INFLECTION POINTS: Elijah Jeudy

An offseason series examining the players who could make or break Nebraska's 2025 outcome kicks off on the interior defensive line

Elijah Jeudy is moving from a package role player in his first two seasons with Nebraska to a potential early down interior line starter in his final year. Photo courtesy Nebraska Athletics.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: This is the first in an offseason series of in-depth film reviews for individual players who have the potential to make or break Nebraska’s 2025 season. With several current Nebraska role players and outside transfers projected to step into key starting jobs for the 2025 Huskers, these posts are meant to examine what these largely unknown players already excel at and what they’ll need to improve on to become dependable contributors in bigger roles. These “scouting reports” will examine players from a talent, technicality, skill set, and role perspective, with honest — if sometimes harsh — evaluations. New entries will appear sporadically throughout the offseason.

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If you’re looking for what isolated element could wreck Nebraska’s 2025 football season, early down interior defensive line play has a huge, flashing-red warning light next to it.

NU this year faces operating its light-box 3-3-5 defense for the first time without interior disruptors Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher — if not the team’s two best individual players in Matt Rhule’s tenure so far, then certainly among the biggest factors behind the program’s defensive turnaround in Rhule’s two years. Robinson and Hutmacher played a combined 2,103 snaps up the middle over the past two seasons for NU, generating 112 combined pressures, 17 combined sacks, and 28.5 combined tackles for loss, among the best of any interior duo in the Power 5 conferences. Beyond the box score, their backfield disruption and gap-shooting on the interior were the biggest reasons Nebraska was able to defend the run so well in its 3-3-5 scheme that bases its run D less on “form-a-wall” horizontal stoutness and more on spiking plays through havoc and penetration.

It’s very unlikely for a team to lose that many snaps, that much statistical production, or that much schematic dependence and not have it hurt you in some way the next year. NU is unlikely to straight-up replace a duo that productive. But the goal shouldn’t necessarily be finding that level of Robinson-Hutmacher impact; the goal is simply survival. An interior line that isn’t capable of maintaining its gaps and run fits jeopardizes the entire structure and can render the rest of your personnel and plan moot. Great edge rushers or great defensive backs won’t mean much if teams can run in the A gaps for 6 yards a pop. John Butler won’t get to many designer pressure looks if he’s never in long downs and only sees third-and-1s. Husker fans only have to remember back to the first half of the 2022 season to recall what life was like with a soft interior of its defense.

Nebraska eschewed adding experienced interior defensive line pieces in the portal, bringing in only developmental project Gabe Moore from Mississippi State, meaning NU will largely be relying on development of its in-house talent to replace Hutmacher and Robinson.

One of the most obvious and popular candidates on paper to step up is fifth-year player Elijah Jeudy.

After the four-star recruit failed to see the field much at Texas A&M in his first two collegiate seasons, Jeudy landed with NU in the portal and worked as a rotational IDL for Nebraska behind Robinson and Hutmacher in 2023 and 2024, largely subbing in on passing downs. He’s been projected with the top group of defensive linemen throughout the offseason, and he reportedly worked as a starter in the spring.

After a 2023 season in which he generated eight pressures in 158 snaps as a solid pass-rushing IDL presence, Jeudy played sparingly in the first five games of last year before seeing around 15 snaps in each of the final seven regular-season contests, then logged a career-high 30 snaps in the Pinstripe Bowl. He contemplated leaving football after the season but elected to come back for a final year and a chance to start. He also spoke to the media this offseason how he’s remade his body composition — he came in from A&M heavy, dropped down to 270 pounds at one point and has worked back to the 300 pounds he is now — and how he’s balancing football with raising his son.

