snap to disrupt backfields.
Initially a rotational interior pass rusher focusing on TFLs, he projects as a dynamic starting 3-technique with disruptive potential.
He would be a poor fit in a two-gap 3-4 scheme, as his frame and play style are not suited for consistently holding the point of attack.
Roberts thrives on quick penetration and attacking gaps, making him a high-impact player in a scheme that prioritizes upfield disruption from its defensive line.
Elijah Roberts College Football Highlights💥 | SMU EDGE
Game film cut-up of Elijah Roberts's SMU tape.
Elijah Roberts | Welcome to TAMPA!
Game film cut-up of Elijah Roberts's SMU tape.
Elijah Roberts SMU Highlights
Game film cut-up of Elijah Roberts's SMU tape.
Roberts spent three quiet years at Miami before transferring to SMU and turning into one of the more productive interior rushers in the country. His last two seasons produced 15 of his 15.5 career sacks and 22.5 of his 24 tackles for loss — an 8.5-sack 2023 and a 6.5-sack 2024 that carried an AAC-champion defense.
The build is unusual. At 6-4 and 285 pounds he is a tweener between three-technique and big end, and the 4.78 forty is respectable for his weight without being explosive. What separates him is leverage: he plays lower than his height suggests and consistently gets under the pads of taller guards.
Tampa Bay took him in the fifth round as a rotational interior rusher. The production curve is real and the arrow is up — two years of ascending tape from a player who did not start until he was 22 usually means there is development left. The floor is a sub-package rusher who kicks inside on passing downs; the ceiling is a starting three-technique in a one-gap front that turns him loose.
- 01
Career production
Roberts recorded 24 career tackles for loss and 15.5 sacks, mostly in his final two seasons.
- 02
Pad level
He consistently plays with outstanding pad level as a 6-4 interior defender.
- 03
Hand usage
His hands are violent and accurate, stunning and displacing opponents on first contact.
- 04
Positional versatility
Roberts demonstrates flex between three-technique and five-technique end.
- 05
Production curve
He shows two years of ascending production, indicating his development curve is still climbing.
- 01
Pass-rush plan
His pass-rush plan is thin, offering limited counters when the initial move fails.
- 02
Double teams
At 285 pounds, Roberts is moved by double teams on base downs.
- 03
Development timeline
He was a late bloomer with three unproductive seasons at Miami before his breakout.
- 04
Athletic testing
His testing profile is solid rather than explosive for a penetrating defensive lineman.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.78sp50
- Vertical
- 31.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 116inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Miami | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Miami | 7 | 8 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Miami | 8 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | SMU | 14 | 37 | 8.5 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2024 | SMU | 13 | 32 | 6.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Career | — | 47 | 90 | 15.5 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Roberts projects as a stout, rotational interior lineman similar to Rankins, using his leverage and burst to consistently penetrate and create pressure from the inside.
Sieler's relentless motor and powerful technique to disrupt both run and pass plays mirror Roberts' potential as a late-blooming, high-impact interior force.
Like Saunders, Roberts might settle into a role as a depth piece, providing occasional flashes of disruptive play but struggling to earn consistent snaps against higher-level competition.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Tampa Bay has consistently found rotational defensive line value in the middle rounds, and Roberts fit the profile: production, effort and a clear one-gap role.
His rookie season was a rotational one on a defensive front with established interior starters, which is what a fifth-round tweener should expect.
The read has not moved. The leverage and the hand violence are legitimate NFL traits and produced immediately in a limited role; the lack of a counter tree and the base-down weight limit are still the ceiling. He is a passing-down interior rusher with a chance at more if the plan catches up to the power.