Owen
Pappoe.
Owen
Pappoe.
Auburn· 6'0"· 225 lb· 4.39s 40
"Pappoe was the fastest linebacker in the class and the least equipped to take on a block, and Arizona spent pick 168 betting that speed alone would eventually find a defensive job."Pre-draft read
A weakside off-ball linebacker who played most of his Auburn snaps as the WILL in a four-down front, Pappoe was a pure run-and-chase athlete. The trait was straight-line speed to the perimeter: he shot the alley on outside zone, ran the ball carrier down from the backside and closed on screens faster than the blockers could get to him.
The secondary trait was blitz burst. Auburn sent him off the edge and through A-gap pressures, where his get-off produced eight career sacks from an off-ball spot. Against the run between the tackles he was more of a sifter than a thumper, and in coverage he was better carrying vertically than pattern-matching. The athletic ceiling was rare — the separator was simply how fast he covered ground.
Four-down nickel defense that keeps its WILL clean behind two-gapping linemen and asks him to run to the football
Year 1: four-phase special-teams ace and situational run-and-chase linebacker in nickel. Ceiling: starting WILL on a defense with big linemen in front of him.
A two-gap 3-4 that asks him to take on a 320-pound guard head-on at the second level, where his frame and shed technique disappear at the point of contact.
He needs a front that eats blockers; put him on the second level unblocked and the speed still plays at an NFL level.
Owen Pappoe 2022 Highlights | Auburn LB | 2023 NFL Draft Prospect
Senior-year cut-up: backside chase, blitz burst off the edge and pursuit tackles in space.
Owen Pappoe Highlights | Prospects
Auburn career reel showing the sideline-to-sideline speed that drove his Day 3 grade.
2023 NFL Draft: Owen Pappoe | Arizona Cardinals
Draft-day breakdown of the fit in Arizona and the special-teams projection.
A five-star recruit who started 13 games as a true freshman in the SEC and left Auburn four years later as one of the fastest linebackers in the class. Pappoe's football identity was speed first: an undersized weakside linebacker built to play in space, chase from the backside and turn a blitz call into a sack.
The production came in two big years bookending a lost one. He put up 93 tackles with 6.0 for loss, 4.0 sacks and an interception in 11 games in 2020, then missed most of 2021 with a lower-leg injury that limited him to five games, and returned for 93 tackles, 3.0 for loss and 2.0 sacks as a senior in 2022. The signature play was the sideline-to-sideline chase-down. The flags were the frame and the fits: at around 225 pounds he got washed at the point when tight ends and guards reached him, and the tackle-for-loss production went backwards as an upperclassman even as the volume stayed high.
The board treated him as a Day 3 athlete with special-teams value and a developmental starter's tools — the testing was elite, the play strength and diagnosis were not. Arizona taking him 168th overall was a bet on the traits and the kicking game, exactly where that profile belongs.
- 01
Elite closing speed
He ran a 4.39 forty at the Combine and it showed on tape as backside chase, alley pursuit and screen recovery that no SEC linebacker matched.
- 02
Blitz burst
Auburn used him on edge and A-gap pressures, and the first-step quickness turned into 8.0 career sacks from an off-ball linebacker alignment.
- 03
SEC starting experience
He started 13 games as a true freshman in 2019 and finished with 41 games across four seasons against the best offensive lines in college football.
- 04
Coverage range
The speed carried into space, letting him run with backs on wheels, chase crossers and cover the flat sideline to sideline without needing help.
- 05
Special-teams profile
Speed, willingness and four years of core reps made him an obvious kicking-game contributor from the moment he entered the league.
- 01
Play strength
At roughly 225 pounds he got washed out of gaps when tight ends and guards reached him, and he rarely disengaged once a blocker got hands on him.
- 02
Diagnosis
He often played fast in the wrong direction, over-running fits and biting on misdirection instead of reading the guard and triggering downhill on time.
- 03
Declining disruption
Tackles for loss dropped from 6.0 in 2020 to 3.0 in each of his last two seasons, a warning sign that the volume was chase, not impact.
- 04
Injury history
A lower-leg injury cost him almost all of 2021 and limited him to five games, raising durability questions for a lightly built linebacker.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.39sp50
- Vertical
- 35.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 126inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 29repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Auburn | 13 | 49 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 2020 | Auburn | 11 | 93 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 2021 | Auburn | 5 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Auburn | 12 | 93 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Career | — | 41 | 258 | 8 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
2020-22 verified season by season on cfbstats.com (official NCAA feed); 2019 from Tankathon's NCAA-sourced table and corroborated by the Cardinals' official draft bio (13 starts, 49 tackles, 3.0 TFL, 2.0 sacks). 2021 sacks, interceptions and passes broken up are zero because cfbstats publishes no entries in those categories for his five-game season. cfbstats does not publish fumble recoveries, so every FR field is left null rather than assumed zero.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Fast, willing linebacker whose real value lives on core special teams while defensive snaps stay situational.
Speed-first off-ball linebacker whose athletic traits create blitz and chase production when he is kept clean.
Roster-bubble linebacker who survives on kicking-game reps and never earns a defensive rotation.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Arizona used him exactly the way the profile suggested. As a rookie in 2023 he played 16 games almost entirely on special teams and finished with nine tackles on defense. In 2024 he was back for 16 games with 21 tackles and two passes defended, still a core kicking-game player rather than a defensive contributor. In 2025 he appeared in all 17 games for 19 tackles and two more passes defended. Through three seasons he has 49 games, only two starts, 49 defensive tackles and 27 special-teams tackles, plus a forced fumble — a full-time fourth-phase player who has never won a rotational defensive job.
Honest verdict: the traits were real and they still are, and none of it turned into defensive snaps. Everything the board flagged is exactly what stalled him — the play strength never came, the processing never sharpened, and NFL offenses punished the same over-running that Auburn tape showed. He has still done what a fifth-rounder is supposed to do: stick, contribute on teams and earn a roster spot three years running. That is a neutral outcome for pick 168, not a miss and not a hit.