Strengths: 

  • Explosive Out of His Stance

Nixon does a great job getting out of his stance quickly with an explosive first step that gets him moving upfield quickly, and allows him to penetrate behind the line of scrimmage early on.

  • Moves Well For His Size

For a guy that’s 310 lbs Daviyon Nixon does a phenomenal job carrying his weight and moving around. He can get going in a straight line or change directions incredibly well.

  • Amazing at Reacting and Reacting

Daviyon Nixon is an extremely smart football player and he does a great job reading and reacting to what he sees. He identifies run or pass quickly and takes the necessary measures from there.

  • Great Instincts

Daviyon Nixon instinctively plays the DT position, and he has a great feel for what the offense is going to do. He drops back when he knows something is up because of his great instincts.

  • Plays With Great Leverage

Nixon does a great job consistently keeping his pad level low throughout the whole game. He often has the leverage on offensive lineman because of this and nevers gives offensive lineman easy reps to uproot him. 

Weaknesses: 

  • Needs to Develop More Pass Rush Moves

Daviyon Nixon flashes the ability to use a decent swim move and even has shown off a spin a couple of times but the moves he does have need refinement and need to be used more often, and he also needs to develop more counters.

  • Drops Back Too Often

Many prospects usually have the reverse problem where they don’t know when to stall their rush and drop back to try and bat a pass, but Nixon does this too often to the point where it’s bad, and he could be more effective on most reps if he kept going instead of dropping back. 

  • A Bit Slow Off the Snap

Daviyon Nixon doesn’t do the greatest job with timing the snap and often times it’s visibly obvious in real time that he’s getting off the snap a little bit slow, and can sometimes affect his rush. 

Player Comp: I think Daviyon Nixon is similar to one of the most underrated defensive tackles in the league right now and that is Da’Ron Payne. Payne, similar to Nixon, is good in the run game but even better at rushing the passer. Both guys are around the 310 lb range and they both move extremely well for their size. They both play with great leverage and pad level and have really good instincts as well as reading and reacting ability. They also both bat a lot of passes. Both guys could stand to add some more moves to their arsenal, as well as refining the ones they currently have. Nixon drops back more than he has to, which is a problem Payne doesn’t have, and Nixon also doesn’t time the snap as well and is slightly less athletic, but a lot of his issues are fixable and at his ceiling he can be just as good as Payne. 

Final Thoughts: Daviyon Nixon is honestly a guy that I like quite a bit. I think he has a decently safe floor because he has decent technique and intelligence in a body that’s above average athletically but he also has plenty of upside because of the way he moves at his size especially with the flashes of great pass rushing ability he shows. Others think of him as a mid round 2 guy but I’d be willing to take him at the end of Round 1 making me higher on him than most. It must be noted that any team in a 3-4 that picks him is really going to be misusing him and to maximize his value he needs to go to a 4-3 team. I think the Bills could be a good fit because they’ve shown the capability to develop IDL in the past, they’re a 4-3 team, and they like to have a deep rotation and could use someone next to Ed Oliver making IDL a need.