Aeneas Peebles NFL Draft 2025: Scouting Report for Virginia Tech DL

HEIGHT: 6'0½"

WEIGHT: 282

HAND: 9⅝”  

ARM: 31⅜” 

WINGSPAN: 77¼”

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40-YARD DASH: 4.94

SHUTTLE: 4.7

VERTICAL: 32.5"

BROAD: 9'1"

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POSITIVES

— Impressive quickness and lateral movement skills for an interior defender.

— Good get-off, quick to react to the snap and accelerates off the ball well to shoot gaps and get penetration.

— Has natural leverage as a run defender and plays with solid knee bend.

— Shown a decent swim move to get off blocks and win as a pass-rusher.

— Uses his swim move to defeat guards when lined up as a 3-technique against slide protection and has good leg drive to collapse the pocket against centers with a bull rush.

— Solid spin move that he can beat guards with when rushing the passer.

— Good pass-rush motor.

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NEGATIVES

— Undersized and has short arms.

— Lack of arm length shows up in both phases of the game, as he struggles to get extension on blocks against the run and has difficulty making the first significant contact with his hands as a pass-rusher.

— Often just barrels into blocks with his head down instead of using proper technique against the run.

— Playing style leads to having a weak base, getting knocked off balance and kicked out of his gap easily, and makes him susceptible to getting reached or trapped.

— Needs to add a rip move to the end of his pass-rush moves to get clean wins.

— Lacks a plan when rushing; doesn’t use countermoves when his initial move doesn’t work.

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NOTES

— Born Sept. 3, 2001

— 3-star recruit in the 2020 class, per 247Sports

— No major injuries

— Played at Duke from 2020 to 2023 before transferring to Virginia Tech in 2024

— 2023; Third-Team All-ACC

— 2024; Third-Team All-American, First-Team All-ACC

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OVERALL

Aeneas Peebles is a gap-shooting 3-technique defensive tackle. He has impressive agility, quickness and get-off to get penetration when one-gapping or slanting. He’s also shown solid spin and swim moves that he can win with as a pass-rusher in addition to being a decent bull-rusher against slide protections.

However, Peebles is undersized, which will limit his ceiling in the NFL. More importantly, his short arms impact him as a run defender and pass-rusher, making him very reliant on getting penetration off the snap.

That will push him into a specific role in the NFL, and his playing style leads to issues maintaining gap responsibility.

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GRADE: 5.9 (Backup/Draftable — 6th-7th Round)

OVERALL RANK: 233

POSITION RANK: DL21

PRO COMPARISON: Myles Adams

Written by B/R NFL Scout Matt Holder