The pressure being placed upon defenses by modern offenses is having an interesting effect on player evaluation. Defenders who might have been dismissed as “tweeners” not all that long ago are being looked at in a new light as defenses adopt flexible “positionless” schemes to account for changes in offensive philosophies.
Alabama’s Deontae Lawson has spent the last five years playing against some of the most dynamic offenses in college football as a linebacker in Alabama’s sophisticated defense. But at 6-foot-2, 226 pounds, he doesn’t look like a classic “NFL” linebacker. However, defenses are evolving and undersized players who excel in space and coverage have a definite role.
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New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh helped kick off the new wave of NFL defenses when he was the Baltimore Ravens head coach. Could that put Lawson on the Giants’ radar?
Prospect: Deontae Lawson (0)
Games Watched: vs. Georgia (2025), vs. Missouri (2025), vs. South Carolina (2025)
Measurables
Strengths
Best traits
Deontae Lawson is a quick, agile, and experienced off-ball linebacker prospect.
Lawson is an undersized WILL linebacker who excels at playing in space and has a lot of experience playing in Alabama’s sophisticated defense. Lawson has played in 52 games over his 5 years at Alabama, including 15 this past season and 11 in each of the previous 3 seasons.
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Lawson is an excellent coverage linebacker who has notched 4 passes defensed in each of the last four seasons. His quickness and agility allow him to easily get depth and hit his landmarks in zone coverage. He does a great job of playing with awareness, both of the quarterbacks’ eyes and route concepts. Lawson is able to make minute adjustments to receivers’ routes, as well as get his hands up to clog passing lanes at the last moment. Likewise, he’s athletic enough to run with running backs and tight ends when in man coverage.
His positioning and closing burst allowed him to come away with a pair of forced fumbles as well as an interception this past season.
He plays with great toughness and a strong motor, offering very good effort in pursuit. Lawson is a willing run defender who’s fearless in taking on bigger blockers and doesn’t hesitate to step up and fill a gap. Likewise, he’s a willing pass rusher who can use his quickness to knife into the backfield and pressure the quarterback.
Weaknesses
Worst traits
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The most obvious weakness in Lawson’s game is his relative lack of size and length for the position.
Lawson is light for an every-down linebacker at 226 pounds, which is bordering on the size of bigger safeties, and he also has shorter arms at just under 32 inches. Lawson’s size comes with less-than-ideal play strength, which when combined with his lack of length and mass can make it difficult for him to match up with bigger blockers. He flashes the ability to stack and shed when flowing to the ball at speed, getting into blockers’ frames before they can get their hands on him.
However, he tends to get stuck or simply bounce off blockers when trying to build a wall at the line of scrimmage. Lawson’s size and length also makes him more prone to trying to blow up ball carriers as opposed to consistently bringing them down with fundamentally sound tackles. The result is leaky yardage and missed tackles when his shoulder checks fail to bring ball carriers down or simply miss.
Finally, there’s an interesting dichotomy in Lawson’s mental processing.
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While he processes the passing game extremely well, his processing speed, awareness, and instincts don’t seem to translate to run defense.
Lawson frequently takes false or incorrect first moves, guesses the wrong gap, or bites very hard on misdirection. He was particularly prone to biting on running backs’ pathing on counter runs. He has a tendency to vacate his gap as he attacks the initial path, and not the counter back to the play side.
Game Tape
(Deontae Lawson is the Alabama linebacker wearing number 0, a band on his left forearm and a sleeve on his right arm.)
Projection
Deontae Lawson projects as a rotational linebacker at the next level.
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Lawson may be able to earn a starting job as a WILL linebacker in the right system, but his broadest appeal will likely be as a nickel defender who plays in obvious passing situations. Some teams may even view Lawson as a STAR safety/linebacker hybrid player and an apex defender.
His deficiencies in run defense will likely keep teams from viewing him as a traditional linebacker, unless they have no other choice. However, the importance of defending short-to-intermediate areas of the field against modern pass-oriented 12 and 21-personnel packages could boost his stock higher than some anticipate.
Lawson could even hear his name called by the end of the third round by a team looking to find their own “big nickel” defender.
Does he fit the Giants? Probably not
Final Word: An early Day 3 or late Day 2 value
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