Nick Hampton NFL Draft Scouting Report
EDGE, Appalachian State Mountaineers
Appalachian State EDGE Nick Hampton is a twitchy, fluid athlete on the edge who has served as a star rusher for the Mountaineers over the past several seasons. Hampton’s length and flexibility allow him to influence the quarterback consistently even when engaged with blockers when turning the outside corner. As he continues to develop as a player, I foresee him as a player capable of filling a starting role for a defense; although I don’t necessarily see that ceiling for him as a rookie unless he goes to a rebuilding franchise that is willing to let him work through his needed growth.
Originally a 2-star recruit, Hampton played his high school football for Westside High School in Anderson, SC. He was a commit of the class of 2018 and received minimal interest as a 210-pound pass rusher. Hampton has since added significant weight onto his frame as a member of the Appalachian State football program, which featured a redshirt season during his true freshman year of eligibility in 2018. He was named a team captain in 2022 and finished his career tied for fourth all-time in program history with 26.5 sacks. A member of the illustrious Bruce Feldman’s Freaks List, Hampton is a plus athlete in spite of the added mass on his frame and plays a very dynamic brand of football off the edge.
Hampton is a developing sack artist with plus length and movement skills. Hampton has verified 34-inch arms and the kind of movement skills that will grab your attention on the edge. He’s bendy and pliable in cornering situations and has a pretty startling amount of juice coming around the corner through contact. Hampton blossomed as a pass rusher in 2021 after serving in that role on passing downs early in his career and put together his most complete campaign in 2022. His ability to contort his frame and twist through hand punches and stuns help him to sustain his momentum through the arc. You can easily appreciate his upside in a penetration-type role and his ability to release with twitch from a two-point stance will allow him to project favorably to an odd front defense that needs wide-angled rushers.
I appreciate his acceleration through the peak of the pocket and his finishing ability is one of his best qualities; he does not struggle to gear down or flash and react in short spaces. He’s got good awareness of when to take corners off the edge and when to try to convert power and run through blockers. The selling points here are obvious as a player who has had to develop his own body as a late bloomer and learn successful habits in order to position himself where he is now. Those learned experiences and intangibles set him up favorably for the NFL transition. I see good mirror skills on the edge and I see good burst and enough functional mobility that this player could feasibly drop intermittently in underneath zones. He’ll be at his best playing forward but he’s got that kind of mobility.
For all the appeal and upside, it is worth noting that his stature may be a non-starter for some teams unless they’re going to project him off the ball. He can and will play on the edge but this may make him a non-universal prospect across all 32 teams. Hampton, while willing and aware of power-rush opportunities, is not someone you’ll associate with a lot of success collapsing the pocket due to his stature in spite of his effortless ability to convert—he just doesn’t have the mass of someone who is going to bull some bigger tackles. Another question is how close to his ceiling he is from a muscle-mass perspective. Can he continue growing? Or is there a glass ceiling present that could prevent him from filling out more to appeal to teams who may look for him to play in tighter alignments? As is, I’m not sure he’s got the frame to handle stacking tackles or even some NFL tight ends without having baked-in leverage into his pre-snap alignments. But his deconstruction skills could be aided by more powerful hand stuns and more developed shedding techniques to break free of latched hands on his frame.
Expectations for Hampton should be that of a designated pass-rush specialist early on in his NFL career. It is difficult to envision him fast-tracking as an athlete and being capable of commanding high snap volume early on, especially for a contending team. But the ability to press vertically up the field and bend the edge is something that any team would welcome early in 3rd and long situations. His ability to fill out his frame and play stout on early downs will define how quickly he sees starting snaps, but I do believe he has the ability to fill out his frame and get there before the end of his rookie contract.
Top Reasons to Buy In:
- Top-shelf first-step explosiveness
- Length and flexibility to lean and turn the corner at the peak of his rushes
- Developmental upside
- He’s a closer—finishes splash play opportunities with consistency
Top Reasons For Concern:
- Leaner frame than you’d ideally want playing on the line of scrimmage
- Ability to deconstruct blocks requires additional focus
- Developmental transition may be longer than win-now teams desire
Size (NFL Combine):
Height: 6′ 2”
Weight: 236 lbs
Arm Length: 33 5/8”
Hand Size: 9 1/2”
Athletic Testing (NFL Combine):
40-yard Dash: 4.58s
Vertical Jump: 35.5”
Broad Jump: 10′ 0”
Short-Shuttle: TBD
Three-Cone: TBD
Bench Reps: TBD
Ideal Role: Rush hybrid linebacker
Scheme Fit: Odd front defense or wide-nine front
Prospect Comparison: Barkevious Mingo (2013 NFL Draft)
TDN Consensus Grade: 77.50/100 (Third-Round Value)
