Mike
Green.
Mike
Green.
Marshall· 6'3"· 251 lb
"A Sun Belt-dominant pass rusher with explosive twitch and a lightning-fast first step, Green’s transition from off-ball linebacker to 17-sack edge could make him a foundational piece if his frame and run defense can catch up."Pre-draft read
Green is a stand-up edge rusher who lived at wide-9 and loose-5 alignments, and his calling card is get-off. He fires from a two-point stance with flat pad level, attacking the tackle's outside shoulder before the kick slide is set, then flattens through the corner with genuine ankle flexion.
The secondary trait is relentlessness — backside chase and finishes downfield, the source of much of his tackle-for-loss volume. Against the run he sets an edge with leverage rather than mass, better spilling blocks than holding a point. He never ran a 40, but a 6.85 three-cone and 4.25 shuttle at his pro day match the change of direction on tape. The signature is a bull rush that plays far heavier than 251 pounds.
Attacking one-gap front that lets edges get up the field — 3-4 outside linebacker or 4-3 open-side defensive end in a wide-alignment, sub-heavy scheme
Year 1: third edge in a three-man rotation, 25-30 pass-rush snaps a game on obvious passing downs. Ceiling: 10-sack starting rusher on the open side of an attacking front, with a run-defense platoon partner.
Two-gap 3-4 five-technique duty, where he would be asked to hold the point against 330-pound tackles and read blocks instead of firing off the ball — his leverage-based edge setting collapses when he cannot attack first.
His conversion from off-ball linebacker shows up in space: he is comfortable dropping into the flat on zone-pressure looks, which widens the fire-zone menu.
Mike Green 2024 Season College Football Highlights | Marshall EDGE
Full 2024 season cut of the FBS sack leader — get-off, bend and finish reps.
Mike Green EDGE Marshall — All-22 Film Highlights
All-22 breakdown showing alignment, hand usage and rush plan against Sun Belt tackles.
Marshall EDGE Mike Green — Just The Tape
Unedited tape reel including run-defense reps and backside chase.
A converted off-ball linebacker turned stand-up edge rusher, Green is a burst-and-bend player first. Everything starts with the snap: he is out of his stance before the tackle's second step, and the rush plan behind it grew fast once Marshall let him pin his ears back full time.
The production was the story. After six quiet games at Virginia in 2021 and a dismissal from the program the following fall, he landed at Marshall and posted 4.5 sacks as a rotational piece in 2023, then exploded for 17.0 sacks — most in FBS — and 22.5 tackles for loss in 2024, taking Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year honors. Then came Mobile: he put Oregon's Josh Conerly Jr. on his back in one-on-ones and cemented himself as a top-20 talent on tape. The flags were the frame, the mid-major run defense, and the off-field allegations he addressed and denied at the Combine.
Boards had him inside the first round on merit — Daniel Jeremiah ranked him 21st overall — and the slide to 59 was a character-and-risk discount, not a football one. Baltimore, with Kyle Van Noy and Odafe Oweh already in place, could afford to let him rush situationally while the room absorbed the bet.
- 01
Get-off
fires out of a two-point stance with elite timing and flat pad level, routinely beating the tackle's kick slide before the set is established.
- 02
Bend
real ankle and hip flexion lets him flatten the arc and finish at the quarterback rather than running himself past the pocket.
- 03
Convertible power
the long-arm and bull rush travel far better than a 251-pound frame suggests, and 28 bench reps back up the functional strength.
- 04
Motor
chases from the backside, finishes plays downfield, and turned effort into a chunk of his 22.5 tackles for loss in 2024.
- 05
Production at scale
led all of FBS with 17.0 sacks in 2024, then proved it against Power Four tackles at the Senior Bowl.
- 01
Frame
at 6-3 and 251 pounds with limited room to add mass, he can get displaced when tackles land first and get into his chest.
- 02
Run defense
sets the edge with leverage rather than anchor, and gets washed on down blocks and combos against bigger offensive fronts.
- 03
Counter tree
the plan is still speed-then-power, and he needs a reliable inside move to punish tackles who overset the arc.
- 04
Off-field risk
the Virginia dismissal and the allegations he denied at the Combine dropped him out of the first round on many boards.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- —s
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- 6.85sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.25sp50
- Bench
- 28repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Virginia | 6 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | Marshall | 13 | 43 | 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2024 | Marshall | 13 | 84 | 17 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Career | — | 32 | 131 | 22.5 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
Did not appear in 2022 after being dismissed from Virginia that September. Led FBS with 17.0 sacks in 2024 and was named Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year. Per Sports-Reference.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- 2024 AP Second-Team All-American
- 2024 Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year
- 2024 FBS sacks leader (17.0)
- 2025 Senior Bowl standout
Explosive first-step rusher who settles in as a productive rotational starter with real sack upside and run-down limitations.
Another converted off-ball defender whose get-off and bend turned into double-digit sack seasons once he was allowed to rush full time.
Undersized power rusher whose pressure rate outpaces his sack total and who never escapes a situational role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Baltimore eased him in as a rotational rusher behind Kyle Van Noy, Odafe Oweh and Tavius Robinson rather than handing him a starting job. He played all 17 games as a rookie in 2025 and finished with 41 combined tackles (17 solo), 3.5 sacks, 5.5 stuffs and a fumble recovery — no forced fumbles, no takeaways. The sacks came in a cluster from Week 8 onward once the Ravens' front stabilized, and his snap share climbed through December as the pass-rush rotation thinned. The Trey Hendrickson addition capped his ceiling for reps but gave him a full season of low-pressure development on passing downs.
The honest read after one year: the get-off is exactly as advertised and the production is roughly what a third edge should give you, but nothing yet says the FBS sack title translates as a full-time starter. The run-defense concerns from the evaluation showed up — he is still a situational piece on early downs. Baltimore paid a second-round price for a first-round talent and got a functional rookie season; the verdict hinges on whether year two brings a counter move and enough anchor to stay on the field.
Data note: Did not appear in 2022 after being dismissed from Virginia that September. Led FBS with 17.0 sacks in 2024 and was named Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year. Per Sports-Reference.