Khaleke
Hudson.
Khaleke
Hudson.
Michigan· 5'11"· 224 lb· 4.56s 40
"He tied the NCAA record with eight tackles for loss in a single game as a sophomore, then spent the rest of his career proving he could be a core special-teamer instead."Pre-draft read
Hudson played Don Brown's viper, the hybrid safety-linebacker role Jabrill Peppers made famous, and he attacked it as a blitzer first. He is a heat-seeking downhill player who times the snap, slices interior gaps and finishes violently in the backfield: 18.5 tackles for loss and eight sacks as a sophomore, including an eight-TFL game against Minnesota that tied the NCAA record.
Coverage is where the projection got complicated. At 6-0 and 220 he has the athleticism to run with tight ends and carry backs, and Michigan asked him to play man, but his eyes get stuck in zone and he can be late to pass off crossers. He is also a genuine special teams weapon, blocking five punts in four years, a school record.
Multiple defense with a designated hybrid box-safety role and heavy sub-package blitzing
Year 1 core four-phase special-teamer and sub-package blitzer; ceiling is a starting weak-side linebacker in a light box
A base 4-3 that asks its linebackers to stack and shed guards on early downs for 60 snaps a game
His NFL value came exactly where projected, as a special teams mainstay who could start in a pinch.
Khaleke Hudson Highlights 2017-18 | The Viper
Two-season cut-up of his blitz timing and backfield disruption in the viper role.
Khaleke Hudson 2017 Season Highlights
His 18.5-tackle-for-loss sophomore year, the best tape of his college career.
Khaleke Hudson Forces Minnesota Fumble
Conference broadcast clip from the Minnesota game where he tied the NCAA tackles-for-loss record.
Hudson came out of McKeesport, Pennsylvania as the 2015 Post-Gazette state player of the year and arrived at Michigan as a safety, spending his freshman season on special teams behind Peppers. He inherited the viper in 2017 and immediately produced the best year of his career: 83 tackles, 18.5 tackles for loss, eight sacks, two interceptions and 11 pass breakups, with third-team All-Big Ten honors.
Then the arrow flattened. His junior year dropped to 44 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss as Michigan adjusted how it used the position, and while his senior season produced a career-high 102 tackles, the disruption never came back, just 3.5 tackles for loss and two sacks. He was a captain, the team's Special Teams Player of the Year, and a second-team All-Big Ten pick, but he finished as a volume tackler rather than the havoc creator of 2017.
The board read him as a tweener with a defined floor. Too small to play off-ball linebacker every down, not fluid enough in coverage to be a safety, but a plus athlete with four-phase special teams value and 52 games of Big Ten tape. That combination lands in the fifth round, and Washington took him 162nd.
- 01
Blitz timing
Elite feel for the snap and gap entry, producing 18.5 tackles for loss and eight sacks as a sophomore in a hybrid role.
- 02
Special teams
Blocked five punts in four years, a Michigan record, and won the team's Special Teams Player of the Year award as a senior.
- 03
Downhill speed
Triggers fast on run keys and closes on ball carriers with real finishing force despite a 220-pound frame.
- 04
Versatility
Played viper for three seasons covering slots, walking into the box and rushing from both inside and outside alignments.
- 05
Leadership
Team captain as a senior with 52 games of Big Ten experience and 37 starts in one of the sport's most demanding defensive schemes.
- 01
Coverage instincts
Eyes get stuck on the quarterback in zone, leading to late reactions on crossers and slow pass-offs in his area.
- 02
Production decline
Never came close to his sophomore disruption again, with only seven tackles for loss combined across his junior and senior seasons.
- 03
Size
At 6-0, 220 he lacks the mass to take on guards in the run game as a full-time off-ball linebacker at the NFL level.
- 04
Position definition
A true tweener without an obvious every-down role, which capped his value regardless of how well he played the viper.
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
- 4.56sp50
- Vertical
- 33inp50
- Broad jump
- 120inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 30repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Michigan | 13 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2017 | Michigan | 13 | 83 | 8 | 2 | 11 | 0 |
| 2018 | Michigan | 13 | 44 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2019 | Michigan | 13 | 102 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Career | — | 52 | 237 | 12 | 2 | 16 | 0 |
All season figures come from Michigan's official pre-draft bio and sum exactly to the published career totals of 237 tackles, 26 tackles for loss, 12 sacks, two interceptions and 16 pass breakups. Season starts sum to 36 against a published career figure of 37, and the fumble recovery counts conflict between the season notes and the career line, so forced fumbles and career fumble recoveries are left unset rather than guessed. He also blocked five punts, a Michigan record.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Converted safety who holds a roster spot on special teams and starts when injuries force it.
Undersized box hybrid who became a full-time starter in a defense built around the moneybacker role.
Athletic, undersized linebacker whose run-game limits kept him from holding a job long term.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Washington used him exactly as expected: he played at least 73 percent of the team's special teams snaps in each of his first four seasons and started four games total across the first three. The opportunity came in 2023, when injuries pushed him into the lineup from Week 5 onward and he started eight of 17 games, posting career highs with 74 tackles, five tackles for loss, a sack and two passes defensed, including four straight double-digit tackle games to close the year. Dan Quinn's new staff let him leave, and he signed a one-year deal with New Orleans in April 2024. Tennessee released him in August 2025.
For a fifth-round pick, this is a solid return. Hudson turned into exactly the player his college tape promised: a core special-teamer with enough range to hold up as a fill-in starter when a defense needed him. The one thing that never translated was the blitzing disruption from 2017, which was the trait that would have made him a defensive weapon rather than a depth piece.