The Kansas City Chiefs tried to land an explosive sack artist when they drafted Felix Anudike-Uzomah with the 31st pick in 2023. Unfortunately, Anudike-Uzomah barely plays and doesn’t significantly contribute to the defense. Several edge rushers in the 2025 NFL draft fit the mold Kansas City tried to fill several years ago.
Linebacker Princely Umanmielen’s decision to transfer from Florida to Ole Miss for his final college season is paying dividends. He’s tied for second in the SEC with 9.5 sacks and is applying pressure on 17.2% of his pass rush attempts. That number jumps to 22.4% if the sample size focuses on Umanmielen’s past three games. He produced two sacks in each of those appearances.
Umanmielen is around 250 lbs. with arms that fall an eighth of an inch below the 34-inch mark. His speed rush is one of the best in college football. Offensive tackles lack the quickness to match Umanmielen’s pace off the line, especially when he deploys from wide alignments. He covers ground quickly with long strides to beat tackles to the top of the arc.
Umanmielen drops his hips and whips himself around the corner once he draws even with or blows past the offensive tackle’s outside shoulder. His hip flexibility helps him dip under the pad level of offensive linemen and flatten his rush angle to the quarterback. This generates quick pressures that many quarterbacks can’t avoid.
Ole Miss edge rusher Princely Umanmielen (No. 1) was the No. 32 prospect on my recent 2025 NFL Draft top 250 big board. He now has three consecutive games with 2 sacks, all against SEC opponents. He had a takeover game vs. Georgia. #NFLDraft #NFLDraft2025 #2025NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/ibglL8WrBA
— Sam Teets (@Sam_Teets33) November 10, 2024
Umanmielen’s pass rush plan relies on more than pure speed. He uses rips and chops to win around the outside, counters into the B-gap with an inside spin and occasionally converts speed to power to rush through the offensive tackle’s frame.
Umanmielen primarily excels as a pass rusher but makes some nice plays in run defense. He uses a long-arm to stack and shed blocks and hunts down running backs on outside zone plays with his speed. Umanmielen’s burst makes him a threat as a backside run defender.
The Rebels play their next game on the road against the Florida Gators on Nov. 23 at 11 a.m. CST.