NFL Draft
2/9/25
6 min read
Oluwafemi Oladejo 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For UCLA Bruins EDGE
Height: 6026 (verified)
Weight: 261lbs (verified)
Year: Senior
Pro Comparison: Quinton Bell
Scouting Overview
UCLA Bruins edge defender Oluwafemi Oladejo is an intriguing developmental talent on the edge. He was a 2024 convert from playing stack linebacker for the Bruins, and his transition opened up a vacancy for Carson Schwesinger in the Bruins’ lineup.
On the edge, Oladejo offers a well-built, dense frame and sufficient length with heavy hands and good power. He’s a natural leverage rusher, thanks to his frame, and is capable of playing up and through the chest of blockers at the point of attack. Understandably, he’s raw in all phases of the position.
But given the short turnaround and the flashes of talent, he’s illustrated as a pass rusher and run defender. This feels like an intriguing roll of the dice for a team looking to add talent to their pass rush room.
2025 NFL Combine Results
| Position | Name | School | 40-Yard Dash | 10-Yard Split | Broad Jump | Vertical Jump | 3-Cone Drill | 20-Yard Shuttle | Bench Press |
| EDGE | Oluwafemi Oladejo | UCLA | 120 | 36.5 | 20 |
Positives
- Boasts a dense, powerful frame that is capable of rocking back offensive linemen to reset the LOS
- Capable rusher off the edge with first-contact counters and mugged up in interior gaps
- Hot motor defender who has a “temperature changer” personality
Negatives
- Super raw in his hand usage on the edge to fit blocks and fight leverage
- Pass-rush feel for maintaining rush lanes and anticipating quarterback movement needs improvement
- Play recognition skills are in need of development
Background
Oladejo is from Elk Grove, CA, and played high school football for Cosumnes Oaks HS. There, he was a consensus 3-star recruit as a two-way player, playing defensive end and tight end before his senior season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. He was recruited as a linebacker and garnered interest from schools like Arizona, Colorado, and Kansas before committing to California. He played at Cal for two seasons and started 11 games in 21 contests.
Oladejo entered the transfer portal after the 2022 season and landed with the Bruins as a 3-star transfer (247 Sports). His first season with UCLA saw him start four games with 13 games played as a stack linebacker, and he sustained his starting position going into his senior year in 2024. Oladejo started the first two games of that season off the ball before converting to play edge defender with much success. He was named the team’s winner of the Kenny Clark Award for “Most Outstanding Defensive Lineman.”
Oladejo accepted an invitation to play in the 2025 Reese’s Senior Bowl.
Tale Of The Tape
Oladejo is a promising bundle of clay for his future NFL coaches. A supersized stack linebacker, Oladejo is well-built for life on the edge after an 11th-hour position switch that opens a whole new world for him as an NFL player. The challenge will be the transition amid such a steep level of play.
However, Oladejo appears to have baseline athleticism to play the position and could become a hybrid defender in the right environment. That is likely the most viable forward pathway, as he has much room to grow as an authentic edge player.
What you do like is that he boasts good length, showcases good pop in his hands when he’s connecting with the chest of a blocker, and sports a pretty slick chop counter as a pass rusher to run clean through the strike zone of opposing tackles. He appears to have a sufficient first step but offers more power through the initial charge to collapse and roll back tackles that he takes on fully.
Thanks to his experience as a stack backer, he’s experienced multiple release points from two-point and three-point stances. Oladejo has been mugged up inside gaps, pressured from depth, served as a looper in twists and games, and taken authentic releases off the edge. Schemed-pressure fronts or simulated-pressure systems that like to muddy pre-snap reads and use personnel groupings interchangeably will be drawn to his profile.
Oladeljo needs a lot of technical refinement on a down-by-down basis. His punch placement and block separation are irregular, leaving him vulnerable to getting stuck on blocks. He can be quick to surrender his leverage and declare at the first sign of a gap, which blockers can leverage and wall him off as the play develops. His recognition of aiming points as a rusher can be slow to adjust, and he left a number of additional finishes and sacks on the table by not flattening appropriately at the top of the arc.
He should be considered a player who needs foundational work before he’s ready to play. That proposition may be a long-term one.
The good news is that Oladejo can still find value opportunities. He’s played nearly 300 career special teams snaps, with significant work coming on kickoff and punt return units. He’ll need this element to hold a 53-man roster spot while he develops for a team with any depth in the edge room.
He’s a good tackler with violent, physical finishes and shows good chase-down speed and burst. Oladejo does well to keep his feet moving at contact, working his hips into the path of forward momentum for opposing ball carriers, and has not missed more than 10 percent of tackle opportunities in the last three seasons.
The best part of Oladejo may not be a physical attribute. He is a spitfire personality that can be an energizing one for a defensive unit. He offers a rare enthusiasm about the process, and his love for the game oozes through his interactions with coaches and teammates, making him a hard talent to bet against in the long run.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Oladejo projects best as a rush linebacker who can lean on his past experiences to intermittently serve as a zone dropper for a sim pressure scheme.
Releasing into the hook or rushing the passer from a two-point stance can add versatility to the defensive front and boost his value as compared to having to be a highly developed pass rusher to hold value. He’s a developmental talent who likely will need a year of seasoning and training.
Grade: 73.00/100.00, Fourth Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
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