Sai’vion Jones 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For LSU Tigers DL

Tale Of The Tape

Jones is an imposing presence along the defensive front, thanks to a well-filled-out frame. His calling card as a talent is the power and physicality he brings to the position. Although, you do see some pleasant glimpses of movement in space that you wouldn’t necessarily expect from a player of his stature. 

However, he should be considered a bit of a tweener for the pro game. Jones has the physicality to play and help set the edge against the run. He offers heavy hands, the length to punch and extend, and diagnose action at the point of attack. When he plays linearly within his frame, he boasts a lot of power to control his assignment. 

This run-game appeal comes at the expense of a pass-rush profile that has a lot of sustainable disruption. A number of times, teams would leave Jones unblocked on the backside and boot off run fakes, and he struggled to mirror or finish unblocked tackle challenges in space. His rush counters are mostly power-oriented, but Jones does flash the ability to rip and swipe through hands.

If the win isn’t collected early, however, he can get stuck trying to bend the edge and does not have the dynamic lower-body athleticism to carry speed and corner simultaneously. As a result, Jones can be run past the top of the arc and will lose his footing. Instances in which Jones keeps his feet and the quarterback drops his eyes to avoid the rush is where Jones collected a number of his sacks this past season. 

Jones did have a number of wins crashing into the B-gap from playing overtop of tackles. While his quickness is modest to play on the edge and in space, he could viably have disruption by beating heavy-footed guards inside if he played more in the B-gap from his alignment.

This is a projection, and a leap of faith teams will need to assess individually. In a world where Jones makes that conversion on passing downs, he could serve as a base end and then kick inside on long and late downs or potentially look to play as a 4i full-time in odd fronts. 

This is a player who should be considered a developmental talent. Thanks to his run diagnosis, length, and heavy hands, he offers a floor worthy of a 53-man roster spot, but he likely will need time throughout his rookie contract before building himself up into an amended role. 

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Jones projects as a tight-alignment defensive end or a potential conversion to rush as a 4i/3T defender in the NFL. He offers sufficient movement skills for such a role but is miscast playing on the edge unless he’s afforded a buffer via an OLB playing outside of him to protect defensive leverage.

If kept on the edge, Jones projects as a rotational run-down end who would be tasked with occupying the edge and resetting the line of scrimmage. 

Grade: 69.00/100.00, Sixth Round Value

Big Board Rank: TBD

Position Rank: TBD