TJ Parker
Another player in a similar position as Woods is his front-four mate TJ Parker. The star edge defender had an impressive start to his career with double-digit tackles for loss in both his freshman and sophomore seasons. He also had 11 sacks in that sophomore year. However, in 2025 his production saw a noticeable drop.
Parker had just 9.5 tackles for loss and five sacks, a career low in both categories. He was also passed over for All-conference honors. At the Senior Bowl, Parker talked about how the addition of Will Heldt contributed to some of the production loss.
This is true, along with the ascension of Jaheim Lawson. Both players took much of the pressure off of Parker compared to the year prior.
There is a major flaw in Parker’s game as well though, that was exposed in the 2025 season. That flaw is that Parker has a very limited set of pass rush moves. He did a great job showing his power with some impressive long-arms in one-on-one drills at the Senior Bowl. It caught many people’s eye on social media at the time.
The issue is, if you’ve watched Parker enough it’s easy to see that is his only real pass rush move.
He’s always been great with the long-arm move, but he has no counters for it when it doesn’t work. If he can show he has the ability to add a couple more moves to his pass rush bag, he’ll get a team to take a chance on him very early in the draft. His agility and individual drill work must be one of the best in his group.