Raymond
Vohasek.
Raymond
Vohasek.
North Carolina
"The zero-offer JUCO walk-on-turned-UNC anchor — a leverage-and-motor nose with sneaky pro-day testing whose injury history pushed him to the draft's final round."Pre-draft read
Vohasek is a fire-plug nose tackle — 6-2, 306 with a powerful lower half and natural leverage — who took the junior-college route from McHenry, Illinois to College of DuPage to a starting job at North Carolina. He plays with relentless effort, anchors well against double teams and flashes real short-area quickness for an interior body, with long arms for his height that let him control blockers at the point.
His best football came in 2020, when he was healthy and lived in the backfield — 7.0 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks in 11 games from the nose. The pass-rush upside beyond that was always limited: he wins with burst and leverage, not a developed rush plan, and a balky body cost him time across his career, including most of his senior season. The pro-day testing (7.68 three-cone, 4.62 shuttle) showed better movement than the tape suggested.
Odd-front or hybrid defense needing a 0/1-technique who can two-gap, anchor doubles and free linebackers
Year 1: practice-squad developmental nose; ceiling: early-down rotational run-stuffer
One-gap penetrating fronts that ask interior linemen to win upfield on passing downs
His case was always early-down run defense; the injuries removed the chance to prove even that.
Ray Vohasek | UNC Football ISO Series (2022)
Isolation film of Vohasek working on UNC's interior defensive line.
UNC NFL Pro Day: Raymond Vohasek Workout
Pro-day workout footage from his pre-draft process in Chapel Hill.
Ray Vohasek Showcasing Improved Strength
Training feature on the strength gains behind his rise from JUCO to the ACC.
Vohasek's path was the story: zero Division I offers out of high school, two years at College of DuPage, then four seasons at North Carolina where he grew into an honorable-mention All-ACC selection in 2021 and one of the Tar Heels' most respected leaders. His peak was the 2020 season — 29 tackles, 7.0 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks in 11 games as the anchor of UNC's interior — followed by a solid 2021 (38 tackles) and a senior year cut to five games by injury.
The scouting case rested on the leverage-and-effort profile. He holds the point against doubles, plays with uncommon motor for a 306-pounder, and tested far better than expected at his pro day — a 7.68 three-cone and 4.62 short shuttle are legitimate interior numbers. The knocks were equally clear: he was a 24-year-old rookie with a long injury history, limited pass-rush production beyond one season, and a game built on effort more than on any single elite trait.
The board treated him as a classic late-round nose: priority-free-agent athleticism with a draftable floor because of the leverage, the testing and the intangibles. Jacksonville, churning the back of its defensive line, took him at 227 as a developmental run-stuffer — a bet that the JUCO grinder's motor would translate to a rotational NFL role.
- 01
Natural leverage
Shorter build with a powerful lower half; consistently wins the pad-level battle at the point of attack.
- 02
Anchor vs. doubles
Holds his ground against double teams, keeping linebackers clean in UNC's odd fronts.
- 03
Short-area burst
Flashes real first-step quickness for a nose, producing 7.0 TFL and 3.5 sacks in a healthy 2020.
- 04
Tested better than the tape
7.68 three-cone and 4.62 short shuttle at his pro day, rare movement numbers for 306 pounds.
- 05
Motor and makeup
Zero-offer JUCO product who became an honorable-mention All-ACC pick and team leader at UNC.
- 01
Injury history
Missed time across his UNC career, including nine games of his 2022 senior season.
- 02
Age
Entered the NFL as a 24-year-old rookie after a JUCO detour, shrinking the developmental runway.
- 03
Pass-rush ceiling
One season of real backfield production; wins with effort and burst, not a rush plan.
- 04
Disappearing stretches
Tackle production fell from 2.9 per game in 2020-21 to a bit-part role as a senior.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | North Carolina | — | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | North Carolina | 11 | 29 | 3.5 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2021 | North Carolina | 13 | 38 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2022 | North Carolina | 5 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Career | — | 29 | 81 | 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2020-22 lines verified against cfbstats; 2019 left blank rather than estimated. Career totals are the verified 2020-22 sum. CBS Sports credited him with honorable-mention All-ACC in 2021 and a team-tying 7.0 TFL — cfbstats shows that 7.0 TFL figure in 2020, and cfbstats game logs are used here.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Productive college interior who stuck as a rotational early-down tackle for several seasons.
Leverage-built nose who turned power and effort into a long run-stuffing career.
Strong college nose whose body and injuries kept him off NFL active rosters.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The NFL marriage lasted one summer. Jacksonville signed Vohasek after taking him 227th, carried him through the preseason, and waived him on cut-down day, August 29, 2023. No other team claimed him, no practice-squad stint followed, and he never appeared in an NFL regular-season game.
The honest retrospective: this is what a pure traits-and-makeup flier looks like when the traits are not quite rare enough. The pro-day testing was real, the leverage and motor were real, and none of it survived contact with an NFL roster crunch. For a seventh-round pick, the miss costs nothing — but it closes the loop on one of the better underdog stories in UNC's recent history, a player who went from zero offers to All-ACC mention and an NFL draft call.