Hogs' run of drafted DTs continues with Marshall
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Jonathan Marshall is the first Arkansas player of the board in the 2021 NFL Draft.
He was selected by the New York Jets in the sixth round - and with the 207th overall pick - Saturday, extending the Razorbacks’ streak to 26 straight years with at least one player taken in the annual event.
This is the third straight year the Razorbacks have had a defensive tackle selected in the NFL Draft. Armon Watts was a sixth-round pick by the Vikings in 2019 and McTelvin Agim was a third-round pick by the Broncos last year. In the decade before that stretch, they had just one defensive tackle drafted - Darius Philon (sixth round, Chargers) in 2015.
During his five seasons in Fayetteville, Marshall - who was consistently described as the strongest player on the team - saw his playing time gradually increase and eventually became one of the most dominant interior linemen in the SEC.
It doesn’t necessarily show up in traditional statistics, as he officially finished with 35 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, 1 sack and 4 quarterback hurries, but Marshall earned a 79.3 overall grade from Pro Football Focus. That ranked third in the conference, behind only Alabama’s Christian Barmore and Phidarian Mathis.
Despite hardly ever coming off the field, Marshall consistently generated pressure and was a solid run stopper up the middle for the Razorbacks in 2020. Playing 76.4 percent of the total defensive snaps - an average of 63.3 per game - PFF credited him with 29 pressures and 22 stops, both of which are among the top 20 totals for interior defensive linemen in the country.
The performance wasn’t completely out of nowhere, though. Instead, he enjoyed a steady progression during his career, which spanned three different head coaches, four defensive coordinators and four position coaches.
After redshirting as a 5.5 three-star recruit in 2016, Marshall was a reserve and played 160 defensive snaps, posting a 60.3 grade, as a redshirt freshman. The next two years, he was a backup and earned a 66.2 grade on 286 snaps in 2018 and an impressive 77.8 grade on 311 snaps in 2019.