James
Lynch.
James
Lynch.
Baylor· 6'4"· 289 lb· 5.01s 40
"The Big 12 defensive player of the year who broke Baylor's single-season and career sack records as a junior — a motor-driven interior rusher without the first step to match the production."Pre-draft read
Lynch is a 6-4, 289-pound interior rusher whose production came from relentlessness rather than explosion. He wins with heavy hands, a nonstop motor and a feel for finding the soft shoulder of a blocker, and he turned that into 13.5 sacks as a junior, a Baylor single-season record.
He is scheme-flexible, comfortable as a three-technique and as an end in three-man looks, blocked two kicks, converts speed to power and keeps rushing after the first move fails. The athletic traits are the limit. He is not a twitchy first-step penetrator and can get anchored by bigger guards, which projects him as a rotational interior player rather than a full-time disruptor. The signature is the motor and the production.
A multiple front that rotates interior linemen heavily and can use him as a three-technique on passing downs and a five-technique in odd looks.
Year 1 rotational interior lineman playing twenty to thirty snaps a game, with a ceiling as a starting three-technique who produces five to seven sacks on effort and hand usage.
A two-gap, read-and-react front that asks a nose or heavy end to hold the point against double teams on every early down.
Best of Baylor Football 2019: James Lynch's record-setting season
School-produced reel of the 13.5-sack junior year that set the program record.
James Lynch - DL Baylor - 2020 NFL Draft Profile
Pre-draft film profile of his hand usage, motor and positional projection.
Baylor Football DT James Lynch Adapts Quickly to 3-Man Front
Feature on the scheme flexibility that let him rush from multiple alignments.
Lynch had one of the most productive interior pass-rushing seasons in recent conference history, and he had it as a twenty-one-year-old junior. He declared for the draft with a year of eligibility left, which tells you how confident he was in what 2019 had built.
The season was a landslide. He led Baylor with 19.5 tackles for loss and 13.5 sacks, which tied for seventh nationally in tackles for loss and ranked sixth in sacks, and he added five pass breakups, three forced fumbles and two blocked kicks. His 13.5 sacks set the school single-season record, and his 22 career sacks broke the program record of 17.5 that Shawn Oakman had set. He was named Big 12 defensive player of the year by the conference coaches, the Associated Press and the local writers.
The projection was where the disagreement lived. The production was undeniable and the motor was elite, but at 6-4 and 289 he was caught between positions — not quick enough off the ball to be a penetrating three-technique, not big enough to two-gap, and without the length to move outside. Evaluators called him a high-floor rotational lineman whose effort would keep him employed. Minnesota, which had just traded away its best interior rusher, took him at 130.
- 01
Record production
Set Baylor single-season and career sack records with 13.5 in 2019 and 22 overall, breaking a mark held by a program legend.
- 02
Relentless motor
Keeps working after the first move fails, and a large share of his sacks came from rushing the quarterback a second and third time.
- 03
Heavy hands
Converts speed to power and jolts guards at contact rather than trying to run around them on the interior.
- 04
Scheme flexibility
Played as an interior rusher in four-man fronts and as an end in three-man looks, which broadens the teams that fit him.
- 05
Special-teams value
Blocked two kicks as a junior, exactly the additional role that keeps a rotational defensive lineman active on Sundays.
- 01
Ordinary first step
Lacks the twitch off the snap to consistently beat NFL guards before they get their hands on him.
- 02
Tweener build
At 6-4 and 289 he is undersized to two-gap and lacks the length to move outside, which narrows his alignment options.
- 03
Anchor against power
Bigger guards can move him in the run game when he does not win with his hands immediately.
- 04
Limited counter arsenal
Wins primarily on effort and power, and he needs a developed secondary move to beat NFL protection schemes.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.01sp50
- Vertical
- 29inp50
- Broad jump
- 111inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.39sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.39sp50
- Bench
- 23repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Baylor | — | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | Baylor | — | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Baylor | — | 0 | 13.5 | 0 | 5 | 3 |
| Career | — | — | 0 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The 2019 line and the career sack record of 22 come from the Vikings draft release citing Baylor and conference figures: 19.5 tackles for loss, 13.5 sacks, five breakups, three forced fumbles and two blocked kicks, with the 13.5 a school single-season record. He declared after his junior season. Tackle totals and his 2017 and 2018 season lines were not published and are left empty rather than assumed.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A rotational interior lineman who plays six-plus seasons across several teams without ever holding a starting job.
The ceiling: an undersized interior rusher whose hands and motor make him a long-term starter and disruptor.
A tweener interior lineman whose college production never carries over and who is out of the league within two years.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Lynch became a durable rotational defensive lineman, which is roughly what the fourth round projected. He played nine games as a rookie in 2020 with three tackles and a sack, then had his most productive year in 2021 with thirteen games, 27 tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery. He played fifteen games with twenty tackles in 2022, and then lost all of 2023 to the reserve list in Minnesota.
Tennessee signed him for 2024 and he became a genuine every-week contributor, playing all seventeen games with eighteen tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss and two passes defended, then all seventeen again in 2025 with 23 tackles and half a sack. Chicago signed him for 2026. Through six active seasons he had played 73 games with four starts and 101 tackles with 3.5 sacks. In hindsight the caution in the evaluation was the right read: the college sack production never translated, because the traits that produced it — motor and power without first-step quickness — are the ones NFL guards neutralize. What he became instead is a six-year rotational lineman who is always on a roster, which at pick 130 is a fair outcome.