Green Bay Packers: 3 Day Two Defensive Line Prospects

Green Bay Packers IDL Target: Daviyon Nixon – Iowa

If the Green Bay Packers want a real difference-maker on the defensive front, this is their guy. Daviyon Nixon is athletic, strong, explosive, and active. He has by far the widest skill-set of these three d-linemen, and he’s a bona fide playmaker.

Last season at Iowa, he had 13.5 tackles for loss, more than Togiai and Tufele had combined in their most recent seasons. He accomplished this due to many factors, but the most important is that he plays low and violent. He is always coming after the ball, and he fires out at the offensive lineman hard and has great powerful hand movements to get off his block.

Those active and violent hands, combined with his quickness and athleticism, also make him the best pass rusher of the group. He finished with 5.5 sacks in 2020, which is not overly exciting at first glance, but that was only in eight games. He does sometimes give up on plays, especially when he’s stopped early in his pass rush, and that could contribute to a couple of sacks left on the board if he would have continued to go after the quarterback.

At Iowa, he played both in the A and B gap and could do either at the next level. At 6’3″ 305 pounds, he’s a similar body type to Kenny Clark, and seeing them take on offenses together would be an exciting sight.

Finally, to illustrate even more just how athletic Nixon is, you need to look no further than his high school basketball career at Kenosha Indian Trail High School. A man over 300 pounds should not be able to dunk as easily as he does. That athleticism was on full display this season against Penn State when he took an interception back 71 yards for a touchdown and juked the quarterback on his way to the house.

Nixon has all the tools and abilities that the Packers want for this position. They love drafting athletes to develop, and Nixon is that kind of guy while having skills that could make him a playmaker the first time he steps on an NFL field. Plus, I think we all went through “Bryan Bulaga, Iowa” withdrawals this season, and “Daviyon Nixon, Iowa” could help fill that void in all of our lives.

So what do you think about these three defensive line prospects? Do you think the Green Bay Packers spending a day two pick on this position would be the right call? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter @DairylandXpress.