Joe DeLeone and Ryan Roberts break down the play of Ole Miss DT Walter Nolen, who is absolutely a 1st round talent in the 2025 NFL Draft, but could slip down draft boards for other rea
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00:00Walter Nolan has the talent of a first-round prospect, but he should go nowhere near the first round. Here's why
00:10Ryan how early would you willingly draft Walter Nolan?
00:14Don't ask me that Joe buyers beware of Walter Nolan not in the top hundred for me personally
00:20So we need to talk about this. His tape is phenomenal
00:23He has some incredible highlights and there's a reason why some people project him to be
00:28Maybe even a top 15 pick you keep seeing him go to the Dallas Cowboys and people's mock drafts
00:33But you and I were not there. Can we dig into this? Why we're a little concerned
00:38I mean, he's a first-round talent without question
00:42and he also had a
00:45Really productive 2024 season his best season by far after a couple average years at Texas A&M
00:51He was really good last year at Ole Miss. There was a lot around Walter Nolan though, Joe
00:55There's a lot round him and ultimately on the field. It's your cashing in potentially on a high-end pass rusher on the interior
01:01But he's a below average run defender and there's a lot of talk about the character concerns off of it, right?
01:08So we combine those character concerns with a below average run defender as an interior defensive lineman
01:13That's where I start to have a little bit of my buyers beware
01:18Conversation and a little bit of I'm scared of him man. I'm scared of him and I'm scared to draft him too early
01:24We'll get to the strengths in a second
01:25but I'm with you on this you do hear a little bit about the character concerns and I think that's one of these instances where
01:31It does show up on the film where he seems almost disinterested in playing good run defense
01:35He doesn't put a lot of effort in trying to anchor at the line of scrimmage, which he can actually do really well
01:41He doesn't put a lot of effort into locating the football in closing down a ball carriers, which he can actually do really well
01:47There's just too many ebbs and flows in the amount of effort that he's giving on a snap-to-snap basis for me
01:53Well, and it's I think there's some technical flaws as a run defender as well
01:57I think his base gets a little bit too narrow at times
01:59I just think that he gets kind of knocked off his spot because I don't think he's playing in proper power position all the
02:04Time against the run, but I do think that overall Joe like this is a player that you're banking on the upside
02:10But the floor is what scares me and the floor that we always talk about for an interior defense lineman is the run defense
02:18Ultimately, right like we'll talk about the exciting attributes that Walter Nolan has we'll continue to talk about it throughout this draft process
02:23But if I'm talking about an interior defensive lineman that I don't know if I'm gonna get anything in the run game specifically
02:30consistently and
02:31A guy that I don't think I can count on from a just playing hard perspective every snap
02:35That's kind of a pretty hard sell to me personally
02:38You need to earn your opportunities on the field by being a great run defender
02:43And then eventually you get to create more opportunities for yourself as you start to win as a pass rusher
02:48The pass rush though is where you get excited about Walter Nolan
02:52He is in a rare category of what he could be in the NFL as an interior pass rusher
02:57His flexibility is awesome. His power is awesome, and he's got some really quick hands all that stuff is
03:04Worthy of taking a shot on but realistically somewhere towards the end of day two
03:09Well, I think that for me the explosiveness the ability as a pass rusher
03:14that's why people are super excited and geeked up over a player like a Walter Nolan and honestly if you could tell me a
03:21100% he's locked in there's no concerns off the field and all I'm getting is these splash plays consistently
03:28You could sell me on him as a first rounder in this class a class that is a little bit
03:33Lacking at the top and in a class that tails off pretty well in the second and third tiers pretty pretty quickly, right?
03:40So you can sell me on Walter Nolan in the vacuum again
03:43There's just a lot of layers to a process here a lot of layers because this kid
03:48You could stack the ten best plays that he had in 2024 and it's as good as anybody and on the interior defensive line class
03:55It's up there with the Mason Graham's of the world. You can have that conversation
03:58But ultimately this is the full process and we've talked about this on this channel a dizzy sports film room before Joe
04:05There are some concerning attributes and concerning things about Walter Nolan that has some people kind of dropping them down the boards
04:11There's been a couple of recent mock dress from some of the big
04:14Big wigs and the talking heads in the industry that have had him out of the first round. There's a reason for those concerns
04:21Going into his background and who he was as a recruit Nolan originally started his career at Texas A&M coming out of Tennessee
04:27He was the number one ranked
04:30Defensive line recruit in the country per two four seven sports
04:33He was the second ranked recruit overall in the 2022 class
04:38One of the most prolific recruiting classes ever for a single team with that Texas A&M squad
04:43And of course, he was a five-star recruit
04:46Extremely highly regarded at Texas A&M
04:49We always saw the flashes and then when he entered the transfer portal and headed to Ole Miss
04:53There was that hope of hey
04:55Maybe he's amongst this group of other talented guys on an actually winning and highly competitive team
05:01That they could take that next step and kind of like Ole Miss this year
05:05They didn't take the next step that there we were hoping for they kind of got stuck at a ceiling that was there at the
05:10beginning of the season
05:12Yeah, man
05:12That's 2022 overhyped Texas A&M team that had like eight defensive linemen and had like barely any other
05:18Couple of positions that were even covered. It was a very interesting 2022 class
05:22But he was a five-star for a reason coming out of the state of Tennessee
05:25He was a guy that Texas A&M was super geeked up about
05:28Coming out of the state of Tennessee and we saw the flashes the first couple years
05:32He turned those flashes into more consistent play in Ole Miss with over 10 tackles for loss and some sack production this past year
05:38he is by all accounts a
05:42Media darling from the recruiting perspective to potentially being a high NFL draft pick. There's a lot to like about Walter Nolan just again
05:49There's some things to consider as well
05:51All right, closing us out here with a pro comp as we do on all these videos
05:54We had a little bit of a tough time trying to find a good comp for Walter Nolan now
05:58He keeps comparing himself to Aaron Donald
05:59We're not gonna go there because just physically they're nowhere near the same
06:02Walter Nolan's much bigger than Aaron Donald was and also Aaron Donald was a
06:06freakish player against the run and Walter Nolan as we talked about is not the one that we came to a
06:12Little bit like not super excitedly John Franklin Myers who has carved out a decent career for himself
06:20So far as a pass rusher listed at 6 foot 4 to 83 at the NFL Combine with 32 and 7 eighth inch arms and Nolan who
06:27Did not test ends up coming in at 6 foot 4 to 96 with 32 and a half inch arms
06:33Not the greatest comp that we've had but I think it's it's one of the few that we can really put together that makes
06:39Some sense. Yeah, I mean, it's it's the pass rush upside
06:42It's also the pass rush upside for multiple alignments, right?
06:45Like Walter Nolan whether you're in a four-man front or a three-man front at his best
06:48He is that first step quick defensive tackle that can create some instant penetration whether you're a four-man whether you're a three-man
06:55I think he has a lot of pass rush upside
06:57similarly what we saw with John John and Franklin Myers who actually began his career as a defensive end that has now become kind of a
07:03Swiss army knife up front at Nolan's best
07:06I think he can be that style of player and maybe even a better version of a John Franklin Myers
07:11Folks comment below what team do you think Walter Nolan should play for hit that like button and subscribe and we'll talk to you later