Dereon Albert

Physical Profile

Measured a shade under 6-foot-2 at roughly 300-305 pounds with 34.5-inch arms — an outstanding arm-length-to-height ratio that is the single most projectable measurable in his profile. The sub-6-2 frame is functional rather than limiting at defensive tackle: the low pad height is natural leverage, and the long arms let him win the hand-fighting exchange against taller blockers who cannot reach his chest before he reaches theirs. He carries the weight with a wide base and real explosiveness out of a stance, and the multi-sport background in discus and shot put corroborates the rotational hip power and lower-half torque that shows on tape. The frame appears close to filled out; the developmental work is body composition and conditioning, not adding mass.

Play Style

An upfield, attacking three-technique who plays with his hair on fire. He wins on the snap far more than he wins on the second effort — the tape is a steady diet of getting skinny through a gap, restricting the running back's landmark and creating negative plays in the backfield. As a rusher he's a pocket pusher rather than an edge-bender: he collapses the interior pocket, sits the quarterback down and works well as the looper or the penetrator on games and stunts, which is where his short-area agility separates him from typical 305-pound bodies. Against the run he is disruptive on single blocks and vulnerable on combo blocks, so the tape looks boom-or-bust — a tackle for loss followed by a snap where he's driven three yards off the ball. He plays with genuine effort and the freshman-through-junior production curve shows a player who never came off the field, which is both a credit to his toughness and the reason the conditioning note exists.

Strengths

• First-step quickness and get-off for a 305-pound interior player — 61.5 career tackles for loss and 22.5 sacks over three seasons is production that only comes from beating guards to the spot rather than waiting on blocks, and 247Sports' Andrew Ivins projects him as a true 'one-gap penetrator' with agility and activity in the middle.
• Active, violent hands paired with 34.5-inch arms. He creates leverage against bigger and girthier blockers and overcompensates for the height deficit by winning first contact — he does not get engulfed the way most sub-6-2 tackles do.
• Rush plan and body control in a phone booth. Ivins credits him with a bevy of pass-rush options and the ability to create pressure on stunts and inside games — meaning he can be schemed into advantageous matchups rather than needing to win one-on-one every snap. He dominated a 1-on-1 session at a loaded Under Armour camp outside New Orleans before his senior year.
• Four years of varsity reps and elite durability — 96 tackles/24 TFL as a freshman, 69/20.5 as a sophomore, 81/17.5/7 sacks as a junior. He is not a projection off two seasons of tape.

Areas to Improve

• Conditioning and play-strength endurance. Ivins flags this directly — improved conditioning should yield more pursuit range. Right now his snap-count efficiency drops late in drives, which caps him as a rotational player rather than a 55-snap starter in year one at the SEC level.
• Anchoring and double-team defeat. He wins moving forward; he is far less consistent holding his turf when the offense commits two bodies to him. Against SEC guard/center combos he will be reduced and washed until he learns to convert his low center of gravity into a true anchor rather than a launch pad.
• Pad level consistency — he plays a tad high off the ball on a portion of snaps, which is the fastest way for a 6-2 tackle to surrender his one structural advantage.
• Hand-usage discipline. The aggression that produces the TFL total also produces penalties; he'll need to clean that up against officiating crews that call the interior more tightly.

College Projection

A developmental redshirt or limited-rotation freshman year at Tennessee, with realistic third-string-to-second-string interior snaps by the back half of year one — Ivins explicitly projected him as capable of providing valuable snaps for a College Football Playoff hopeful early. The path is passing-down sub-package rusher first, where his get-off and hand quickness translate immediately and the double-team weakness is hidden, then earning early-down work in years two and three as the anchor develops under a college strength program. Projected as a year-three starter at three-technique. Tennessee's high-tempo defensive rotation is a favorable landing spot: Josh Heupel's staff plays interior linemen in waves, which lets Albert be productive in 20-25 snap bursts while the conditioning catches up rather than exposing him at 50 snaps before he's ready.

NFL Outlook

Mid-round developmental interior rusher on the current trajectory — a Day 3 projection with a Day 2 ceiling if the anchor arrives. The 34.5-inch arms at his height are a genuine NFL-grade measurable and will keep scouts in the building; the sub-6-2 height and the double-team tape are the reasons he isn't a top-100 national prospect today. His NFL case rests entirely on becoming a three-down player: if he can hold the point on early downs while retaining the first-step quickness, he profiles as a rotational three-technique in a one-gap front. If the run defense stays a liability, he's a designated pass-rushing interior body — a real NFL role, but one that gets drafted in the fifth round or later. Watch his weight and conditioning numbers through year two; that metric, more than any pass-rush win rate, will determine the draft outcome.

Best Fit

An attacking one-gap front — 4-3 under or an even-front three-technique role where he is asked to penetrate a single gap and disrupt rather than two-gap and read. He is a poor fit as a nose or a true 3-4 zero/one-technique despite the listed weight; asking him to hold up on double teams against the run negates his athleticism. Programs with deep interior rotations and an aggressive strength-and-conditioning infrastructure maximize him, and Tennessee checks both boxes. Ideal coordinator usage: line him up as the shaded three-technique on passing downs, run him on interior games and stunts, and let the first step and the arms do the work.