John
Penisini.
John
Penisini.
Utah· 6'1"· 318 lb
"A 318-pound junior-college transfer who two-gapped the middle of a loaded Utah front, anchored double teams without moving, and let the stars around him eat."Pre-draft read
Penisini plays nose and three-technique in an even front and wins with anchor. He is built low to the ground, and that leverage means blockers have to get under him rather than the other way around; on double teams he holds his ground and forces the back to bounce. He explodes through his hips, locks out his arms and controls the blocker's frame with heavy hands.
His second gear is the shuck once he has control: he can strip a guard off and make the tackle in his own gap, and he chases hustle plays harder than his frame suggests. He is a run defender first and comes off the field on obvious passing downs, with a straight bull rush as his only real answer. The separator is the durability of that anchor — he simply does not get displaced.
Even or odd front that asks him to two-gap on early downs and hands the passing-down interior snaps to someone else.
Year 1: early-down run-stuffing nose in a rotation. Ceiling: multi-year starting 1-technique who anchors a top-10 run defense.
An attacking one-gap front that asks its interior linemen to win upfield and generate interior pressure on third down.
Every snap of his value comes before third down; the roster must carry a separate passing-down interior rusher.
2020 Detroit Lions Draft Pick Film Study: John Penisini
Cut-up breakdown of the anchor, pad level and two-gap technique that got him drafted.
John Penisini sack — bull rush
The one pass-rush move on his sheet, a straight bull that walks the guard into the quarterback.
John Penisini forced fumble off hustle
Effort play showing the chase and ball-strip that produced his two 2019 forced fumbles.
Penisini is a pure interior run defender whose whole case is leverage and anchor. He came out of Jordan High in West Jordan, Utah, took the junior-college route through Snow College, redshirted his second year there so he could play three full seasons for Kyle Whittingham, and turned into a back-to-back second-team All-Pac-12 lineman across 40 games and 22 starts with the Utes.
The production line looks modest because the job was not to make plays: back-to-back seasons of 38 tackles, seven tackles for loss and two sacks, plus two forced fumbles in 2019 that tied for the team lead. He earned Pac-12 Defensive Lineman of the Week against Washington with a career-high seven tackles, a sack and a forced fumble. The flags were obvious and unanimous — he gives you nothing as a pass rusher, he is slow to shoot his hands, and he saw single blocks because defenses were busy accounting for Leki Fotu and Bradlee Anae beside him.
Boards had him as a late-round nose tackle in the DL20 range, a 3-4 or short-yardage gap-plugger with a clean medical and a strong East-West Shrine Bowl week. Detroit took him at 197 after signing two veteran interior linemen, explicitly to add a young two-gap body who could hold the point on early downs.
- 01
Anchor against doubles
he does not get displaced by two blockers, holding the point and forcing the ball carrier to bounce out of his gap.
- 02
Natural leverage
built low with a thick lower half, so blockers must work under him, which almost never happens at his pad level.
- 03
Heavy hands and lockout
explodes through his hips, locks his arms out and controls the blocker's frame before deciding which gap to take.
- 04
Shuck and finish
once he has a guard under control he can strip him off and make the tackle in his own gap rather than just occupying space.
- 05
Teammate value
Utah's Fotu, Anae and Bernard all named him as the teammate they would bring with them, a rare peer endorsement for a role player.
- 01
No pass rush
a straight bull is the only move on the sheet, so he comes off the field on any clear passing down and offers zero third-down value.
- 02
Slow hand strike
late to shoot his hands at the snap, which lets cleaner linemen fit first and turns quick-set reps into a stalemate.
- 03
Lateral range
very little movement down the line, so he makes the plays run at him and almost none outside his own gap.
- 04
Inflated context
he drew single blocks because Fotu and Anae commanded attention, so the tape may overstate how easily he held up alone.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- —s
- Vertical
- 25.5inp50
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- 4.93sp50
- Bench
- 23repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Utah | 12 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | Utah | 14 | 38 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2019 | Utah | 14 | 38 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Career | — | 40 | 80 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Sports-Reference (Utah, 2017-2019), bowl games included, cross-checked against Utah's official player stats. Season totals sum exactly to the career line: 40 games, 80 tackles, 15 TFL, 5.0 sacks, 2 PD, 2 FF, 1 FR. Two junior-college seasons at Snow College are not included; he redshirted his second year there.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Two-down run plugger who starts, holds the point and leaves the field on passing downs.
The ceiling if the anchor holds at NFL weight: a decade of starting early-down nose snaps.
Big-bodied late-round interior body who never separates from the back of the roster.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Detroit got more than a sixth-round nose tackle normally gives you, and got it immediately. Penisini led Lions defensive tackles in snaps as a rookie in 2020, playing through a shoulder condition that required offseason surgery, and he held a rotational starting role into 2021 even after the team drafted Alim McNeill in the third round. Across two seasons he played 32 games with 12 starts, finishing with 49 tackles, four tackles for loss, one sack and a fumble recovery — the exact statistical shape his college tape projected, because the job was to occupy blockers rather than to create.
The career ended earlier than the tape ever suggested it would. In June 2022, at 25 and with two years of NFL starts behind him, Penisini announced his retirement on Instagram, saying he was happy with the experience and ready for what came next. He later attempted a comeback, spending time with Carolina before being waived off the reserve/PUP list, then with New Orleans, who waived him in May 2024; he never appeared in another regular-season game. As a draft pick he was a clear win at that cost — two seasons of legitimate starting run-defense snaps for pick 197 — and the reason there is not more to write is a personal decision, not a scouting error.