The Fridge Meets The Godfather: 2026 Draft Defensive Tackles

The 2026 draft class is full of defensive tackles who could play in the NFL for many years. But it’s headlined by a prospect who, for all of his talent and accomplishments, might not be able to play in the NFL at all.

Caleb Banks, DT, Florida

Banks may be one of the ten best prospects in this draft class. I would not draft him.

Banks missed the 2024 Gasparilla Bowl with a sports hernia. Dane Brugler of The Athletic picks up the thread from there:

Banks injured his left foot during 2025 spring practices, which forced him to wear a boot for a few weeks. Then the foot “fully snapped” during fall camp, ultimately sidelining him for the first two games of the 2025 season. Banks hurried back for Florida’s Week 3 game against LSU, but he aggravated the foot issue again and was forced to have surgery.

Banks returned for the final two games of Florida’s lost-cause 2025 season. He was among the best defenders on the field during Senior Bowl week. But Banks’ ailing foot flared up on the night before his Combine workouts in late February. He ran the 40-yard dash and a few other drills, then shut himself down. The foot was broken again. Banks needed surgery again.

A quick note of clarification: the 2024 hernia was not widely reported. Colleges love to be vague about injuries, and college press pools lack the power and resources to push for information. Some AI-driven sources conflated Banks’ 2024 injury with his foot injuries. I did the same in the rough drafts of this capsule. Even though the ailments are unrelated, I still think it’s relevant that Banks’ injury timeline begins in November of 2024, not spring of 2025.

Banks’ various comebacks are being represented as a triumph of the spirit – he didn’t have to come back at the end of 2025 for a four-win Gators team, after all – and that’s fine. Banks is saying all the right things. But we’re talking about a 327-pound man with a chronic foot injury that has required multiple surgeries and now flares up during relatively routine activities. Hernia-related injuries are also exacerbated by the strain of simply being massive. Banks’ problems won’t be solved by positive thinking or mental toughness.

When available, Banks is almost a Jeffery Simmons-caliber enforcer, with ample quickness and mighty 35-inch suspension-cable arms that he uses to bludgeon opponents. The core of his scouting report, however, comes from the LSU and Ole Miss games just before his 2024 injury. He was just starting to blossom into a first-round prospect when the injuries started.

Some teams probably took Banks off their draft board after the Combine. Others may think he’s worth the risk. At some point in the draft, he is: I’d rather take a 50-50 shot at a defender like Simmons than most of the players available after the 25th pick or so, even if the downside is a wasted pick.

I worry, however, that the “50-50 shot” might be an over-optimistic estimate after nearly two years of setbacks.

Kayden McDonald, DT, Ohio State

I watched the defensive tackle workouts live in Lucas Oil Stadium with a few trusted media pals during the Combine. When McDonald began his drills, we speculated about why he was even bothering to work out.

McDonald is a 326-pound massive mound of major-program man meat. The Combine DT drills are designed for the 290-pounders who are built like sport SUVs. McDonald, we thought, had little to gain but much to lose by waddling among the pads and cones.

It turned out that McDonald, after an early stumble or two, moves like he’s made out of memory foam. His Kung Fu Panda agility forced us to take a second look at his tape. In my case, it was actually a first look (besides watching the Buckeyes on autumn Saturdays), but the fact that I was far behind on my draft prep in late February doesn’t matter. McDonald moves with remarkable agility for a man his size, or even a man 36 pounds lighter.

McDonald is built like a pure nose tackle, which is where he often lined up, but he plays like a three-tech. He wins with quickness and positioning, as well as size and brute strength. He doesn’t anchor against double-teams as well as he should, and the quarterback must almost bump into him for McDonald to pick up a sack. But McDonald is a real problem when the opponent is zone blocking: he can get between the center and the guard before the handoff.

McDonald is not a Vita Vea or Jeffery Simmons-level defender: he lacks that elite combination of size, short-area burst and grrrrr. He’s more of an A’Shawn Robinson type who will play in the NFL for years, adding meaningful bulk to lots of defensive lines without garnering much attention.

Lee Hunter, DT, Texas Tech

Hunter’s nickname is The Fridge. I’m not sure how I feel about that. William Perry was iconic, but also not a very good defender; his “Refrigerator” nickname was a backhanded compliment. It also scanned well, from a poetic standpoint: William the Refrigerator Perry is Shakespeare-worthy iambic pentameter. Lee the Fridge Hunter places the em-PHA-sis on all the wrong syl-LAB-bles.

