Pheldarius Payne began his college career playing at the junior college level, but transferred to Nebraska in 2020. He earned a rotational role right away, and posted a 16% pass rush pressure rate, which is typically on par with first round NFL Draft prospects along the defensive line. However, after his 2021 didn’t go as expected he transferred to Virginia Tech. And sadly, before his potential breakout season happened in 2022 he injured his Achilles.

Once he finally got healthy and back up to full speed last fall against Marshall in Week 4, he became one of the most productive pass rushers in the nation. In just a nine week span he pressured opposing quarterbacks 22 times on 150 pass rush attempts and racked up six sacks while playing almost exclusively as an interior defensive lineman. That pass rush pressure rate ranked second in the entire defensive line class behind only Byron Murphy II of Texas, a first round pick. If he had stayed healthy for a larger sample of his final two seasons there’s no way he goes undrafted.

At 6’2″, 286 pounds (and he played lighter than that) he’s a bit small to be an every down interior defensive lineman, but the Texans could use him in a variety of pre-snap alignments to get him into advantageous matchups on pass rushes.

He likely opens training camp as the fifth or sixth interior defensive lineman on the team, but has real potential to become a sub-package pass rush talent immediately as Lance Zierlein of NFL.com outlines perfectly here in the post below.