NFL Mix: Arvell Reese’s Place is TBD, However He is Decided to Play ‘Violent’

[ad_1] INDIANAPOLIS — Ohio State's Arvell Reese is perhaps essentially the most intriguing expertise on the prime of the 2026 NFL Draft.

Reese was an off-ball linebacker in school, enjoying the place so nicely that he was named a consensus All-American in 2025. He is greater than athletic sufficient, although, that he would possibly shine as an edge rusher within the professionals. He is earned comps to Micah Parsons due to that, because the Packers' star went from enjoying off-ball linebacker at Penn State to turning into an All-Professional edge rusher.

Even Reese is not essentially positive which place he'll play within the NFL but, telling groups that he sees himself as an "outdoors linebacker or edge" on the Scouting Mix this week. However there's one factor Reese is certain about: Irrespective of which place he performs, he'll play it with a voracious tenacity.

"On the soccer discipline, I am simply all the time considering to play violent," stated the 6-foot-4, 241-pound Reese when he took the rostrum on the Scouting Mix. "I have never even scratched the floor of what I can do pass-rushing, for actual."

In a draft the place many prospects have performed 5 - 6 years of faculty soccer, Reese is a precocious exception. At solely 20 years, his physique of labor at Ohio State is a small one, enjoying solely on particular groups as a freshman, then with a half-sack as a rotational participant on its 2024 nationwide championship staff. In his breakout 2025 marketing campaign, Reese recorded 6.5 sacks as an off-ball linebacker, however he is nonetheless studying and growing as he enters the NFL.

"It is a position-less factor," Ohio State linebackers coach James Laurinaitis, himself a former Buckeyes standout who performed eight years within the NFL, advised me. "Velly's an out of doors backer who can play inside. It would be good for a D coordinator to place him over the opposite staff's offensive lineman and attempt to get him in house so he can use his athleticism."

The place can he nonetheless enhance?

"All over the place," Reese stated. "I feel I can get manner higher at go dashing, I feel I can get manner higher on protection, assume I can get manner higher with my pad stage. Typically I am too excessive. There may be a lot room for enchancment for me. I simply cannot wait to get higher."

Reese benefited this previous season from enjoying for a longtime NFL coach in Matt Patricia, whose protection not solely elevated his play however gave him a preview of the ideas he'll discover as a professional.

"Together with his protection, I can clarify all 11, with 80 to 90% of the calls," Reese stated of understanding the roles of everybody round him, giving him confidence for what he can do inside that.

Laurinaitis stated Reese is fast sufficient to speed-rush round a deal with, however he additionally has the power to power-rush opposing blockers. After all, Reese might want to decide when he must speed-rush and when he ought to power-rush with a view to maximize his talent set.

Laurinaitis does not see that being an issue, although, noting he has good instincts for when to assault.

"There is a very pure really feel that he has off the road of scrimmage, too," Laurinaitis stated. "While you're speaking about off-the-ball linebackers, there's nearly a God-given aspect in relation to feeling offensive performs. You have to see rather a lot, however you additionally must see a bit of. It is actually onerous to explain, whilst somebody who did it. How do you are feeling that every one coming? There's a lot going via your mind, it is onerous to coach somebody, however he has a pure basis and a present, and his explosiveness is admittedly what separates him."

Reese may very well be one in every of 4 Ohio State gamers drafted within the prime half of the primary spherical, with security Caleb Downs, linebacker Sonny Types and huge receiver Carnell Tate usually being included within the prime 15 of mock drafts. Reese stated being surrounded by that expertise — which does not depend receiver Jeremiah Smith, who'll probably be a prime choose in 2027, or the 14 Buckeyes taken within the 2025 draft — fostered a aggressive setting in observe that spilled over to Saturdays as nicely.

"That is the rationale I went there — there's dawgs all over the place," Reese stated. "You have to be snug realizing that you just're not going to be the one dawg there, so you must simply work to get higher day by day. ... We had been proficient at each place. I feel that is what Ohio State does, simply produces elite athletes and gamers."

Reese's has earned comparisons to Parsons within the early elements of the draft course of because of the place versatility. However when Reese was requested who he would mannequin himself after, he pointed to one in every of Patricia's previous Patriots standouts, as an alternative: Jamie Collins, who racked up 26.5 profession sacks whereas enjoying as an off-ball linebacker.

Arvell Reese had 6.5 sacks this previous season regardless of primarily being an off-ball linebacker. (Picture by Jason Mowry/Getty Pictures)

Reese enters the draft with confidence. He is selecting to do all testing and take part in drills at a number of positions, at a time when Miami (Fla.)'s Rueben Bain Jr. is not going to work out, attending the mix for staff interviews solely. Patricia has helped his prime prospects by strolling them via what they'll anticipate from the mix and the sorts of questions they're going to get from NFL coaches and scouts.

Many mock drafts have Reese being drafted with one of many prime picks, usually getting paired with the Jets at No. 2 general. When Reese was requested what it might imply to go to New York at No. 2, he stated he is not caught up in the place he is going. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that New York would current an thrilling future for him.

"That may be superb," Reese stated. "Simply getting an opportunity within the NFL could be superb ... It might imply rather a lot to me to be a type of guys who children can now look as much as, as a result of there have been a bunch of fellows I seemed as much as rising up and wished to be like."