Background
Tyler Onyedim grew up in Richmond, Texas, and attended Foster High School, where he was a three-year letterman who also played basketball and posted 63 tackles, 21 TFL, and 12 sacks as a senior to earn all-district honors. A three-star recruit who received only three power conference offers, he signed with Iowa State in December 2020 and spent four seasons in Ames, playing defensive end and appearing in 40 games with 90 tackles, 13 TFL, 3 sacks, and an interception. His best Cyclone season came in 2023 with 42 tackles, 6.5 TFL, and a team-high nine QB hurries, earning honorable mention All-Big 12, and in 2024 he helped Iowa State reach the Big 12 Championship Game and win the Pop-Tarts Bowl, finishing with 11 wins, the best season in school history. He earned Academic All-Big 12 in each of his four years. For his final season in 2025, he transferred to Texas A&M, moving full-time to defensive tackle. In 13 games, he achieved career bests in tackles (48), TFL (8.5), and sacks (2.5), with six TFLs happening in the final five games before he declared for the 2026 NFL Draft.
Physical Attributes
RAS:
Onyedim is quite the athlete. He has quite the initial burst and hits opposing blockers hard with heavy hands on initial contact. That explosion can also be seen in his lateral quickness, which is very good. His base is fantastic, and does not get dictated to by offensive linemen that often. Combined with a great upper body strength, Onyedim is not to be messed with.
Data and Tape Analysis
If you are unfamiliar with my DT radar charts, you can find more information here
Starting his career miscast as a 5-tech at Iowa State, the move to a 3-tech for Onyedim worked wonders. He took the lessons he learned from that role and still provided good run stopping. Though even if it does not show up as much on the chart, Onyedim has some pass rushing upside as well.
Onyedim is hard to move as a run defender. Before ever trying to move Onyedim, you have to touch him. Which is hard considering he punches blockers straight in the chest with strong, 10" hands that are also on the ends of over 34" arms. Those numbers are in the 66th and 82nd percentiles for DTs, respectively. Say you succeed, now you have to deal with a player who can drop his center of gravity low and make it very hard to push. Though since he most likely already has leverage, he will toss you aside and go make a tackle for loss.
Onyedim also has intriguing pass-rushing upside. He has a fun pull-slide move that combined with his speed, means he gets on the QB quickly. Outside of that he uses his speed, and skinnier frame, to hunt for gaps at full speed. Since he has great lateral quickness he can find those gaps quickly, and exploit them faster than most linemen can recover.
For a 5th year player, you would hope he would have had better play recognition, but alas, it is just okay. He loses eyesight on the backfield when in double teams, and can lose out on where the play is going.
Grade and Outlook
Onyedim looks the part of an immediate contributor to a DT rotation. Usually at the point he is drafted, you are looking at DTs who can rush the passer but cannot do anything against the run. Or big nose tackles who couldn't reach the QB if given five second from the line of scrimmage. Onyedim offers interesting upside in both phases of the game that makes him stand out in the depth of this DT class.
Grade: 4.8 (Late 3rd / Early 4th)
