From now until the 2025 NFL Draft, we will scout and create profiles for as many prospects as possible, examining their strengths, weaknesses, and what they can bring to an NFL franchise. These players could be potential top 10 picks, down to Day 3 selections, and priority undrafted free agents. Today, a scouting report on Rutgers defensive tackle Kyonte Hamilton.
#48 KYONTE HAMILTON/DT RUTGERS – 6033, 305 POUNDS. (SENIOR)
MEASUREMENTS
| Player | Ht/Wt | Hand Size | Arm Length | Wingspan |
| Kyonte Hamilton | 6033/305 | 9 1/4 | 32 1/8 | N/A |
| 40-Yard Dash | 10-Yard Dash | Short Shuttle | 3-Cone | |
| 4.95 | 1.73 | 4.49 | 7.85 | |
| Broad Jump | Vertical | Bench Press | ||
| 9’2″ | 29 | 29 |
THE GOOD
– Has solid mass, density, and carries his weight extremely well
– Athletic, alignment-versatile defender who’s played everywhere from 0-tech to 5-tech
– Explosive off the snap, shooting through gaps and stressing blockers early
– Can elongate his strides to generate force with runways on stunts and angled rushes.
– Great power capacity on the attack in his upper and lower halves
– Possesses lateral athleticism to work across alignments
– Unloads his hips into contact and torques through blockers with brutal rotation
– Can set a strong edge, anchors well, and demolishes gaps farther inside
– Visibly improved leverage and balance in run defense in 2024, loading his base more
– Goes across-face to gaps with active, forceful hands to disrupt running lanes
– Shows bright flashes as a pass-rusher, using various combos and baiting blockers
– Nice bull rush, club-rips and swipes, and knows how to push-pull linemen into pocket
– Advanced spin move capability as a counter to pass-blocking
– Motor that never stops with voracious pursuit energy
– Doesn’t have any injuries during his career
THE BAD
– Short arm length for his position, which can detract from peak power output
– Lacks elite quickness and change of direction and is more potent on the vertical plane
– Has to have more consistent strike timing and hand placement not to get stuck on blocks
– If initial move doesn’t win, he has to develop better counters and must adapt quicker versus contact
– Gets too upright out of his stance as a run defender, leaving his chest exposed
– Has to work on keeping his hands active to evade linemen
– Stack-and-shed ability to slip run blocks
– Can get too caught up in his assignment instead of flowing to where the run play is going
– Doesn’t always roll his hips into adjacent gaps after winning initial hand battles
– Can be too quick to get into gaps, flushing himself out of plays
– Has really only played as an interior defensive lineman the past two years
– Reminding himself not to get into grappling matches so often
BIO:
– 1,781 total snaps (708 B gap, 636 A gap, 219 over tackle, 210 edge rusher)
– 251 special teams snaps (105 FG block, 58 kick return, 30 kick coverage, 28 punt return coverage, 23 punt coverage)
– Appeared in 51 games with 31 starts over 4 seasons at Rutgers
– No injury history
– Career: 110 total tackles (33 solo, 77 assisted), 48 pressures, 11 TFLs, 10 missed tackles, 6 sacks, 44 run stops, 4 batted passes, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery, 0 INTs, 2 penalties
– 2024-25 season: 36 tackles (14 solo, 22 assisted), 27 pressures, 5 TFLs, 2 missed tackles, 5 sacks, 17 run stops, 3 batted passes, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery, 0 penalties
– Born in District Heights, MD
– Played at Georgetown Prep HS
– 2025 participated and played in East-West Shrine Bowl event
– Was on the Rutgers wrestling team from 2021-22 with a 3-1 record as a heavyweight competitor
– Bulked up to 275 lbs. his freshman year and eventually played around 300 lbs. his junior and senior years
– Originally signed on to wrestle at Rutgers, but then was subsequently recruited by the football team as 230 lb. tight end/defensive end
– Three-star defensive end prospect out of HS, according to 247Sports
– 2020 senior season was canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic
– Standout wrestler (2020 Metropolitan Wrestler of the Year by The Washington Post)
– Got engaged to his girlfriend on 7/7/24
TAPE BREAKDOWN
Kyonte Hamilton has quite the story of becoming a standout football player in 2024 who was known nationally as a wrestler coming out of high school. That was supposed to be his arena of combat, but he decided in his freshman year that he wanted to pursue life on the football field instead.
