Jose
Ramirez.
Jose
Ramirez.
Eastern Michigan
"A JUCO transfer with 32 3/4-inch arms who set the Eastern Michigan sack record by out-timing the snap and out-working the whistle, then found out how much of that survives NFL tackles."Pre-draft read
Ramirez was Eastern Michigan's designated problem: a compact edge defender who lined up over the tackle in a four-man front and won with leverage, hands and relentlessness rather than length or bend. At 6-2 and 252 he plays from underneath, shooting his hands into the outside half of a blocker's chest and running his feet through contact.
The secondary trait is timing. His snap anticipation turns an average first step into a half-yard head start. Against the run he sets a hard edge and spills reliably, and he chases across the formation with the motor that produced a school-record twelve sacks. The signature is the counter: when the power stalls, the long-arm-to-rip conversion arrives fast enough to still finish the rep.
Four-man front that asks its defensive ends to two-gap the edge on early downs and win with hands and power rather than speed around the corner
Year 1 as a rotational base end and four-phase special-teams player, 12-18 defensive snaps a game; ceiling is a third edge who holds the strong side on run downs and rushes in four-man pressure packages
A speed-rush scheme that isolates its edges in wide alignments and asks them to flatten the arc against long, athletic left tackles on obvious passing downs
His snaps live and die with how much base defense a staff plays; on a team that is in nickel 70% of the time, he is a special-teams roster spot, not a defender.
Jose Ramirez Senior Season Highlights-EMU DL-2022-2023 CFB Season
Full senior-season cutup of the record-setting 12-sack year, with the get-off and long-arm counter on display.
Bucs Draft Edge Rusher Jose Ramirez In 6th Round: Full Draft Profile And Player Comparison
Draft-night profile of the 196th pick with the traits and comparison Tampa Bay's staff was working from.
Jose Ramirez Infiltrates Jags O-Line For Sack | Bucs vs. Jaguars Highlight
NFL sack rep showing the same snap-anticipation win that made him productive in the MAC.
A late-blooming, self-made edge rusher whose football identity is effort turned into technique. Ramirez arrived at Arizona in 2017 without playing a snap, rebuilt his stock at Riverside City College, and became a four-year fixture in Ypsilanti. He is not a long, twitched-up athlete who wins the corner; he is a hand-fighter and a leverage player who takes what the blocker gives him and never lets the rep end.
The production curve is the story. Four appearances in 2019, a six-game 2020 that produced his first All-MAC nod, thirteen games and 6.5 sacks in 2021, then a senior season of 66 tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss and twelve sacks that made him MAC Defensive Player of the Year and set the Eastern Michigan single-season record — including a four-sack afternoon at Western Michigan. The flags are the ones you would expect from that build: 32 3/4-inch arms, a 4.73 forty, and a body of work against MAC tackles rather than Power Five ones.
Boards had him as a late Day 3 developmental rusher with a special-teams floor, and Tampa Bay's call at 196 read exactly that way — a Shrine Bowl invitee with a program-record senior year and the kind of practice habits a staff can build around, taken at the point where effort and traits stop being separable.
- 01
Get-off
Elite snap anticipation gives him a half-yard on the tackle before the rep starts, and it is the trait that converts average length into pressure.
- 02
Hand power
Shoots a heavy, accurate punch into the outside half of the blocker's chest and can walk a tackle backward from a leverage advantage he creates himself.
- 03
Counter rush
When the bull stalls he converts to long-arm and rip quickly enough to still finish, which is why his pressures turned into a school-record twelve sacks.
- 04
Motor
Chases plays across the field and finishes them; a large share of his 19.5 senior tackles for loss came on second and third efforts rather than clean wins.
- 05
Edge setting
Plays with natural leverage against the run, spills consistently to the alley defender and does not get dented on down blocks or reach attempts.
- 01
Length
At 32 3/4-inch arms he loses the first contact battle against long tackles who reach his frame first, and the reps that start badly rarely get rescued.
- 02
Bend
Tight through the ankles and hips, so he cannot flatten the corner and instead converts speed to power, which limits his path to easy pressure.
- 03
Athletic testing
A 4.73 forty and 6.95 three-cone put him in the average band for the position and cap the ceiling teams were willing to project.
- 04
Level of competition
The record-setting senior tape came against MAC tackles, and the same wins showed up far less against the Power Five bodies on his schedule.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Eastern Michigan | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Eastern Michigan | 6 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2021 | Eastern Michigan | 13 | 63 | 6.5 | 0 | 4 | 3 |
| 2022 | Eastern Michigan | 12 | 66 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Career | — | 35 | 156 | 20.5 | 0 | 7 | 6 |
cfbstats verified line by line for 2020 (6 G, 27 tackles, 2.5 TFL, 2.0 sacks, 1 PBU, 2 hurries, 1 FF), 2021 (13 G, 63 tackles, 12.0 TFL, 6.5 sacks, 4 PBU, 10 hurries, 3 FF) and 2022 (12 G, 66 tackles, 19.5 TFL, 12.0 sacks, 2 PBU, 10 hurries, 2 FF). cfbstats hosts no page for 2019, so that row comes from the official Eastern Michigan bio, which lists four appearances (at Kentucky, at Illinois, vs. Central Connecticut, at Central Michigan) with no statistical categories published: those fields are null, not zero. Arizona 2017 (no game action) and Riverside City College 2018 (12 games, 44 tackles, 8 sacks, 1 FF, JUCO) are not NCAA seasons and are not listed as rows. Documented discrepancies: the EMU bio and Wikipedia credit 13 games in 2022 and a career line of 155 tackles, 33 TFL and 5 forced fumbles where the cfbstats season pages sum to 12 games, 156 tackles, 34.0 TFL and 6 forced fumbles; sacks reconcile exactly at 20.5. Career starts are null because cfbstats does not publish starts for defensive linemen and only 2021 (8 starts, final seven games) is documented.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Special-teams-first edge who lives on the back of the roster and gets 100-200 defensive snaps a year in a rotation.
The outcome Tampa Bay was buying: a late-round, undersized rusher whose hands and motor eventually turn into a starting job.
Small-school production that never translates to NFL tackles, and a career spent on practice squads and futures deals.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Tampa Bay waived him at final cuts as a rookie and re-signed him to the practice squad, then brought him back on a reserve/future deal in January 2024. His only NFL regular-season action came in 2024: four games, 30 defensive snaps and 40 special-teams snaps behind an outside linebacker room he was never going to displace. The Buccaneers waived him at the 2025 cutdown, and rather than wait on a phone call he signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats that September, playing three CFL games with four tackles and a sack. Philadelphia gave him a reserve/future contract in January 2026 and waived him at the end of August; New England added him to its practice squad on September 1, 2026.
In hindsight the evaluation was right and the outcome was the coin flip everyone knew it was. A sixth-round edge with average length and average testing needs one plus trait to translate at NFL speed, and the snap-anticipation get-off that beat MAC tackles did not consistently beat professional ones. What he has never lacked is the reason teams keep signing him: he is a four-phase special-teams body with real practice value and a rush plan. That is a career, just not the one the 12-sack senior tape hinted at. The pick cost Tampa Bay nothing and returned a season of depth — an honest sixth-round result.