Chad
Muma.
Chad
Muma.
Wyoming· 6'3"· 239 lb· 4.63s 40
"College football's leading tackler is not a workout marvel or a coverage chess piece — he is a Mike linebacker who sees the play before it happens and never misses the tackle he is supposed to make."Pre-draft read
Muma is a downhill stack linebacker who lives between the tackles and plays with his eyes. Wyoming used him as the every-down Mike, and his best trait is diagnosis: he reads guard pulls and backfield flow, triggers without a false step and arrives square. He is a reliable, wrap-up tackler in a phone booth, which is how he led the country in stops in 2021.
The secondary trait is range against the pass for a 240-pounder, with enough speed to carry a back down the seam and the awareness to sit in short zones and break on the quarterback's eyes. He is more effective flowing to daylight than fighting through it — offensive linemen who reach his frame can stall him. The signature is tackle production without wasted motion.
Single-gap 4-3 or nickel-heavy defense that keeps its Mike clean behind two-gapping linemen
Year 1: starting Mike in base packages and a three-down special teams contributor; ceiling is a 100-tackle green-dot linebacker who runs the front.
A two-gap 3-4 that leaves the inside linebacker to take on 330-pound guards head on, or a matchup defense that asks him to travel with tight ends man to man.
Value depends entirely on having a clear path to snaps — he is not a rotational sub-package specialist.
Chad Muma 2021 Highlights | Wyoming LB | 2022 NFL Draft Prospect
Final-season reel from his 142-tackle year, including both pick-sixes.
Chad Muma Film Breakdown ~ Wyoming LB ~ 2022 NFL Draft
Pre-draft breakdown of his run diagnosis, tackling technique and coverage reps.
Chad Muma Jacksonville Jaguars LB | Film Analysis
Short film look at his fit and usage after landing with the Jaguars.
Muma arrived in Laramie as a safety convert and left as the most productive tackler in college football, a true throwback Mike whose evaluation was built on instincts, volume and consistency rather than exotic traits. He grew into the job across four seasons, exploding in the shortened 2020 campaign and then leading the nation with 142 tackles in 2021.
The tape backs the numbers. He diagnoses run fits fast, fills with his eyes up and finishes tackles cleanly in traffic, and 2021 added the ball-production element scouts wanted: three interceptions, two of them returned for touchdowns. The Combine confirmed a good athlete rather than a rare one — 4.63 in the forty with a 40-inch vertical and 27 bench reps at 239 pounds. The concerns were about the level of competition in the Mountain West, block deconstruction against bigger interior linemen, and whether the coverage would translate against NFL tight ends and backs.
The board slotted him as a second-to-third-round starter and one of the class's safest off-ball linebackers. Jacksonville, which had already taken Devin Lloyd at 27, doubled down at 70 with a pick acquired from Carolina, reportedly moving on him because Denver was planning to take him five selections later.
- 01
Diagnosis and trigger
Reads guard pulls and backfield flow instantly, then attacks downhill without the false steps that cost off-ball linebackers a gap.
- 02
Tackling volume and reliability
Led all of college football with 142 tackles in 2021 and finished with 266 for his career, wrapping and finishing rather than lunging.
- 03
Ball production in 2021
Added three interceptions with two returned for touchdowns, showing he can read the quarterback and finish plays in coverage.
- 04
Testing profile
4.63 forty, 40-inch vertical, 129-inch broad and 27 bench reps at 239 pounds, an explosive athletic package for a stack linebacker.
- 05
Football character
Four-year program cornerstone and defensive signal-caller from a Wyoming football family, with the leadership traits teams bank on.
- 01
Block deconstruction
Struggles to disengage once big interior linemen get their hands on him, which limits him when the run fit is not clean.
- 02
Level of competition
Dominated Mountain West offenses; the projection to weekly NFL blocking schemes and tight ends carried real uncertainty.
- 03
Man coverage limits
Fine in short zones reading the quarterback, but tighter and more hesitant when asked to run with backs and tight ends man to man.
- 04
Play-strength ceiling
Frame is close to maxed out at 239 pounds, so he has to win with timing and angles rather than absorbing blockers head on.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.63sp50
- Vertical
- 40inp50
- Broad jump
- 129inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.06sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.28sp50
- Bench
- 27repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Wyoming | 12 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Wyoming | 13 | 51 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2020 | Wyoming | 6 | 71 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2021 | Wyoming | 13 | 142 | 1.5 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Career | — | 44 | 266 | 5.5 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
2020 and 2021 verified against cfbstats (Wyoming player page); 2018 and 2019 from Tankathon season table. Tackles reconcile exactly (2 + 51 + 71 + 142 = 266) across 44 games. Fumble recoveries by season could not be verified for 2018-2020, so those and the career total are left null rather than filled with zeros.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Reliable downhill tackler who starts in stretches but bounces between rosters as roles change.
Instinctive off-ball linebacker who parlays production and testing into a long run as a starting every-down Mike.
Smart, willing linebacker whose NFL value ends up concentrated on special teams.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Chad Muma has played two seasons for the Jacksonville Jaguars, primarily contributing on special teams and as a backup linebacker. He has filled in as a starter when needed.
Jacksonville never handed him the job. Muma played 16 games as a rookie in 2022 with two starts, finishing with 47 tackles and 1.5 sacks while contributing heavily on special teams. In 2023 the Jaguars settled on Devin Lloyd as the every-down inside linebacker, and Muma's role collapsed to 17 games, two starts and 15 tackles. He got a few more snaps in 2024 — 17 games, three starts, 32 tackles — but the trajectory did not change. Jacksonville waived him at final cuts in August 2025. Indianapolis claimed him, used him in five games with five tackles, waived him in November and brought him back to the practice squad; New England signed him to the active roster that December and released him at the end of August 2026.
In hindsight it was a bad structural bet more than a bad player evaluation. Drafting a second off-ball linebacker 43 picks after Devin Lloyd meant Muma needed an injury to get a real runway, and it never came. The nation's leading tackler became a special-teamer, and by year five he was on his third team. The instincts were real; the opportunity and the positional value never were.
Data note: from Carolina