He really took off as a player this past season at Rutgers University after earning a starting role midway through his junior season. Hamilton is an interesting projection to the NFL, given his desirable combination of size, power, athleticism, and versatility to play almost every position along the defensive front. He is an athletic, strong, alignment-versatile defensive lineman who should continue to get better over time with proper coaching and experience.
At this point, his pass-rushing skills are much more developed than his run-defense ability, but he’s steadily improved his game every year. He is a solid run defender with a good motor, power, strength, instincts, and anchoring ability to play in the A or B gaps against different offensive linemen.
Hamilton flashed as a pass rusher a lot more this season and showed a pass-rush plan to get to the quarterback. He was also a standout at the Shrine Bowl, consistently winning in 1-on-1 matchups and holding his ground well. He mostly wins as a rusher with bull rushes, club-swims, arm-overs, and rip moves, but he’ll occasionally throw out an awesome spin move like the one here.
He is No. 48 in all of the following clips for Rutgers:
He uses good hand placement to soften rush angles and shows a good bull rush to find his way into the backfield and collapse the pocket.
His strike timing isn’t consistent, but got better as the year went on. I appreciated his ability to attack space to create angles for counter moves on the inside track of offensive linemen. He does lack the kind of elite quickness, re-direct, and change of direction that you would ideally like to see. It’s one reason he does not make as many impact plays, but his size, length, and confined space power are starting points as he gains more experience and develops. He also plays with an incredible motor that is always running hot, which can lead to second-effort pressures and sacks.
So, between his athleticism and growth, Hamilton could become a more productive pass-rusher in the pros than in college. The exciting element of his evaluation is that he’s so schematically flexible. He played in the A gap a lot in college, shined as a 3-technique, and even aligned quite a bit out wide as a 5-7 technique. Going further, with his explosiveness, he would be dangerous in a team’s speed packages, where he can launch from greater depth, load his hips, and build up momentum into contact. There, his power and motor can be a lot to deal with.
Against the run, Hamilton is definitely still a work in progress. He does have some noticeable strengths, though. He takes on blocks with good leverage and has the upper-body power to gain control of the block and snap the heads back of offensive linemen. He plays with good leverage but sometimes gets too high with his pad level. His wrestling background really comes into play with keeping himself low enough to enable his leg drive. Also, his agility allows him to avoid getting reached even despite his lack of arm length. He is a reliable player in run defense, consistently staying square with the ball carrier at the line of scrimmage, and he is not one to whiff on tackles. He has difficulty when he has to stack and shed bigger offensive linemen.
He can hold his ground really well to let other guys flow in for tackles in double-team situations. This often happened to him when he was asked to play over center.
Hamilton can get off blocks well in a one-on-one situation but can be washed out against double teams and combo blocks. He has good instincts in knowing where the running lane will be, but he needs to ensure he’s making the initial contact. His length makes it an inherent disadvantage for him to get punched, stalled and grabbed in his chest to get stuck in place. He has to keep his hands moving, making it difficult for linemen to reset and stay balanced. I love his ability to flow down the line well, and he has the lateral agility to get to the boundary better than most guys his size.
CONCLUSION
Kyonte Hamilton is an ascending player who has grown a lot in his four years at Rutgers. He still has the potential to have much more improvement to either be an immediate rotational piece on a defensive line or an eventual starter. The real question is where he fits best as you transition him to the NFL since he must start somewhere along the defensive front. Given his strong traits profile, much of the projection with Hamilton is what you believe he can become with coaching, development, and experience because his tape tells you it is there in his body. You see flashes and snapshots of it, especially from a pass-rush perspective.
He is scheme-diverse and can be deployed on a variety of fronts. Because of his versatility, he can play in a 4-3 or 3-4 system. His strengths will probably be enhanced as a 3-technique or 4i defender who can move around the line to take advantage of his speed-to-power gifts.
His run defense improvements in 2024 only embolden this freedom. Although this isn’t necessarily a 1:1 comparison, his athletic profile and abilities are reminiscent of Ruke Orhorhoro out of Clemson in last year’s draft. You can tell that Hamilton is still a player in progress who brings to the table high intelligence, tremendous effort, power, and athleticism to impact a defensive front down the line. This is also a guy who’s only been playing at this body weight, at these positions for basically two years. He’s a proverbial ball of clay as a defensive lineman who could really be worth the payoff with the right coaching and development.
Projection: UDFA
Depot Draft Grade: 7.2 – 4th Round (Rotational Player)
Games Watched: at Virginia Tech (2024), vs UCLA (2024), at Kansas State (2023), at Wisconsin (2023), at Penn State (2023)
