Former Westside standout and Appalachian State football player Nick Hampton was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft on Saturday. The Rams used the 161st overall pick to select Hampton.
Hampton, a 6-foot-2, 235-pound outside linebacker from Anderson, South Carolina, was a first-team All-Sun Belt selection in 2022 and a third-team selection in 2021.
The positives
The standup on-ball linebacker is as explosive as it get off the line, running a 4.58 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. Hampton utilized that speed to get offensive lineman on their heels, while his long arms and assortment of pass rush moves coupled with a high-motor, made him a big play machine for the Mountaineers.
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In his last two seasons in Boone, Hampton racked up 107 tackles, 27 for a loss, 18 sacks and three forced fumbles in 23 games. To go along with that production, Hampton also showed some positional versatility when dropping back into pass coverage.
Named a captain for 2022, Hampton’s leadership in the locker room and on-field relentless are a plus.
The concerns
The biggest knock on Hampton is his size. Primarily lining-up as a standup edge rusher, his frame is a concern against the much larger offensive tackles in the NFL.
Another concern is scheme fit, Hampton’s abilities and physical attributes pigeonhole the linebacker into teams that play with an odd front.
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Though he can drop back into coverage, his strength is rushing the passer from a standup position, meaning he’s not going to play off-ball linebacker, nor put his hand in the dirt as a traditional defensive end in a 4-3 scheme.
This scheme dependency could limit the amount of teams that are willing to draft him in the earlier rounds, and could see fall into the full-time special teams player bucket in the eyes of a number of teams.
Final thoughts
Like a lot of players that will be selected in the 2023 NFL Draft, Hampton’s NFL journey can be drastically effected by the team that selects him.
But if the Rams offer the right scheme and a history of helping undersized players develop physically, Hampton has a chance to be in the league for a long time.
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It’s also possible that because of that size, he slips in the draft and is selected to fill a special teams role on a team that doesn’t utilize a defensive scheme that allows him to thrive.
Regardless of how the draft shakes out for Hampton, his motor and speed will at the very least give him a legitimate shot to be on a 53-man roster come the fall.
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