Siaki Ika 

Pos: DL

School: Baylor

Ht. 6’3″ 

Wt. 335

Games Watched: TCU, Texas, West Virginia

One Liner: Run stuffing nose tackle who wins with a wide frame, functional strength, and hand usage.  

Strengths: 

  • Elite frame. Ika possesses a wide, dominating frame that requires intricate pregame planning to handle. Ika’s frame allows him to fill in gaps easily, and hold up double team blocks to create space for linebackers coming down. 
  • Very good strength. Ika displays ideal anchor and upperbody strength to hold up against combo and double team blocking schemes. He uses his strength to generate a strong get off and into the chests of opposing interior lineman.
  • Good hand usage. Ika demonstrates sufficient hand usage and placement at the POA to be more than just a block eater at the next level. He is able to use his hands to win one on one situations as a 1 gapper, and could be used in addition to a two gapping nose tackle in the pros.

Weaknesses:

  • Marginal athleticism. For the most part, Ika is a pretty stiff and hulking mover, which is expected for his size. He lacks the fluidity to play anything apart from nose tackle or maybe 2i at the next level. 
  • Adequate body control. Ika has some inconsistencies with body control as he struggles to maintain good positioning consistently throughout the play. It will be critical for Ika to maintain good contact balance to combine with his sound anchor to win one on one. 

Overall Assessment: Siaki Ika is a high floor nose tackle prospect who can be a plug and play block eating run stopper at the next level. Ika shows some upside to sometimes play on passing downs as well, due to some penetration ability with dominating strength. For now, Ika is best suited to be a nose tackle or shade out to 2i on certain sub package downs to be a run stuffing nose tackle for an odd front defense. 

Scheme Fit: nose tackle for an odd front

Pick Projection: Top 64

Grade: 6.34