Rashard
Lawrence.
Rashard
Lawrence.
LSU· 6'2"· 308 lb· 5.07s 40
"A two-time permanent captain whose Fiesta Bowl MVP tape said early-round and whose post-surgery senior year said rotational — leverage, strength and leadership without the burst to finish rushes."Pre-draft read
Lawrence is a 6-2, 308-pound interior lineman built low to the ground with a quick first step and an exceptionally strong upper half. He plays with leverage that bigger blockers cannot get under, and his best reps come when he gets hands inside and walks a guard into the pocket.
His value is as much positional as physical. He aligned from nose to five-technique and was a captain his teammates named the guy they would go to war with. He stacks and sheds with power. The pass rush is the limit: a pocket-pusher, not a bender, and knee surgery before his senior year took some burst. The signature is leverage, strength and leadership.
An even front that asks its interior linemen to two-gap on early downs and rotates them off the field in obvious passing situations.
Year 1 early-down run stopper in a four-man rotation, with a ceiling as a starting base defensive tackle who anchors against double teams and comes off on third down.
A one-gap penetrating front that grades its interior linemen on pressure rate and asks them to rush the passer on forty snaps a game.
Rashard Lawrence (DL) 2018 Season Highlights - LSU Football
School reel of the junior year that made him a projected Day 2 pick.
Rashard Lawrence DT LSU 2020 NFL Draft
Pre-draft film breakdown of his leverage, hand power and pass-rush limits.
Lawrence was the rare interior lineman whose evaluation started with character and ended with production rather than the other way around. He was a permanent team captain at LSU in both 2017 and 2018, an SEC academic honor roll selection twice, and when the Cardinals' defensive coordinator asked LSU players who they wanted beside them, the answer was always the same name.
The football resume was solid rather than spectacular. He broke through as a junior in 2018 with 54 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss and four sacks, the most stops of any LSU defensive lineman, and closed that year unblockable in the Fiesta Bowl with five tackles, four tackles for loss and two sacks against UCF to take defensive MVP. He could have entered the 2019 draft as a likely Day 2 pick. Instead he came back, had knee surgery that February which cost him spring practice, and played through a senior year that was quieter — ten games, 23 tackles, five tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks on a national championship defense, enough for second-team All-SEC.
That is the tension the board wrestled with. The tape and the leadership said early-round value; the senior production and a 5.07 forty at 308 pounds said rotational. Arizona, with a long history of LSU hits, took him at 131.
- 01
Natural leverage
At 6-2 and 308 he plays under the pads of taller blockers, which lets him hold the point against double teams in the run game.
- 02
Upper-body power
Twenty-two bench reps and hands that jolt at contact, and he wins by getting inside and walking blockers backward rather than around them.
- 03
Proven leadership
A permanent team captain in both 2017 and 2018, and the player LSU teammates named as the one they most wanted beside them.
- 04
Alignment versatility
Played from nose to five-technique in multiple LSU fronts, which lets a defensive coordinator move him without changing personnel.
- 05
Big-game production
Five tackles, four tackles for loss and two sacks in the Fiesta Bowl win over UCF, taking defensive MVP in the biggest game of his junior year.
- 01
Limited pass rush
A pocket-pusher rather than a bender, with 2.5 sacks as a senior and no reliable counter once his first move is absorbed.
- 02
Short arms for the spot
Blockers with length can lock him out before he gets his hands inside, which shows up against NFL-caliber guards.
- 03
Knee surgery history
The February 2019 operation cost him spring practice and appeared to take some of the burst his junior tape showed.
- 04
Athletic testing
A 5.07 forty and an 8.03 three-cone put him in the lower tier of the class for movement and chase range.
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
- 5.07sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- 8.03sp50
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 22repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | LSU | 9 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | LSU | 10 | 32 | 1.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2018 | LSU | 13 | 54 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2019 | LSU | 10 | 23 | 2.5 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Career | — | 42 | 115 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
Season lines come from the Draft Scout data card, which matches the LSU bio for 2018 (54 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, four sacks) and the LSU career figure through 2018 of 92 tackles, 15.0 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks. Career totals here are the sum of the four listed seasons. LSU's defensive line coach page credits him with 6.0 tackles for loss in 2019 rather than 5.0; the lower figure from the season data card is used. Forced fumbles and interceptions were not published by season and are left empty.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A powerful interior rotation piece whose career is defined more by availability than by play.
The ceiling: a leverage-based early-down starter who anchors for years without producing sack totals.
A well-regarded college lineman whose body breaks down before he establishes an NFL role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Lawrence never got healthy enough to prove the evaluation right or wrong. He played nine games as a rookie in 2020 with seven tackles and one start, then eleven games with seven starts in 2021 for 11 tackles, then five games with five starts in 2022 for eight tackles before injury ended the season. Across three years in Arizona he appeared in 25 games with 13 starts, 26 total tackles and no sacks.
The Cardinals moved on after 2022. He spent 2023 on the practice squads of Miami, Carolina and Houston without appearing in a regular-season game, signed a futures deal with Denver in January 2024 and was released, then played for the San Antonio Brahmas of the UFL in 2025. In hindsight the pick was defensible and the outcome was mostly medical. The knee that cost him his senior spring never stopped costing him, and an interior lineman whose value came from leverage and strength rather than explosion has no margin when the body will not hold up. What the board got right was the ceiling: rotational, not starter. What nobody could have graded was the availability.