Anyway, Hunter is a 330-pound human rectangle with Doc Ock arms that he uses to rip, pull, slug and swat blockers away. He’s a massive, ornery, relatively quick-footed space eater and double-team muncher. He wins in the three-yard radius between the guards but gets a little lost if he ventures too far afield: a fridge in a phone booth, so to speak.

Hunter red-shirted at Auburn, then spent three seasons at Central Florida before beaming to Lubbock as part of the Great Texas Tech NIL Spending Spree of 2025. Hunter joined fellow transfers David Bailey and Romello Height on a zillion-dollar defensive line. There weren’t many sacks left for a walking appliance once Bailey and Height feasted. There were lots of reps, however, where Hunter defeated his blocker with a deft judo toss, forcing a ballcarrier to bounce outside or preventing a quarterback from stepping up.

Hunter could prove to be more than a thicc artery-clogger at the NFL level. He’ll never be a star, but he can play a valuable enough role to merit a Day Two pick.

Peter Woods, DT, Clemson

Woods is a toolsy three-tech who spent three years as a regular for the Tigers but only turned 21 years old in March. He looks sleek at 298 pounds and uses a combination of outstanding lateral quickness and some pugilistic hand technique to defeat blocks. But Woods doesn’t make nearly as many plays in the backfield as he should.

Woods ran a fast 10-yard sprint at Clemson’s Pro Day (1.67 seconds, which would have ranked second among DTs if counted as a 10-yard split at the Combine) but did not run a forty. A hamstring injury was cited as the reason he didn’t run the forty, but I have never heard of a hamstring injury that allows a three-cone drill, broad jump and short sprint but prevents a longer sprint. On film, Woods looks like he really can’t find second gear after his quick get-off.

Woods carried eight times for 15 yards and 2 touchdowns as a short-yardage rusher. He’s a unique athlete. His inability to turn wins against his blockers into sacks or stuffs might be a matter of instincts or technique. He’s “moldable,” as the cool draftniks used to say in the late 2010s.

Woods fits best as a late first-round pick for a team that has the luxury of starting him out as the fourth guy in a tackle rotation. He will probably go a little higher in this class.

Chris McClellan, DT, Mizzou

McClellan is a natural 1-tech tackle with some tasty tape. In addition to the usual burliness, he possesses a club move and something like a basketball Euro step to defeat blockers. He has a sound reputation as a run defender. He recorded six sacks in 2025, and he wasn’t just munching on quarterbacks who crashed into him while escaping Zion Young and Damon Wilson.

I’m not sure why McClellan isn’t ranked higher by the draft experts I cross-reference. His overall production doesn’t match the film, but that can be said of all of this year’s defensive tackles. McClellan has the tools of an NFL starter who generates more sacks than the typical nose tackle.

Gracen Halton, DT, Oklahoma

Halton was a Senior Bowl standout. Scott Kennedy posted a nifty cutup of many of Halton’s reps on YouTube, so you can see for yourself. Halton displayed an impressive mix of sheer bulk, the pass-rush moves of a smaller dude, and competitiveness.

Halton’s Senior Bowl reps match his film. He is quick off the snap and moves laterally very well. He’s effective on stunts. He stays in gear when he reaches the backfield.

Halton has a knack for big plays, including a game-ending safety against Houston in 2024 where he practically takes the handoff on an outside zone running play at the one-yard line.

Halton was part of a deep four-tackle Sooners rotation. A player with his traits and bursts of production should have taken more snaps away from teammates like Jayden Jackson and David Stone. (The Sooners defense was OK in 2025, but they weren’t the 2022 Georgia Bulldogs.) Halton is not great at anchoring against interior runs, and he may have stamina or consistency issues.

Halton has upside and a future as a three-tech penetrator in the NFL.

Christen Miller, DT, Georgia

Miller is a standard-issue meaty, ornery Georgia defender who plays nose tackle like a bear swatting salmon out of a stream. He’s got active feet and violent paws. He worked his way up from the bench behind the likes of Jalen Carter, so he meets all Bulldog factory specs and knows what he’s doing when he faces a double team or pull/trap blocks.

Miller is no Carter, nor even a Jordan Davis-level gap plugger. But he’s 321 pounds of gristle, athleticism and big-program experience. WYSIWYG.

Zane Durant, DT, Penn State

Durant was a Combine rockstar, with a 4.79-second forty and other impressive metrics. He also had a solid Senior Bowl week, slicing past some blockers in pit drills, though a few of the top offensive line prospects were able to swallow him.

Durant is a relatively svelte 290-pounder with one of the quicker first steps in this draft class. He can make himself skinny to knife through gaps. But when Durant gets blocked, he stays blocked. And Durant gets blocked a lot. He registered just 18 pressures on 229 pass rushes in 2025. That wouldn’t be a terrible figure for a huge run stuffer, but a quick-footed disrupter must be able to disrupt more often.

