Teddye
Buchanan.
Teddye
Buchanan.
California· 6'2"· 233 lb· 4.60s 40
"A high-motor, instinctive downhill backer with impressive gap discipline, Buchanan's ability to quickly diagnose plays and deliver powerful pops through the line of scrimmage makes him a disruptive force."Pre-draft read
Buchanan is a trigger-first linebacker who reads guard movement and gets downhill before the play fully declares. He takes on blocks with leverage instead of avoiding them, works through trash to the football, and finishes tackles at the point of attack. He also blitzes with timing: most of his twelve tackles for loss and five sacks in 2024 came off green-dog and A-gap pressure.
In coverage he is functional rather than fluid. He carries hooks and curl-flat zones with good depth and eye discipline, but he tightens up in man against backs on wheels and angle routes. His change of direction is better than his long speed, which shows on wide-zone chase to the boundary.
One-gap, four-down front asking the linebacker to trigger downhill and blitz off the second level.
Green-dot weak-side or Mike linebacker in base and early downs, blitzer in sub packages.
A two-high, coverage-first scheme that asks the linebacker to match backs and tight ends in man across the field.
Downhill instincts and explosive testing make him a plug-and-play run-down starter; coverage assignments should stay zone-based.
Teddye Buchanan 2024 Regular Season Highlights | Cal LB
Game film cut-up of Teddye Buchanan's California tape.
Teddye Buchanan | Linebacker
Game film cut-up of Teddye Buchanan's California tape.
Teddye Buchanan UC Davis Highlights
Game film cut-up of Teddye Buchanan's California tape.
Buchanan spent three seasons at UC Davis as a part-time defender who kept finding the ball anyway — seven interceptions and two fumble recoveries on fewer than thirty career tackles, including a pick-six in 2022. He graduate-transferred to California for 2024 and became a full-time signal-caller, posting 108 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, five sacks and four pass breakups in thirteen games.
The Combine confirmed the athlete the one-year sample suggested. At 6-2 and 233 pounds he ran 4.60, jumped 40 inches vertically and 10-5 horizontally, and posted a 7.24 three-cone with a 4.27 short shuttle — a 9.76 RAS, elite explosiveness paired with genuine change-of-direction agility for the position.
The evaluation question is sample size, not traits. One season of Power Four football against FCS-heavy tape is thin evidence for a player who will be asked to make the calls, and his man-coverage reps against backs are the clearest hole. But the instincts are real, the testing is real, and the tackle production held up against Big Ten offenses in Cal's schedule. He projects as a starting weak-side or Mike linebacker in a one-gap front, with fourth-phase value that guarantees he dresses on Sunday from day one.
- 01
Reads guards quickly
Buchanan triggers downhill before the play declares by reading guard movement.
- 02
Leverage and finish
He consistently finishes at the point of attack by taking on blocks with leverage.
- 03
Elite athletic testing
Buchanan posted a 40-inch vertical, 10-5 broad jump, and 9.76 RAS at 233 pounds.
- 04
Decisive blitzer stats
Buchanan recorded twelve tackles for loss and five sacks in 2024 as a timed, decisive blitzer.
- 05
Career ball production
He demonstrated ball production across four seasons, including seven career interceptions.
- 01
Limited top-level tape
Buchanan has only one season of Power Four football, with the rest of his tape being FCS.
- 02
Man coverage tightness
He tightens in man coverage against backs running wheels and angle routes.
- 03
Ordinary long speed
Buchanan's long speed is ordinary, leading to him getting caught on wide-zone chase to the boundary.
- 04
Aggressive trigger vulnerability
His aggressive trigger occasionally leaves him vulnerable to play-action and misdirection.
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
- 4.60sp50
- Vertical
- 40inp50
- Broad jump
- 125inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.24sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.27sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | UC Davis | 1 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | UC Davis | 3 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | UC Davis | 3 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | California | 13 | 108 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Career | — | 20 | 129 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- First-team All-ACC (California, 2024)
- Second-team All-Big Sky (UC Davis, 2023)
Productive downhill starter who leads the team in tackles and comes off in some nickel packages.
Late-blooming, high-motor backer whose instincts and blitz timing turn him into a full-time defensive centerpiece.
Instinctive run-down linebacker whose coverage limits cap him at a special-teams roster spot.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Baltimore did not wait. Buchanan started thirteen of the fourteen games he played as a rookie, finished with 93 tackles, five tackles for loss, half a sack, two quarterback hits and a forced fumble, and led the Ravens in tackles through October. The Pro Football Writers of America named him to the 2025 All-Rookie team.
That is the top of the projection arriving a year early. The green-dot responsibility, the downhill trigger and the leverage in the run game all translated intact; the coverage limitations showed up the same way they did on tape, in man reps against backs and tight ends. His season ended early on the injured list, which is the only asterisk on an otherwise clean rookie year. For a fourth-round pick with one Power Four season on his résumé, that is an emphatic answer to the sample-size question.