Jonathan
Ford.
Jonathan
Ford.
Miami (FL)· 6'5"· 333 lb
"A 333-pound Fort Lauderdale nose tackle who spent five years clogging the middle for Miami, waited two full seasons for his NFL debut, and is still collecting checks as the body every run defense eventually needs."Pre-draft read
A true space-eater. Ford measured 6-5 1/8 and 333 pounds with 32 3/4-inch arms and a 6-7 5/8 wingspan, and Miami used him as a two-gap nose who occupied blockers so the linebackers behind him could run free. He is strong at the point and difficult to single-block on early downs.
Everything else is slow. A 5.49 forty, a 1.84 ten-yard split, a 5.00 shuttle and a 29-inch vertical describe a player with no pass-rush plan beyond bull rush and reach. He produced three sacks in one college season and none in the other four, and his tackle numbers never got past 19 in a year. The projection was narrow and honest: early-down nose tackle, off the field on third down, valuable only to a team that wants that specific body.
An even front that wants a true nose to two-gap on early downs and comes off the field entirely in sub packages.
Year 1: 15-snap early-down nose behind a starter. Ceiling: a starting run-down nose on a base-heavy defense.
A one-gap penetrating front that asks its interior linemen to win with first-step quickness, where his get-off leaves him a step behind every snap.
Green Bay and Chicago both used him this way, and the snap counts never grew beyond it.
Jonathan Ford NFL draft tape, Miami DL
The pre-draft evaluation reel on the Hurricanes nose tackle.
Jon Ford Miami Hurricanes nose tackle, 2021 highlights
His final college season as Miami's starting nose.
Jonathan Ford, 2022 NFL draft
The 234th pick arriving in Green Bay.
Ford came out of Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale as a three-star recruit and committed to Miami on January 1, 2017, staying home for five seasons with the Hurricanes.
He barely played as a freshman, appearing in seven games with one tackle, then rotated into a bigger role as a sophomore in 2018 with eight tackles and two tackles for loss across 10 games. His best season came in 2019, when he played all 13 games and posted 18 tackles, four tackles for loss, three sacks, a pass breakup and a forced fumble, the only year of his career with real disruption on his ledger.
The last two seasons were about volume rather than splash. He started at nose in 2020 and led his own career with 19 tackles and two tackles for loss in 10 games, then logged 14 tackles and one tackle for loss in 10 games as a fifth-year senior in 2021. He left Miami with 60 tackles, nine tackles for loss and three sacks in 50 games. The pre-draft consensus treated him as a pure run-down body with the size teams cannot teach and none of the athletic traits that would let him play on passing downs. Green Bay took him with the 234th pick.
- 01
Prototype nose tackle mass
6-5 and 333 pounds with a 6-7 5/8 wingspan, the kind of frame that occupies two gaps by standing still.
- 02
Real functional strength
24 bench reps and college tape where centers and guards could not move him off his landmark on early downs.
- 03
Power-five durability
50 games across five Miami seasons in the ACC without a single year lost to injury, on a body type that usually breaks down.
- 04
Sustained run-down role
his snap count grew every season, and he held the starting nose job on his last two Miami defenses.
- 05
One season of disruption on tape
four tackles for loss, three sacks and a forced fumble as a junior in 2019 show a ceiling exists.
- 01
No pass-rush toolbox
three career sacks in five years, and no counter beyond bull rush when the first move fails.
- 02
Bottom-tier explosiveness
a 1.84 ten-yard split and a 29-inch vertical mean he is beaten off the snap by NFL centers.
- 03
Thin production for a starter
19 tackles was his career high in a season, low output for a five-year power-five defensive lineman.
- 04
Conditioning-limited snap counts
at 333 pounds he is a rotational body who cannot stay on the field for long defensive drives.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- —s
- Vertical
- 29inp50
- Broad jump
- 102inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Miami (FL) | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | Miami (FL) | 10 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Miami (FL) | 13 | 18 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2020 | Miami (FL) | 10 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Miami (FL) | 10 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 50 | 60 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Season lines come from the Sports Reference defensive table, whose 2017 through 2020 rows include bowl games, and they sum exactly to the career line of 50 games, 60 tackles, nine tackles for loss and three sacks. The cfbstats player pages for 2020 and 2021 agree on tackles for both seasons and on tackles for loss in 2021, but credit him with 1.5 tackles for loss in 2020 rather than two, a half-unit difference left visible here rather than averaged. Sacks in 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021 are recorded as verified zeros because both sources report them as zeros, not as missing data.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Big-bodied nose from the same era who bounced between rosters as a rotational run stuffer.
Heavy nose who turned pure run-down value into a long, well-paid starting career.
Another Packers interior body whose NFL time never got past the practice squad cycle.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Green Bay kept him on the initial 53-man roster out of his first training camp and then never dressed him, leaving him inactive for all of 2022. He was waived on August 30, 2023 and re-signed to the practice squad a day later, signed a reserve/future deal in January 2024, went on injured reserve to start that season on August 27, was activated October 21, then released and re-signed to the practice squad again.
Chicago signed him off the Packers practice squad on December 11, 2024 and he finally debuted, playing four games with nine tackles and a tackle for loss. He signed an exclusive rights deal with the Bears in April 2025, was cut in final cuts on August 26, re-signed to the practice squad and was promoted on October 25, playing eight games before Chicago waived him on December 27. Green Bay claimed him three days later, he played one game and added three tackles in a playoff appearance, and the Packers re-signed him on March 11, 2026. Four years to reach 13 regular-season games is the seventh-round reality, but he is still on an NFL roster, which most of his draft neighbors are not.