PFF names Big Ten's top interior defensive lineman

PFF does some of the best work regarding in-depth analysis of football prospects. Recently, it named the Big Ten’s top interior defensive lineman in Tyleik Williams of Ohio State. He had the highest pass-rush win rate (22.1 %) among Big Ten interior defensive linemen.

Tyleik Williams: Highest pass rush win rate among Big Ten interior DLs (22.1%) 💢 pic.twitter.com/XteU8CDNjQ

— PFF Draft (@PFF_College) January 24, 2022

Not only did Williams put up impressive numbers, he also did so as a true freshman last season for the Buckeyes. As On3’s Spencer Holbrook has noted, he’s already building towards an encore performance for the 2022 season.

PFF raved about Williams for most of the college football season

Ahead of Week 8 in the college football season, PFF decided to rank the top 10 true freshmen in the country, and they ranked Williams as the fourth. The Buckeyes had one of the nation’s elite defensive line units and the uber-talented freshman was the best of the bunch.

Here’s what PFF’s Anthony Treash had to say about the gifted freshman once he named him to PFF’s 2021 College Football All-True Freshman Team: “Williams played fewer snaps than anyone on this team with just 166 reps, but the impact he made in that limited opportunity was noticeable. The four-star recruit managed to generate 20 pressures on 106 snaps, six of which were sacks. Williams also battled a couple of passes, recorded 10 defensive stops and forced a fumble. This all led the 6-foot-3, 315-pound true freshman to a 79.7 PFF grade for the year.”

The defensive tackle also earned other honors from PFF, including the second-best graded true freshman defensive tackle in the country.

Coming out of Unity Reed High School (Manassas, Virginia), Williams was rated as the No. 148 overall prospect in America in the 2021 recruiting class, according to the On3 Consensus Rankings. He was also rated as the sixth-best overall prospect in the state of Virginia, according to the On3 Consensus Rankings.