Kobie
Turner.
Kobie
Turner.
Wake Forest
"A walk-on who out-leveraged the FCS, then out-leveraged the ACC — the only question left is whether a 288-pound interior rusher can keep winning with hands and timing against professional guards."Pre-draft read
A leverage-and-hands interior rusher rather than a mass-and-power one. Turner lines up mostly at three-technique, times the snap as well as any interior player in the class and gets his hands inside before the guard can settle his feet. He wins with a long-arm-to-swipe sequence and a tight rip that lets him flatten through the B-gap, keeping his pads under the blocker's chest.
Against the run he plays with a wide base and works laterally instead of getting washed, though he is a penetrator more than a true anchor. The athletic ceiling shows in his redirect and closing burst: he tracks scrambles and chases from the back side. The signature is relentlessness — he rushes the 60th snap like the first and turns late pressure into sacks.
One-gap, attacking four-man front. He needs a defense that lets interior linemen fire off and penetrate rather than read-and-react two-gap responsibilities.
Year 1: rotational three-technique on 400-500 snaps, on the field for every obvious passing down. Ceiling: a three-down starting interior rusher who carries a front's pressure rate from inside.
A 3-4 nose or two-gap defensive end asked to hold double teams and keep linebackers clean on early downs — the mass and length are not there for a block-occupier role.
Los Angeles' front is built around interior penetration next to edge speed, which is the exact deployment that maximizes his get-off.
Kobie Turner 2022 Regular Season Highlights | Wake Forest DL
Full 2022 Wake Forest season reel: get-off, hand usage and backside pursuit against ACC guards.
Kobie Turner Highlights | Los Angeles Rams 2025
Third-year NFL tape showing the long-arm-to-swipe rush and interior pocket collapse.
Kobie Turner Week 15 Highlights | NFL 2025
Single-game cutup of his leverage wins and finish rate as a full-time starter.
Turner is a one-gap interior disruptor whose value is tied to how quickly he can convert a snap-count edge into a win. He is not a two-gap body and never pretended to be; the team buying him is buying first-step quickness, hand placement and a motor that keeps rush lanes alive past the initial move. The projection assumes an attacking front that lets him fire off rather than read and react.
The path is the story. He arrived at Richmond as a walk-on, became a three-time All-CAA selection and CAA Co-Defensive Player of the Year, and put up 158 tackles and 15.0 sacks across 37 FCS games before transferring to Wake Forest for his final year. The ACC season answered the level-of-competition question: 38 tackles, 10.0 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks in 13 games, third-team all-conference. The sack number stayed low, but the disruption count and the tape said he was beating ACC guards on the same terms he beat CAA guards.
The flags were age, length and mass. He turned 24 as a rookie, he tested at his pro day rather than the combine, and evaluators wondered whether a 288-pound interior player without elite arm length could hold up on early downs in the NFL. The consensus board had him as a fifth-round projection. Los Angeles took him 89th overall and were widely graded down for it.
- 01
Snap anticipation
Times the ball as well as any interior player in the class and is into the guard's chest before the blocker can reset his feet, which is where most of his wins start.
- 02
Hand technique
Long-arm to swipe and a tight rip are both live counters, and he keeps his hands inside the frame instead of grabbing cloth when the first move stalls.
- 03
Leverage
Plays under the pad level of taller blockers and converts a lower center of gravity into push, which is how he holds ground despite giving up weight inside.
- 04
Effort rush
Keeps his rush lane alive past the initial move and finishes plays that other interior players quit on, which is where a meaningful share of his sacks come from.
- 05
Backside pursuit
Redirects cleanly and closes on scrambles and cutbacks, showing the change-of-direction quickness of a much lighter defender.
- 01
Anchor
At 288 pounds without elite length he can be moved off the spot by double teams on early downs, and he is a penetrator rather than a block-eater in short yardage.
- 02
Length
Below-average arm measurements let bigger guards get into his frame first, and he does not have the reach to disengage late once a blocker latches on.
- 03
Age
Turns 24 as a rookie after five college seasons, which shortens the development runway teams usually build into a Day 2 interior pick.
- 04
Sack production
Only 2.0 sacks in his ACC season despite the pressure count, leaving a real question about whether the disruption would convert into finished plays.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Wake Forest | 13 | 38 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 50 | 196 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Wake Forest 2022 verified against cfbstats (13 G, 38 tackles, 10.0 TFL, 2.0 sacks); passes defended, forced fumbles and fumbles recovered are not listed there and are left unrecorded. Career totals add Turner's four FCS seasons at Richmond (2018-2021: 37 games, 27 starts, 158 tackles, 15.0 sacks), for which verified season-by-season splits are not published; those years are therefore not listed individually and career TFL is left unrecorded.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
The realistic outcome: a compact, heavy-handed interior starter who wins with pad level and effort and produces steady pressure without a signature bend.
The upside outcome: an undersized three-technique whose leverage and hands make him a perennial disruption leader despite never fitting the size prototype.
The floor: a rotational sub-package rusher whose lack of anchor keeps him off the field on early downs and caps him at 300 snaps a year.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Turner had an outstanding rookie season for the Los Angeles Rams, quickly becoming a key defensive tackle and leading all rookies in sacks. He was a disruptive force on the interior.
He was a starter-quality contributor from the first month. As a rookie in 2023 Turner played all 17 games, drew four starts and led every rookie defender in the league with 9.0 sacks, adding 57 tackles and eight tackles for loss. He was December's NFL Defensive Rookie of the Month, made the PFWA All-Rookie Team and finished third in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. In 2024 he moved into the full-time role next to Los Angeles' rebuilt front and posted career highs in tackles (62), solo tackles (35) and tackles for loss (10) with 8.0 sacks, plus his first forced fumble and fumble recovery. In 2025 he started all 17 games for the first time, finished with 48 tackles, 9 tackles for loss, 7.0 sacks and his first career interception.
Three seasons in, that is 51 games, 37 starts and 24.0 sacks from a player the consensus board filed as a fifth-rounder. The evaluation errors were the ones the tape warned about being overrated: the age and the frame mattered far less than the get-off and the hands, and the level-of-competition question was never really a question. Los Angeles read the trait profile correctly and got a three-down interior starter on a rookie deal worth roughly $5.4 million. Entering 2026 he is in the final year of that contract with no extension signed, and the debate is no longer whether he is a starter — it is what this production costs to keep.
Data note: from NY Giants