The New York Giants were busy throughout the opening week of free agency. However, there was on weakness on the roster that they didn’t address: Their defensive line depth.
The interior defensive line isn’t a strength of the 2026 NFL draft class. There aren’t any prospects who are likely to go in the top 10, and we might not see any selected until the end of the first round. Clemson defensive tackle Peter Woods was widely considered a potential high first round pick coming into the year, but saw his draft stock fall off dramatically in the midst of a bad season for the Tigers as a whole.
Is Woods still a potential steal for the right team? Or was he overrated coming into the year?
Prospect: Peter Woods (11)
Games Watched: vs. Georgia Tech (2025), vs. SMU (2025), vs. South Carolina (2025)
Red Flags: Hamstring (2026, limited him to a 10-yard split at Clemson’s pro day
Measurables
(Note: Woods also ran the 10-yard split of the 40-yard dash at Clemson’s Pro Day. He was timed at 1.67 seconds, which is faster than the 1.75 average. )
Strengths
Best traits
- Explosiveness
- Power
- Leverage
- Versatility
- Disruptiveness
Peter Woods is a compact, but powerful, athletic, versatile, and competitive defensive lineman.
Woods is an undersized defensive tackle at 6-foot 2 ½ inches, and 292 pounds, however he’s also explosive in a short area. He tested with an above-average 1.67-second 10-yard split, and appears to have a good first step and burst on tape. He also has clear power in his upper and lower halves, and is capable of jolting blockers backward when he uncoils his hips.
His stocky frame also belies good short-area quickness and agility, partly as a result of short, choppy steps on the move. Woods’ quickness and agility also allows him to line up as a jumbo edge rusher on occasion, even playing from a two-point stance. He was particularly productive from that alignment in 2024, before playing a more traditional defensive tackle role in 2025.
His power and agility each make him both useful and disruptive on stunts and twists. He’s effective crashing down, occupying blockers to free up the looper, while also effective as a looper himself. He’s disruptive when attacking individual gaps, and his traits create opportunities to scheme him opportunities to penetrate into the backfield.
Woods typically keys the snap well and is one of the first players moving at the start of the play. He also tracks the ball well in the backfield and is both quick and accurate when diagnosing the play. He’s quick to disengage and pursue ball carriers on screens or swing passes, and offers great effort in pursuit.
Weaknesses
Worst traits
- Block shedding
- Long speed
- Consistency
The single biggest weakness in Woods’ profile is his arm length, and that shows up in several areas of his game.
Most notably, it severely limits how he’s able to take on blockers and can lead to some significant inconsistency in his production. Woods is able to be disruptive if he wins the initial leverage battle or is able to stop opposing linemen from locking in their blocks. However, he has a frustrating tendency to stay blocked if linemen get their hands on him first.
Likewise, his lack of length limits his ability to make plays off of blockers, as well as his tackle radius. He simply doesn’t occupy much room in gaps and ball carriers can get around him even with half-man leverage.
Woods also has limited long speed, and reaches his top speed quickly. That limits how successful he’s able to be in pursuit and as a pass rusher. He’s effective when he wins quickly, however his play speed slows dramatically when he has to run quarterbacks down.
Finally, teams will want to know why Woods’ production fell off so dramatically from 2024 to 2025 and whether that’s linked to the hamstring injury that kept him from running the 40-yard dash at the Clemson Pro Day.
Game Tape
(Woods is the Clemson defensive tackle wearing number with white tape on the back of his arms)
Projection
Peter Woods projects as a high-volume defensive lineman in an aggressive one-gap defense.
Whether he’s nominally a “starting” or “rotational” player will likely depend on the situation into which he’s drafted. However, his blend of traits should allow a creative and aggressive defensive coordinator to find a variety of ways to get him on the field. In particular, his ability to line up as a stand-up rusher on the edge is uncommon for players who would ordinarily be defensive tackles.
Teams will likely have concerns regarding Woods’ arm length, as well as his dramatic fall-off from 2024 to 2025. His arms may mean that he might not be consistently productive at the NFL level, and his limitations certainly showed up on tape last year. That said, his versatility could allow his future team to scheme him opportunities to disrupt and be an outlier.
Teams can be wary of outliers, and his drop in production could cause enough hesitation to knock him down draft boards. However, that could mean a team could get a steal if Woods is able to regain his 2024 form.
Does he fit the Giants? Possibly, depending on the scheme
Final Word: An early second round pick
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