Jeudy’s role to this point at Nebraska has almost entirely been as part of the pass-rush package or as an extra big body on short yardage or around the goalline. He also subbed in for Robinson and Hutmacher sporadically. But Jeudy was used most heavily when Nebraska wanted to run stunts or twists (a practice where one defensive lineman crashes over into a different gap than they are aligned pre-snap while another defensive linemen loops around them, in a bid to cause chaos and leverage on the front or generate free runs at the quarterback on passing downs). Jeudy was involved in a stunt on over half of the snaps I evaluated, about equally used as the “crasher” setting the pick for the stunt and as the “looper” running around the pick. Jeudy being on the field, in fact, was a not-insignificant tell to offenses Nebraska was running a stunt or twist on the play. When Jeudy has played on early downs, he’s primarily played as a 3-technique, 4i, or 5 and has spent limited snaps lined up over the center as a nose tackle. That would make him a more natural replacement for Robinson.

Going from a specialized pass-rushing role to having to play 50ish snaps a game as a true early down interior presence in the Big Ten will require some major changes to his play style and profile, however, and technical refinement. While he has some decided strengths on tape, there are also some clear and urgent areas he needs to improve upon to be effective as an early down IDL for Nebraska right away.

STRENGTHS:

Straight-line speed and athleticism

The best skill Jeudy has shown at Nebraska is his pure ability to run in space. He has above-average movement skills for a Power 5 player at the position and of his size, and when given a clean runway he’s shown on film he’s capable of running around tackles to the edge and also using his momentum to crash into blockers and generate backward push. If left uncontacted, his speed also makes it difficult for blockers to identify him and get in front of him in space. His best plays often involve him getting into free runs and linemen not being able to recover onto him or pick him up (Jeudy is in the #16 jersey, playing the defensive end at the bottom of the screen):

That speed in space is what has made him an effective part of Nebraska’s stunt package the last two seasons; when he serves as the looper on stunts and is able to build up to full speed without being contacted, offensive tackles have a hard time recovering enough to stay in front of him (Jeudy is aligned over the offense’s right guard):

The play above is him looping around Purdue right tackle Marcus Mbow (#63), who just was picked in last month’s NFL draft. Mbow is working to stop the crasher but IDs Jeudy late, and Jeudy has enough speed to take advantage and run around him for a pressure.

That speed is also useful when he’s playing from the backside of the play or recovering on a ball already past him, and he’s shown an ability to chase down plays from behind and get in on tackles.

First-step quickness and verticality off ball

While there are concerns about how he gets off the ball (addressed later on in this piece), when he does start his rush, his first step is consistently explosive and vertical upfield, with few wasted steps or movements to the side. When he decides to go, he can accelerate off the ball and into linemen straight ahead.

Feel and versatility in stunt package

As a role player in the stunt package, Jeudy shows good feel and technical skill in both facets of the stunt, as both the “crasher” taking out offensive linemen to free up teammates and as the “looper” coming around himself.

As the crasher, he’s able to use his acceleration to explosively shoot into gaps and force the offensive linemen to anchor down to stop his initial rush, preventing them from recovering to stop the looper. He has no compunction or feae about sacrificing his body as the crash player, either, to free up his teammates to make big plays. This is a clip from the Rutgers game where he’s able to take out three Rutgers blockers by himself to allow Hutmachter to loop outside into the gap Rutgers is running the ball into and get a huge stop on the goalline — part of NU’s defense denying Rutgers five times from inside the 5-yard-line (Jeudy is aligned over the right offensive tackle):

He can occasionally take too wide a path as the looper in an attempt to use his speed and get caught, but otherwise he’s probably the Huskers’ best executor on stunts and twists last season behind Robinson. Nebraska stunts often — or at least did under Tony White — so that’s not an insignificant role on the defense.

Effort/Hustle

Jeudy plays a limited role that includes high-leverage pass-rush moments, so it remains to be seen if he’ll bring effort when he’s playing more frequently and on more mundane downs. But when he’s on the field, he’s a high-motor player who is willing to do dirty work without the credit. Especially in 2024, he played a lot of unsung roles behind Robinson and Hutmacher, coming in for 15 snaps a game of short-yardage brawling and stunt-game work that didn’t yield a lot of stats. He also shows good motor on plays down the field and is always chasing ball-carriers past him, even when it’s unlikely he’ll catch them.