Background

Arvell Reese grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and attended Glenville High School, where he played for legendary coach Ted Ginn Sr. He anchored a defense that pitched six consecutive shutouts in league play during his senior year in 2022, sealed the Division IV state championship game with an interception against Wyoming, and delivered Glenville its first state title for any Cleveland Metropolitan School District program. He earned Ohio Division IV Defensive Player of the Year from the Ohio Prep Sportswriters Association and was named a finalist for the High School Butkus Award. Ranked the fifth-best player in Ohio and 19th among linebackers nationally, he was a four-star recruit selected to the Army All-American Game and signed with Ohio State. A concussion against Youngstown State in Week 2 of his freshman year sidelined him for about a month, limiting him to six games and no recorded statistics. He played all 16 games as a sophomore in 2024 behind Sonny Styles and Cody Simon, finishing with 43 tackles and 3.5 TFL as a rotational player during the Buckeyes' national championship run. His junior season in 2025 was incredible: 69 tackles, 10 TFL, and 6.5 sacks across 14 games while splitting snaps roughly equally between the defensive line and the box. That play earned him Big Ten Linebacker of the Year, First-Team All-Big Ten, and consensus All-American honors. A human development and family science major, he has been named a two-time Ohio State Scholar-Athlete and an Academic All-Big Ten honoree. He will turn just 21 in late August 2026. He declared for the 2026 NFL Draft as a junior.

Physical Attributes

Reese did not do full testing during the combine, but he left a line of burnt turf where he scorched his 40. He is in the category of athletes where you describe his movement as just different. He floats around out there, and can go from 100 in one direction to 100 in another direction to 0 back to 100 faster than you can blink. The power he can generate in his hands and his upper body is top-notch. When that upper body and lower body power come together, he is a force of nature. He has a slightly skinnier frame, and I am not sure how much weight he could add in the NFL, but at his size already he should be fine.

Data and Tape Analysis

If you are unfamiliar with my LB radar charts, you can find more information here

Nominally, Reese is a linebacker. There is debate about whether he should play linebacker or as an EDGE in the NFL. For my case, I present two pieces of evidence:

This next one is a half-hour video, so feel free to save it for later:

Reese is an EDGE, end of story. There is a certain romantic part of me that thinks well if he could be the best LB in the league, that has to be worth more than the 16th best EDGE right? And while I say it is hard to look at the world we live in and say that markets are right, because they very much are not, but a team is in the business of generating maximum value under the constraints of the cap. By year four of his rookie deal, to have surplus value, Reese would need to be the 4th best LB, or the 25th best EDGE. Get ready to put that hand in the dirt buddy.

Now onto the actual player!

I already went into how he moves in his physical profile, but I cannot emphasize enough that on a field full of freak athletes, he sticks out. It's like if Atlas showed up to the World's Strongest Man competition. Or the Flash ran the 100-meter dash at the Olympics. It is ridiculous.

As an EDGE, he gets right at OTs. Every snap a cannon fires, and out of it comes Arvell Reese. He does not have a diverse move set yet, but his speed to power alone could be a Jared Verse like one hit wonder. I do not think he will be though as he has great bend and really powerful hands that open up a ton of developmental pathways for him.

Reese's experience as a linebacker will also allow him versatility in defense as he can drop into coverage for a few snaps in a Fangio type system. He also learned how to defend the run by stacking blockers and firing at ball carriers. His pursuit is unreal, and he does not miss tackles. The angles he takes to get to the ball carrier or to an open gap are so smart. I have no worries about him holding up in the run game.

Grade and Outlook

Reese is a freak athlete. In the NFL, that is not the most important thing, but when you can marry it with smarts and traits, that is where truly elite players come from. Reese has athleticism, smarts, and traits in abundance. He will not even be 21 until right before Labor Day. His adjustment to EDGE in the NFL might have him looking out of place for a little while, but I do not think it will take until at longest halfway through his second year where opposing teams are specifically scheming against him.

Grade: 7.4 (Top 5)