Sports Illustrated Scout Profiles Villanova OG Temi Ajirotutu as 2026 NFL Draft Prospect

Across 52 career games and 1,324 pass-blocking snaps at Villanova, Temi Ajirotutu allowed just 52 pressures and 6 sacks, producing a 3.9% pressure rate that tells a compelling story about his reliability in the trenches. Those numbers, now catalogued in a long-form scouting report by Sports Illustrated's FCS Football Central, position the interior offensive lineman as a legitimate 2026 NFL Draft commodity whose FCS pedigree shouldn't obscure his measurable value to pro scouts.

The report, authored by Gerald J. Huggins II, SI's official NFL Draft analyst for FCS Football Central, highlights both Ajirotutu's production and the precise traits NFL evaluators will scrutinize as draft weekend approaches. Huggins brings serious credentialing to this evaluation: he serves as a national scout for the East-West Shrine Bowl and DraftHBCU, votes officially for the Aeneas Williams and Jim Thorpe Awards, and serves as the Director of Football Operations at Morgan State University. When he files a scouting report on an FCS interior lineman, NFL front offices are paying attention.

What the Numbers Actually Say

The career statistics block assembled for Ajirotutu's profile is deceptively clean. A 3.9% pressure rate across 1,324 pass-blocking snaps over 52 games is the kind of efficiency figure that travels well from the FCS level to NFL draft boards. To put that in context: pressures allowed and sack totals are among the most transferable metrics evaluators use when projecting offensive linemen from smaller programs, precisely because the underlying task, keeping a defender away from the quarterback, doesn't change based on the level of competition.

Six sacks allowed across an entire career spanning more than four years of college football is a figure that would draw attention regardless of which conference produced it. For a guard profile labeled specifically as a run-game-first player, that pass protection competency adds an important secondary dimension. NFL teams in 2026 want interior linemen who can win in both phases, and Ajirotutu's statistical record suggests he wasn't a liability in the passing game despite being built and evaluated primarily as a run blocker.

A Career Built on Recognition

The accolades Ajirotutu accumulated at Villanova underscore that his production wasn't invisible to evaluators at the collegiate level. He earned Third-Team All-CAA honors in 2023 before a significant ascent to First-Team All-CAA in 2025. That same season, he claimed First-Team AFCA FCS All-American recognition and Second-Team FCS Football Central All-American honors, essentially sweeping the major recognition available to an FCS interior lineman.

The phrase Huggins uses to frame Ajirotutu's Villanova career, that he put "an All-American stamp" on it, is doing real work here. It signals a player who didn't merely accumulate snaps but elevated his profile year over year, finishing as one of the most decorated offensive linemen in the Colonial Athletic Association. First-Team AFCA FCS All-American is not a participation credential; it reflects a consensus among coaches and scouts that a player performed at the top of his position class nationally within the FCS.

The Historical Weight of a Draft Selection

The draft context surrounding Ajirotutu adds another dimension to why this scouting report matters. If selected in 2026, he would be the first former Villanova Wildcat taken in the NFL Draft since cornerback Christian Benford went in 2022. More specifically, Ajirotutu would be the first offensive lineman from Villanova drafted since 2017, a gap of nearly a decade at the position.

That nine-year absence of Villanova offensive linemen from NFL rosters is worth sitting with. It reflects how rarely FCS programs produce players at that position who clear the evaluation bar that NFL teams apply, and it frames the significance of Huggins singling out Ajirotutu for a dedicated long-form profile. This isn't a courtesy feature for a regional award winner; it's a substantive evaluation of a player the analyst believes has a legitimate path to being selected.

Benford, the most recent Villanova player drafted, was taken in the sixth round by the Buffalo Bills and has established himself in the league. His trajectory as an FCS-to-NFL success story from the same program gives Ajirotutu's candidacy a recent reference point, even if cornerback and guard represent very different positional evaluation processes.

The Run-Game Profile and What It Means for NFL Fit

The headline descriptor attached to Ajirotutu's SI report, "Interior OL With A Run-Game Profile," is a specific and meaningful categorization in NFL scouting language. It signals that his primary value to an NFL team is as a point-of-attack blocker whose ability to generate movement in the run game and sustain blocks through the whistle will drive his draft stock. This profile fits several offensive systems currently prominent in the NFL, particularly teams that prioritize gap-scheme running attacks built around pulling guards and down-block combinations.

The fact that his pass protection numbers are as clean as they are despite carrying this designation suggests he's not a one-dimensional player who gets exposed in obvious passing situations. Guards with authentic run-game upside and acceptable pass protection floor are exactly the type of value finds that teams building offensive line depth look for in the middle rounds of any draft.

About the Analyst Behind the Report

Gerald J. Huggins II's credentials give this scouting report institutional weight that extends beyond a single publication. His roles as a national scout for the East-West Shrine Bowl and DraftHBCU place him at the center of pre-draft evaluation ecosystems that feed directly into NFL decisions. The East-West Shrine Bowl in particular is one of the longest-running college all-star games and functions as a formal evaluation stage where NFL scouts and coaches see players up close. His voting responsibilities for the Aeneas Williams and Jim Thorpe Awards, which recognize the nation's top defensive backs, further demonstrate that Huggins operates at the intersection of FCS talent evaluation and national football credibility.

For FCS players like Ajirotutu, having their name attached to a detailed evaluation by someone with those connections is not a minor thing. It represents a credible signal to NFL personnel departments that a player merits further investigation beyond what their regional scouts may have flagged.

Ajirotutu's path from Villanova to a potential draft selection follows a familiar but difficult road: outperform expectations in an undersized conference, accumulate hardware, log enough high-quality snaps to generate a statistical case, and hope the right evaluator writes the right report at the right moment. With Huggins' SI profile now public, at least one of those conditions has been met.