Jordon
Riley.
Jordon
Riley.
Oregon· 6'5"· 338 lb· 5.28s 40
"A 6-5, 338-pound nose tackle with 33-inch arms and 28 college tackles: the 243rd pick was a bet on the body, and the body has held up better than the resume ever suggested."Pre-draft read
Riley is a space-eater in the most literal sense. At 6-5 and 338 pounds with 33 and three-eighths inch arms and an 81-inch wingspan, he takes up a gap and a half at the snap, and when he gets his hands on a center's chest he can walk him back into the quarterback's lap. Against double teams he holds his ground rather than getting washed, which is the entire job description for a nose tackle.
Nothing else about his game is fast. He plays high out of his stance for a man his size, the first step is heavy, and he offers essentially no pass rush beyond bull power. He tires quickly and needs a rotation around him. The 5.28 forty and 1.89 ten-yard split at his pro day are exactly what the tape shows: enormous, strong, and never in a hurry.
Two-gap 3-4 or multiple front that needs a true nose tackle to occupy blockers and keep linebackers clean on early downs
Year 1: rotational early-down run defender; ceiling: starting nose tackle in a heavy 3-4 rotation
Attacking one-gap penetrating front that asks interior linemen to win with quickness and get up the field
Wink Martindale's Giants front was the specific reason he was drafted.
The college path tells the story before the numbers do. Riley signed with North Carolina in 2017, spent 2019 at Garden City Community College, transferred to Nebraska for 2020 and 2021, and finished at Oregon in 2022. Five stops, six seasons, and by the end he was still a rotational player: seven total tackles across 10 games at Nebraska in 2021, then 21 tackles with 1.5 tackles for loss and half a sack in 13 games for the Ducks.
Nobody was drafting the production. Teams were drafting the frame and the pro day. He measured with the arm length and wingspan of an NFL nose tackle, carried 338 pounds without looking soft, and showed enough functional power on tape to move a college interior lineman off the ball on contact. That is a real skill even when it does not create statistics.
The evaluation was honest about the ceiling. He is a two-down run-defending nose in a specific front, he will never be a pass rusher, and the conditioning has to improve for him to hold up on more than 20 snaps a game. New York took him with the 243rd pick, which is the appropriate price for a body with a job and no history of doing that job well.
- 01
Prototype nose tackle mass
6-5 and 338 pounds with 33 and three-eighths inch arms and an 81-inch wingspan, which is exactly the frame a two-gap front wants.
- 02
Anchor against doubles
Holds his ground when a center and guard combo him, and he does not get washed down the line on inside zone.
- 03
Functional bull power
Once his hands land on the chest plate he can walk an interior lineman backward into the pocket.
- 04
Length to disrupt lanes
The arms let him control blockers at distance and get a hand into throwing lanes on the interior.
- 05
Durability of frame
Carried 325 to 338 pounds across multiple programs without the weight becoming an injury issue in college.
- 01
Nearly zero production
Seven tackles at Nebraska in 2021 and 21 at Oregon in 2022 is not a resume that justifies any pick above the seventh round.
- 02
No pass rush plan
Bull rush and nothing else, with no counter, no hand technique and no chance of a sub-package role.
- 03
Plays high
For a man that size he does not consistently win the leverage battle out of his stance against lower interior linemen.
- 04
Conditioning limits snaps
Fades quickly and needs a heavy rotation, which caps him at a two-down role at best.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.28sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Nebraska | 10 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Oregon | 13 | 21 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Only cfbstats-verified seasons are shown. Riley also appeared at North Carolina (2017-2018), Garden City CC (2019) and Nebraska (2020), but those season lines could not be verified and are omitted rather than zero-filled.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- Five-program college path: North Carolina, Garden City CC, Nebraska, Oregon
Rotational interior body who plays real snaps for a few years without producing statistics.
Enormous two-down nose who carves out a multi-year starting role on run downs.
Big frame with no production who never survives the first roster cut.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Riley made the Giants roster as a rookie and played eight games in 2023 with eight tackles, then appeared in 13 games with five starts and nine tackles in 2024. He was on the Giants practice squad in 2025 before Green Bay signed him to its active roster on December 3; he played four games with two tackles and tore his Achilles in Week 17 against Baltimore. The Packers opened 2026 training camp with him on the active/PUP list.
He made the team, which was the first surprise. Riley played eight games as a rookie with eight tackles, then took a real step in 2024: 13 games, five starts, nine tackles, and a genuine rotational role in the Giants front. The counting stats never look like much for a nose tackle, and that is fine. He was on the field on early downs for an NFL defense, which is more than most seventh-round defensive tackles ever manage.
The 2025 season scattered him. He ended up on the Giants practice squad, and Green Bay signed him to the active roster on December 3, where he played four games and recorded two tackles before tearing his Achilles in Week 17 against Baltimore. The Packers opened 2026 training camp with him on the active/PUP list still working back. It is a modest career and an honest one: the body got him drafted, the body kept him employed for three seasons, and then the body broke. The frame did its job for as long as it could.