Terrell
Lewis.
Terrell
Lewis.
Alabama· 6'5"· 262 lb
"A five-star Alabama edge with a 6-5 frame and a 37-inch vertical who lost one season to a torn elbow ligament and another to a torn ACL, arriving with one healthy year of tape."Pre-draft read
Lewis is a long, loose edge rusher with the frame every team wants. At 6-5 and 262 with a 37-inch vertical, he bends better than a man his size should and uses his reach to keep tackles off his chest. He converts speed to power on the outside shoulder and has the flexibility to flatten to the quarterback once he wins the corner.
The second trait is disruption without volume. Alabama credited him with sixteen quarterback pressures in eleven games, far more than his tackle line shows. Against the run he sets a firm edge with length but can be sealed inside by combination blocks, and the counter package is unfinished. The signature is the long-armed speed rush off the left edge, where his get-off and reach let him beat a tackle before the set is complete.
3-4 front that uses him as a stand-up rush linebacker off the edge and protects him with a deep rotation rather than a full-time snap count.
Year 1 rotational edge on 30 to 40 percent of snaps while he builds durability, with a ceiling as a double-digit-sack starter if the body cooperates.
A defense that needs its edge to play 800 snaps and hold up against heavy run formations every week, which is exactly the workload his medical history cannot support.
Terrell Lewis vs LSU 2019
Every snap against Joe Burrow's championship offense in his only healthy season.
Terrell Lewis 2017-2018 Alabama Highlights
The pre-injury flashes, including his first career start in the national championship game.
Terrell Lewis (Alabama EDGE) vs. Georgia (2017)
Single-game all-22 showing the length and bend that drove the evaluation.
Lewis was born Terrell Hall and grew up in Washington, D.C., a five-star recruit from St. John's who de-committed from Ohio State and signed with Alabama as one of the top weakside defensive ends in his class. He played eleven games as a freshman in 2016 with eleven tackles and a sack, and the arrow pointed straight up.
Then his body broke three times. He tore an elbow ligament in the opening game of 2017 against Florida State and missed ten games, returning for Auburn and making his first career start in the national championship game. He tore his ACL in summer camp before the 2018 season and took a medical redshirt, wiping out the entire year. He finally got a full season in 2019 and delivered: 31 tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss, six sacks and sixteen quarterback pressures in eleven games, second-team All-SEC by the coaches and fifth in the conference in tackles for loss.
The evaluation was a medical file with a first-round body attached. He posted the seventh-best vertical among linebackers at the combine at 37 inches, and Daniel Jeremiah ranked him 101st overall while Lance Zierlein graded him a good backup who could become a starter. He skipped the Citrus Bowl and declared. Los Angeles took him at 84 knowing the traits were top-50 and the availability was not.
- 01
Rare frame and length
At 6-5 and 262 with long arms, he keeps tackles off his chest and finishes reaches that shorter rushers cannot make.
- 02
Bend around the corner
Flexible enough to flatten to the quarterback once he wins the edge, which is the trait that separates rushers from athletes.
- 03
Explosive testing
Posted a 37-inch vertical at the combine, seventh among all linebackers, confirming the burst the tape suggested.
- 04
Pressure production
Generated sixteen quarterback hurries in only eleven games as a redshirt junior, disruption well beyond his tackle totals.
- 05
Elite pedigree
A five-star recruit and Washington, D.C. player of the year who started the national championship game before he was ever fully healthy.
- 01
Catastrophic injury history
A torn elbow ligament in 2017 and a torn ACL that cost him all of 2018, leaving one healthy season in four years.
- 02
Thin body of work
Only 26 college games and a single full season of starts, so the sample supporting the projection is very small.
- 03
Run defense against combinations
Sets a firm edge with length but gets sealed inside when offenses climb to him with double teams.
- 04
Unfinished rush plan
Wins on speed and length rather than a developed counter sequence, which NFL tackles will take away quickly.
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
- —s
- Vertical
- 37inp50
- Broad jump
- 124inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Alabama | 11 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | Alabama | 4 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2019 | Alabama | 11 | 31 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Career | — | 26 | 58 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
No 2018 line exists: he tore his ACL in summer camp and took a medical redshirt without playing a snap. Alabama and the Rams both list 11.5 tackles for loss in 2019 while Sports-Reference rounds the season to 12 and the career to 15; the school figure is used here, making the career 14.5. He also recorded 16 quarterback pressures in 2019, a team high.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Rotational edge who contributes real snaps and moderate sack totals without ever becoming a featured rusher.
The ceiling: a long, explosive edge who takes a few years to develop and then produces double-digit sacks.
High-pedigree edge whose body and technical limits end the career inside four seasons.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The medical file won. Lewis missed time as a rookie and played eight games in 2020 with two sacks, flashing exactly the burst Los Angeles drafted. In 2021 he appeared in eleven games with four starts, posted three sacks and twenty tackles, and was part of the roster that won Super Bowl LVI, though he was inactive for the postseason run. In 2022 he played eleven more games with three starts, one sack, an interception and two pass breakups.
That was the end. The Rams did not bring him back after 2022 and he has not appeared in a regular-season game since, finishing with 30 games, seven starts, 36 tackles and six sacks across three seasons. In hindsight this is the injury bet losing again, which is what usually happens. The traits were genuinely first-round, the production per snap was respectable, and none of it mattered because he was never available long enough to earn a real role. Six sacks in three seasons is not a disaster at pick 84, but a player with this frame and this bend should have been much more.
Data note: Imported from Wikipedia 2020 NFL draft player selections table.