Last month, the Green Bay Packers selected Penn State DE Dani Dennis-Sutton in the 4th round of the NFL draft. Since his selection, Dennis-Sutton has been the center of consistent conversation in Packers circles. Within those circles, there’s truly been no shortage of opinions, and most of them are quite polarized! So after much review, here is my personal opinion on DDS, and my first prospect preview of the 2026 offseason.

First, I think it’s useful to first set some realistic expectations for Dani Dennis-Sutton. To do just that I checked back on the last 5 NFL seasons. As part of the exercise, I checked the 10 DE/EDGEs with the highest sack totals in each of those seasons, and then I checked the draft position of each of those players.

Here’s the results of my study: 

Of the 50 highest sack total seasons in the past 5 years, only 4 of them came from a player who was drafted on day 3 of the draft. Josh Sweat, Maxx Crosby, Matthew Judon and Andrew Van Ginkel.

That’s not a very long list, but it’s one that Dani Dennis-Sutton will try to join as the newest Green Bay Packer

So, now let’s jump into the prospect preview. 

My Evaluation: 

I initially watched Dani Dennis-Sutton soon after he absolutely tore up the NFL Combine. Maybe it was the 9.96 RAS, but I definitely fell into the old helmet scouting trap when I first began studying him. 

Just because he’s an edge defender from Penn State doesn’t mean he’ll look like Abdul Carter or Chop Robinson. That is most definitely what I expected to see, but it’s not at all the type of player that DDS is. 

Dennis-Sutton is a much more physically imposing player whose game is centered on winning with power. DDS flashes real knockback power in his initial punch and he uses that to set up his counter moves. Dani’s bull rush is his go to move. I mean that as a compliment! 

In order to succeed as a pass rusher in the NFL you absolutely have to have power. If you don’t have enough power to really scare offensive tackles, then it doesn’t matter how deep your repertoire of pass rush moves is. Truly the only thing that can consistently beat smart NFL tackles is power, power and more power. 

Dennis-Sutton has that power and he uses it to threaten tackles, but he also demonstrates at least some ability to burn on the edge. 

I did feel at times that he became fixated on trying to bend the edge, and too consistently over-rushed and created escape hatches for the QB. The Iowa and Indiana games are good examples of that for him. 

But, in other moments, DDS shows real ability to attack the outside shoulder of the tackle with power and a blend of speed. This leads to opportunities for him to win around the edge and show off his natural athleticism on his way to the QB. 

Dennis-Sutton isn’t near as bendy, and he doesn’t possess the ankle flexibility that many top tier NFL pass rushers have. But he does show some real capability to bend the edge. That coupled with his natural power and outlier type athletic traits make him a very tantalizing prospect.

Now, for the negatives…

The most frustrating thing for me is that you don’t always see Dennis-Sutton’s combine athleticism on tape. I do think that part of it might just be that he’s a taller guy who takes longer strides. For that reason, he doesn’t always look quick on film, but he’s likely quicker than he looks in real life. 

But, there’s still legitimate reasons for concern in my opinion. For a guy with such an elite 10 yard split and jump scores at the combine, he doesn’t really have that quick of a “get off.”

In fact, there were times this season when I thought DDS was routinely quite slow off the snap. The Ohio State game was the most underwhelming example. The Nittany Lions played that game in Columbus, and I thought DDS really struggled without the home crowd on his side. 

He was routinely slow off the snap, and lacked any pop in his power rush throughout that game. The strong handed Ohio State tackles handled him quite easily throughout the game, and the Penn State defense went on to surrender 38 points in a blowout loss. 

Projection for 2026: 

I’d bet good money that DDS takes the Kingsley Enagbare minutes in 2026. Denni-Sutton can be that very same type of player for the Green Bay Packers, but with even a little more juice. DDS has stones for hands in the run game just like Enagbare does, but he’s a freakier athlete that can reach the passer in more diverse ways than Enagbare could. 

It’s been said over and over that Dennis-Sutton is an incredibly high ceiling prospect. While I agree that this is true, I also feel that his high floor jumps out to me even more. DDS has things he does that translate seamlessly to the NFL game, and that’s unusual for a 4th round pick. 

Like I’ve said before, I would have been okay with DDS in the 2nd round, happy with him in the 3rd, but I’m ecstatic the Green Bay Packers got him in the 4th. This was a great pick almost no matter what, and he’ll definitely be a player to keep an extra close eye on in training camp.