Bryant's Michael Otty Dominates CAA With 17 TFLs, 16 Sacks

Michael Otty finished 2025 as the CAA’s most disruptive interior defender, leading the league with 17 tackles for loss and earning first-team All-CAA honors while being credited in reporting with 16 sacks. The stat line and college production pushed Otty onto national radars and earned him an invite to the inaugural NFL-FCS showcase in Nashville, where he was one of six CAA players invited.

Across a 43-game career at Bryant, Otty compiled 107 total tackles, 73 solo stops, 38.5 tackles for loss and 16 sacks, along with five forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and three blocked kicks. The 38.5 TFLs are listed as fifth all-time in Bryant program history, a concrete marker that separates him from other mid-major interior linemen when NFL evaluators look for consistent backfield disruption.

The scouting voice that follows the numbers is unambiguous about how he makes those numbers. SI’s scouting report called Otty “an interior defensive lineman with below-average size, a condensed frame, and an explosive play style with good quickness and hand activity.” Evaluators flagged his explosive get-off and bend, with the report adding, “He shows an outstanding get-off, with an explosive burst and quality bend.” Those traits translate to production: his quickness allows him to “slip blocks, split double teams, and be disruptive in the offensive backfield.”

Otty’s pass-rush toolkit is described in similarly vivid terms. The scouting notes that he “uses a quick swim move and a lateral burst to help him penetrate and stress blocking assignments” and that he is “very effective on stunts, slants, and games due to his movement skills.” The report emphasized his hand work — “active hands, chops, and swipes” — and concluded that “as a pass rusher, he is very active and plays with quick hands. His bend and leverage allow him to dip under pass blockers, and his burst to the quarterback is good.”

The evaluation is not unvarnished praise. Scouts pointed to technical limitations that will concern NFL teams tasked with assigning him a role at the next level: “he lacks consistent hand placement and extension against blockers,” his “base tends to get narrow, which negatively impacts his ability to anchor against down and combination blocks,” and when he “works upfield, he tends to be out of control, missing routine tackles, and struggling to finish at the quarterback.” Those are the footnotes teams will want cleaned up in pro settings.

Otty’s draft résumé benefits from both production and profile-building opportunities. He earned an invite to the NFL-FCS showcase in Nashville and, according to reporting, “has a chance to become the first player from Bryant to be selected in the NFL Draft.” One data point to reconcile on his dossier: the reporting lists 16 sacks as both a 2025 total in one account and as his career sack total in the aggregated stat line; official Bryant game logs or the school’s stat book should confirm season-by-season sack numbers.

From a numbers-first perspective, 17 TFLs in a single season and 38.5 TFLs for a career are rare commodities for an interior defender from a program of Bryant’s size. That combination of production, demonstrable pass-rush traits, and an NFL-FCS showcase invite is why Otty is suddenly a name pro scouts will be weighing as draft season progresses.