Durant is relatively young (22 in May) and possesses a size-quickness ratio that’s always in short supply in the NFL. He could develop into a useful rotation lineman.

Kaleb Proctor, DT, Southeastern Louisiana

Proctor nearly upstaged Zane Durant at the Combine, running a 4.79-second forty at 291 pounds. He’s a small-school standout who lined up everywhere from nose tackle to the edge for the Lions in search of mismatches. He often found them. Proctor’s sizzle reel is full of giggle fuel: Southland Conference blockers weren’t ready for his combination of size, quickness and relentlessness.

Proctor sacked Garrett Nussmeier twice and recorded a third tackle for a loss when Southeastern Louisiana faced LSU at the start of the 2025 season. It was compelling evidence that his first-step quickness and agility will transfer to higher levels.

Proctor might max out as a rotation 3-tech for passing downs. Such defenders are very useful and sometimes end up recording a half-dozen sacks. Proctor is worth a mid-round gamble in (get ready for the refrain) a weak draft class.

Dontay Corleone, Cincinnati

Corleone’s nickname, not surprisingly, is The Godfather. He grew up in Cincinnati and remained with the Bearcats through a coaching change. “I’m big on loyalty,” he said in 2023, via Matthew Postins of Heartland College Sports. With a name like Corleone, he’d better be.

Corleone is a 340-pound palet of sandbags with feet. He possesses girth, a wisp of lateral quickness, a powerful bull rush, and more girth. He’s no pass rusher, and top interior offensive linemen may be able to steer him where they want him to go as a game wears on.

Corleone had a fine week at the Shrine Bowl, where his size/strength/nastiness combination stood out against UDFA-caliber offensive linemen. If some team were to take him in the middle rounds as a pure space eater, Corleone may find it to be a proposition that he would be incapable of turning down.

Domonique Orange, DT, Iowa State

Orange’s nickname is Big Citrus. Considering what was trending in children’s media when he was a tyke, he’s lucky he wasn’t stuck with Annoying Orange. And so are we.

I do NOT remember that brief fad fondly.

Big Citrus started his college career at a grove-sized 350 pounds, then shed weight to a more reasonable 322 pounds. He’s quick for his size and willing to hustle and chase. He played nose tackle in Iowa State’s 1980’s-style three-man front, where the linebackers are usually several yards off the ball, and he was tasked with clogging both A-gaps. It’s a brutal assignment that involves much double-teaming.

Orange recorded just 12 pressures and 0.0 sacks in 282 pass rushes. He recorded just eight solo tackles in 217 running plays. That’s a troubling lack of production, even for a pure nose tackle.

Too Deep Zone is initiating a new rule called the Mazi Smith rule. It states that a defensive lineman must have more than one career sack to be seriously considered as anything more than a Day Three pick and NFL role player. It’s named for Smith, who left Michigan in 2022 with 0.5 career sacks but a scouting report full of tasting notes about his athleticism and tenacity. The Cowboys drafted him 26th overall and weren’t roasted for it. Smith was a disappointment for the Cowboys and was traded to the Jets last season. He has two career NFL sacks.

A prospect who is expected to be a difference maker in the NFL should have a bare-minimum production requirement.

Orange recorded one sack in four seasons at Iowa State.

Zxavian Harris, DT, Ole Miss

Harris stands 6-foot-8, weighs 330 pounds, moves fairly well and has an effective swim move to defeat the blockers he does not accidentally step on. His leverage isn’t bad for a guy with a Hack-a-Shaq backup basketball center’s body. The Rebels lined him up everywhere from nose tackle to the edge, and he could be a useful two-gapping end in the NFL. He’s blocked several field goals in his career.

Harris was charged with domestic violence and obstructing arrest in August of 2024. Harris also faced reckless driving and DUI charges in 2023. I couldn’t find any record of the outcome of the 2024 charges. Harris spoke for 14 minutes at the Combine on the day before I arrived (snowstorm), but he did not address any “incidents” until around the 12-minute mark, when he spoke vaguely about an “ordeal.” I don’t see any mentions of character issues on Harris’ scouting reports from major outlets.

Maybe I missed some unequivocal exoneration somewhere. It’s odd to see two documented legal issues completely memory-holed by the draft media. We used to rip dudes for not being able to cook their own dinners, for heaven’s sake.

An ogre-sized defender with decent athleticism and film like Harris is worth a mid-to-late Day Two selection if his character checks out.