{"id":219969,"date":"2025-03-04T09:13:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T14:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=219969"},"modified":"2025-03-04T09:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T14:26:09","slug":"walter-nolen-2025-nfl-draft-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/03\/04\/walter-nolen-2025-nfl-draft-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Walter Nolen 2025 NFL Draft Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Walter Nolen NFL Draft Overview<br \/>\nPosition<\/strong>: DT<br \/>\n<strong>Height<\/strong>: 6\u20324\u2033<br \/>\n<strong>Weight<\/strong>: 296 pounds<br \/>\n<strong>School<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?s=Ole+Miss\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Ole Miss<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025-nfl-draft-profiles\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><em>More 2025 NFL Draft Profiles<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>2025 NFL Draft: Walter Nolen Scouting Report<\/h2>\n<p>Walter Nolen enters the 2025 NFL Draft as one of the top defensive tackles available. He had a productive college career and spent two years at <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?s=texas+a%26m\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Texas A&amp;M<\/a> and one year at Mississippi where he was an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/walter-nolen-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">All-American<\/a> for the Rebels playing in 13 games with 48 TOTAL tackles and six and a half sacks. Nolen earned numerous <a href=\"https:\/\/olemisssports.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/walter-nolen\/5283\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">accolades<\/a> last season including, the 2024 Consensus All-American, 2024 All-America First Team (AP, FWAA, Sporting News, USA Today, ESPN, The Athletic, Phil Steele), 2024 All-SEC First Team (Coaches, Phil Steele), 2024 USA Today All-SEC, 2024 Outland Trophy Finalist, 2024 Walter Camp Award Semifinalist, and 2024 Bednarik Award Semifinalist.<\/p>\n<p>Nolen is strong at the point of attack and has explosive quickness off the line of scrimmage. His versatility as a run-stuffer and pocket pusher on passing downs could raise his stock as a three-down player. Even though this is a deep draft at DT, Nolen is the cream of the crop, and don&#8217;t be surprised if he&#8217;s the second interior defensive lineman off the board on draft night after Michigan&#8217;s Mason Graham.<\/p>\n<h3>Strengths<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Good size for the position;<\/li>\n<li>Has a knack for making the big play;<\/li>\n<li>Powerful at the point of attack;<\/li>\n<li>Space eater and can take on double teams;<\/li>\n<li>Plays with good balance and awareness in space;<\/li>\n<li>A three-down player from pressuring the pocket;<\/li>\n<li>Powerful hands work well with an impressive first step;<\/li>\n<li>High football intelligence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Weaknesses<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Needs to work on improving functional mobility;<\/li>\n<li>He must diversify his pass rush sets;<\/li>\n<li>Disengages from blocks too quickly at times;<\/li>\n<li>32 1\/2&#8243; arms aren&#8217;t ideal for the position;<\/li>\n<li>Struggles with pad level when fatigued, which allows him to be easily displaced;<\/li>\n<li>Plays with a narrow base.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>NFL Comparison<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ChrisTrapasso\/status\/1894035202936115681\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zack Sieler<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Teams With Need At Position<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/bills\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Buffalo Bills<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/bengals\/\" target=\"_self\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/jaguars\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/vikings\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Minnesota Vikings<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/jets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">New York Jets<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Projection<\/strong>: First Round<\/p>\n<h3>Bottom Line on Walter Nolen<\/h3>\n<p>The bottom line on Nolen is he possesses many of the traits NFL teams covet in a defensive tackle. He is a fundamentally sound player that can win in a multitude of ways. Nolen has shown the ability to take over games and always seems to be in the right place. His agility and lateral quickness could make him a matchup nightmare for many offensive linemen at the next level. Lastly, his football intelligence is impressive and quickly diagnoses plays that other defenders around him benefit from.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of where Nolen is drafted, he should excel in almost any system as one of the top-tier, DL prospects in this draft class. He can be an immediate starter on day one and could quickly ascend to a Pro Bowl caliber performer.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>*Stats and research provided courtesy of the <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballnetwork.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pro Football Network<\/a> (PFN) and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NFL.com<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walter Nolen is an intriguing prospect for the 2025 NFL Draft. He possesses good size, and athleticism at DT. Let&#8217;s examine him closer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3872,"featured_media":220596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1647],"tags":[32605,33171],"class_list":["post-219969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","tag-2025-nfl-draft","tag-walter-nolen"],"modified_by":"Will Koshover, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3872"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219969"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220602,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219969\/revisions\/220602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}