Oluwafemi
Oladejo.
Oluwafemi
Oladejo.
UCLA· 6'3"· 259 lb
"A converted linebacker with an urgent, violent approach to setting the edge, Oladejo’s immediate run-game impact is undeniable, but his long-term pass-rush ceiling remains undefined."Pre-draft read
Oladejo lines up as a base left end in even and odd fronts after spending most of his career as an off-ball MIKE, and everything he does starts with contact power. Heavy, accurate hands, a long-arm that stalls tackles on the corner, and a hard inside counter give him a rush plan built on displacement rather than a bending speed track.
Against the run he is worth the pick on his own: he sets a hard edge with leverage, shocks tight ends off the ball and reads pullers and screens the way a linebacker does. Athletically he is explosive in short areas without elite ankle flexion, so the pass-rush ceiling rides on power and plan. The signature is recency — four years of off-ball reps compressed into eight games of real edge tape.
Multiple 4-3/3-4 hybrid front that asks its base end to two-gap the tight end side on early downs
Year 1: two-down base end who owns the strong side against the run and rushes on power downs. Ceiling: three-down starting left end who converts speed to power and wins with a developed inside counter.
A wide-nine, get-off-first defense that asks him to win the arc in a straight foot race on obvious passing downs — his bend and first step do not support that job description.
His off-ball background makes him a natural fit for fronts that use edge defenders in zone drops and QB spy roles.
NFL Draft Highlights: Oluwafemi Oladejo, UCLA
Full-season UCLA highlight reel showing the move from off-ball MIKE to edge.
Oluwafemi Oladejo College Football Highlights | UCLA EDGE
Draft-film cutup focused on hand usage, long-arm and edge setting.
Oluwafemi Oladejo | Full 2024 UCLA Highlights
Complete 2024 tape including the eight-game stretch on the edge.
A converted linebacker with defensive-end mass, Oladejo is one of the least experienced pass rushers in the class and one of the most physically ready to hold a starting edge in the run game. He plays with violence and urgency on every snap, and his identity is contact: he wants to strike, stack and reset the line of scrimmage rather than run the arc.
The production tells the story of the switch. Three seasons of off-ball tackle volume at Cal and UCLA, then 13.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks in his one year on the edge, most of it in an eight-game stretch after the move. The Senior Bowl confirmed the traits — power, hand placement, competitive reps against real tackles — but the flags are honest ones: a narrow pass-rush menu, average bend, and counters that come one beat late because he has not seen enough looks.
Boards had him in a wide range, from late Day 2 to a fourth-round developmental tag, because the grade depends entirely on how much you pay for projection. Tennessee bought the trajectory, traded back from 35 to 52 with Seattle and took the youngest, rawest version of an edge they believed would be a plus run defender immediately and a rusher later.
- 01
Play strength
Strikes with heavy, well-placed hands and consistently walks tackles and tight ends backward, resetting the line of scrimmage on contact.
- 02
Edge setting
Sets a hard, leveraged edge against down blocks and kick-out blocks, keeping outside contain intact on stretch and toss concepts.
- 03
Linebacker instincts
Four years off the ball show up in his diagnosis of pullers, screens and misdirection, and he chases plays down from the backside.
- 04
Trajectory
Only eight real games at the position, and the tape got visibly cleaner every week, which is the rare kind of arrow that scouts can actually see.
- 05
Competitive motor
Plays every snap with urgency, finishes through the tackle instead of around it, and answered against top competition at the Senior Bowl.
- 01
Rush plan
Wins mostly with power and one inside counter; the sequencing and setup moves that beat NFL tackles a second time are not there yet.
- 02
Bend
Average ankle flexion and hip give around the arc mean he flattens late and gets ridden past the quarterback on wide rushes.
- 03
Experience
Barely half a season of edge reps, so recognition of chip help, tackle sets and screen release is still catching up to his physical tools.
- 04
Get-off
First step is good but not elite, and he did not run at the Combine, which left the pure speed component of his profile unresolved.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- —s
- Vertical
- 36.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 120inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 20repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | California | 12 | 69 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2023 | UCLA | 13 | 53 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 2024 | UCLA | 12 | 57 | 4.5 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Career | — | 37 | 179 | 4.5 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Reliable strong-side starter, plus run defender, mid-single-digit sack production.
Late-blooming power end who turned raw strength into a real rush plan by year two.
Rotational base end whose pass-rush development stalls around situational usage.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Tennessee took him with the run-game floor in mind and it showed early. Oladejo opened 2025 in the rotation on a front led by Jeffery Simmons, drew two starts in the first six weeks and was mostly a run-down and special-teams presence: 13 tackles, no sacks, two quarterback hits and no takeaways through six games before he landed on injured reserve in October and finished the year there. The volume never arrived, but the snaps he did play matched the scouting report — he held up at the point, he did not get displaced, and he had almost nothing to show as a rusher. He returned for 2026 camp in better condition and with the first offseason of edge-only coaching in his career.
In hindsight, the pick reads exactly as it was drafted: a bet on time, not on year-one output. Nothing in the rookie tape refuted the evaluation, but the injury cost him the reps that were supposed to build the pass-rush plan, so the central question — can a power rusher with average bend become more than a base end — is still open. If the counters develop he is a long-term starter at a premium position; if they do not, Tennessee has a good run defender taken 52nd overall. It is too early to call it either way.