Secret Superstars of the scouting combine: The defense 

Say all you want about the “Underwear Olympics” and the usefulness of the scouting combine — there’s a lot of value to the NFL every year in Indianapolis, because if there weren’t, the NFL wouldn’t keep doing it every year. Beyond the medical evaluations and in-person interviews with prospects, which are the real reasons teams value it so much, the combine also allows evaluators to take what they know about draft prospects based on tape and asking around about them to another level.

Now, they have another athleticism point from which to reference when they go back to the tape post-combine to see how it all plays out. Now, they’re one step closer to deciding who ranks where on one of 32 Big Boards. And now, they’ll all have names of prospects who either blew up the combine drills and will have different shades of potential in a positive sense, or lagged behind… making those teams wonder if the tape really tells the whole story.

Based on who did what at the 2026 combine, here are five defensive prospects who were already underrated in the eyes of the general public, and quite possibly in a lot of NFL facilities, who won’t be anymore based on what they did on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium last week.

I was hoping that Proctor would flash at the combine not only because I loved his tape, but given that he’s a smaller-school prospect, I wanted him to blast it home athletically.

Mission accomplished.

Among interior defensive linemen at the combine, the 6’2”, 291-pound Proctor had the second-best 40-yard dash time at 4.79 seconds behind only Penn State’s Zane Durant, and his 1.68-second 10-yard split ranked third behind Durant and Kentucky’s David Gusta. His 33-inch vertical jump, 90.05” broad jump, and 4.71-second short shuttle were also among the tops for his position, and that should be all he needs for the league to pay attention…

…because the tape shows a player who had nine sacks, 39 total pressures, 18 solo tackles, 22 stops, and two tackles for loss. Moreover, his wild gap-jumping style is note-perfect for the modern NFL with its stunt-heavy fronts, and I could easily see Proctor as not only one of the higher small-school picks in this draft, but also one whose attributes make him a poster child in future years when it comes time to discuss the fact that you never want to ding a guy just because he didn’t play with a major program. This dude is for real.

Malachi Lawrence kept getting better and better as an edge defender over four seasons with the Knights, and that’s the kind of progress you want to see from any prospect at any position from any school. But as the scouting combine tends to help smaller-school prospects who help themselves, it’s nice to note that the 6’4”, 253-pound Lawrence ran a 4.52-second 40-yard dash with a 1.59-second 10-yard split, and his vertical and broad jumps also put him in rare air.

Last season for the Knights, Lawrence had seven sacks, 40 total pressures, 19 solo tackles, 18 stops, four tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles. And as adept as he is at running the arc to the pocket, or just bulling his way through a blocker, Lawrence’s combine stats work on tape just fine when you watch him chasing guys in space. Lawrence was an edge disruptor to watch before the combine; now it’s time for NFL teams to get forensic. Methinks they’ll like what they see.

Oh, and since Lawrence has 33 5/8” arms, he won’t have to deal with one thing the next guy will have to deal with.

So here, we have to start with arm length and get that out of the way. Cashius Howell’s 30 1/4” arm length won’t get him any further in anybody’s draft evaluations, so the question then is, how much does it hurt his chances at the next level? It’s just easy to dismiss short-armed edge-rushers as it is with offensive tackles who don’t fit the ideal paradigm, but guys like Markus Golden, Carl Lawson, Trey Hendrickson, and Aidan Hutchinson have done just fine with arms shorter than the mean.

So, with Howell, you want someone who impresses in all other aspects. Howell did so at the combine with a 4.59-second 40-yard dash and 1.58-second 10-yard split, and his drill work put him in esteemed company.

As for the actual football stuff? Last season, Howell had 12 sacks, 41 total pressures, 15 solo tackles, 21 stops, three tackles for loss, and a forced fumble. And when you watch Howell’s tape, the short arms don’t really show up. The attributes you want from a speed-rusher do, however, at a VERY high level.

The Seattle Seahawks played 53% dime defense against the New England Patriots in their 29-13 Super Bowl LX win, and while that seems nuts against any team that likes to put two backs on the field and run jumbo with an extra offensive lineman as much as the Patriots generally like to do, it’s also where the NFL is headed defensively. We’ve all heard about NFL teams wanting their own Kyle Hamilton, Derwin James, or Nick Emmanwori — that super-safety who can play multiple positions and allow those schematic oddities to pay off — but at the same time, when you’re in big nickel or dime with a two-deep hood over all of it, your linebackers had better have their stuff together, especially when they’re the only linebacker on the field.

Seattle’s Ernest Jones IV certainly qualifies in that regard, so NFL teams will also be in search of the do-it-all linebacker who can cover up the seam, blast run fits, and win from sideline to sideline. One of the more interesting ‘backers in class is TCU’s Kaleb Elarms-Orr, who filled multiple roles for the Horned Frogs last season. Overall, Elarms-Orr had four sacks, 25 total pressures, 89 solo tackles, 53 stops, seven tackles for loss, and in coverage, he allowed 25 catches on 35 targets for 237 yards, 188 yards after the catch, one touchdown, two pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 99.3.

Elarms-Orr was one of the more athletic linebackers at the combine with a 4.47-second 40-yard dash that was second at his position behind only Ohio State’s Sonny Styles, who made the combine his own this year. Elarms-Orr’s 1.59-second 10-yard split, 40.0” vertical jump, 10.04” broad jump, and 4.41-second three-cone drill are all numbers that will have the league going back to the tape, which is the whole idea.

I got to ask Elarms-Orr about his favorite plays from last season and line them up with the tape, and I was suitably impressed.

The combine is tailor-made for prospects like Chris Johnson, who was — in my opinion, at least — the most underrated player at his position in the NCAA last season. All Johnson did for the Aztecs was to allow 18 catches on 43 targets for 185 yards, 79 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, four interceptions, five pass breakups, and an utterly preposterous opponent passer rating of 16.1. You can throw the small-school disclaimer out after watching Johnson’s reps against Washington State and Cal, but said disclaimer will still be in the minds of some NFL evaluators.

Which is why it’s good that the 6’0”, 193-pound Johnson did as well as he did in the combine drills. A 4.4-second 40 and a 1.54-second 10-yard split are very good times for his size, and beyond the 37.5” vertical jump and 10.06” broad jump (also right up there), Johnson looked the part of an NFL cornerback in the drills.

And yes, it all shows up on tape, especially when he’s playing off coverage, which can be challenging for some bigger pass defenders. If you see Johnson’s name somewhere in the second round, don’t be too surprised.