Jay Toia 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For UCLA Bruins DT

Tale Of The Tape

Toia is a dancing bear of an interior defender who offers some pleasant upside in even front opportunities. He’s built like a brick house, and with such a squatty frame, he’s difficult to work underneath and uproot when looking to create vertical push against him or horizontal displacement at the point of attack. 

He’s a full slab of work for any solo block on the interior, although he lacks the punch reach and extension ability to execute your typical lock/peek/shed techniques. Instead, he feels blocks and rips with his hands to shade against pressure and uncover. There’s enough side-to-side mobility playing in the heart of the front to indicate he can work outside the hashes when runs hit the perimeter. 

Toia is a bowling ball in the middle, and when he’s charged up to play forward, he does a good job of creating negative space in the offensive backfield. His reach and length limit his ability to work off of this gained position, and instead, he’s more of a disruptor than a finisher.

This is a common theme in all phases of his game. He has a poor missed tackle rate because he doesn’t have the reach and tackle radius needed to finish these reps. Still, Toia will create some havoc against singles or when playing in a gap and forcing blockers to play tough on their edges against him. 

The pass rush appeal is modest, but there’s enough here to justify early-down play without concern of not getting anything of value. However, he won't turn the corner on blockers as a rusher. His wins come with clubs and humps that capitalize on poor balance and overplay, at which point Toia can successfully force a passer off his platform.

Finishes, in these instances, as an isolated athlete in the backfield are limited, however.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Toia projects as a rotational defensive tackle and possible starting nose tackle in the right situation. He’s a close-quarters combat player who relies on raw strength, anchor ability, and hand leverage to pop free out of blocks and challenge the ball carrier.

He’ll need good linebackers fitting behind him and long linemates to help him mitigate his own lack of gravitational pull outside of his immediate frame. 

Grade: 70.50/100.00, Fifth Round Value

Big Board Rank: TBD

Position Rank: TBD