Rutgers Football 2026 Early Position Breakdown: Defensive Tackles
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Our 2026 early position breakdowns for Rutgers football aim to talk about the positions, besides quarterback, that have the most question marks surrounding them heading into the 2026 season. Despite returning three of its top guys from last season, the Rutgers defensive tackle room poses a lot more questions than it does answers. largely due to the team’s inability to recruit enough promising prospects for this position over the past few seasons.
The three key returners from last season are Keshon Griffin, Zaire Angoy, and Doug Blue-Eli. While Blue-Eli was supposed to be a starter last season after transferring to Rutgers from USF, he never played a down because of a season-ending injury that occurred right before the season started. So, that raises questions on if he will be 100% by the time the season starts, while also raising questions about whether or not he can compete at this level because that is yet to be seen on the field.
Griffin and Angoy have been on the team for a while, but haven’t proven to be much of a game-changing factor on defense so far in their careers, with both of them being fifth-year seniors now.
Behind them stand two transfers and Henry Hughes Jr., who has been used largely in a reserve role during his five years in college, playing in only 8 games and recording 2 tackles throughout his entire collegiate career.
The two transfers include FCS transfer Jaedin Lee and Appalachian State transfer Rondo Porter. Last season at Maine, Lee recorded 32 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss, while Porter recorded 43 tackles with five for loss and two sacks last season for the Mountaineers.
Of these three, Porter has the most Power 4 experience because during his time at South Carolina (where he was before Appalachian State), he played in 9 games, totalling 7 tackles, one sack, and one forced fumble.
The youngest player who might be able to inject himself into this conversation is Braxton Kyle. Kyle did not play last season but was a main recruiting target for Rutgers in the 2025 recruitment class. It usually takes defensive linemen a year or two to bulk up to where they need to be, but with Kyle standing at 295 pounds, his weight is right up there with the other linemen on the team, meaning that if his other skills are ready, he could see playing time this season.
With the overall quality of talent in this room being questionable, it becomes much more likely that this room will have a four or five-player deep rotation to overcome its talent woes. That way, the unit can stay fresher longer as the game or even the season goes on.
This situation stems from Rutgers poor recruiting of interior defensive linemen over the past few years. While recruiting EDGE fairly well, the Knights have struggled to add interior defensive linemen out of high school, leaving them in the position they are now in.
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