Syracuse edge rusher Fadil Diggs selected 254th overall by Saints in 2025 NFL Draft
Fadil Diggs was selected 254th overall in the 2025 NFL Draft after his 7.5-sack season in his lone year at Syracuse. Jacob Halsema | Staff Photographer
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.
Syracuse edge rusher Fadil Diggs was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the seventh round of the 2025 NFL Draft. After four years at Texas A&M, Diggs transferred to the Orange and recorded a team-high 7.5 sacks.
Diggs becomes the third SU defensive end to be drafted in the last decade, and the first since Alton Robinson in the 2020 draft. At 6-foot-5, 261 pounds, Diggs showed off his adaptability throughout the 2024 season, occasionally dropping back in coverage to fill the shoes of an injured Marlowe Wax.
“I’m a guy that’s gonna be on the edge, but I’m able to play (linebacker),” Diggs said at SU’s Pro Day on March 17. “Just having that versatility, showing that this year, meant a lot.”
Throughout the draft process, Diggs said scouts have told him they like him best as an edge rusher. Diggs told The Draft Network’s Justin Melo from The Draft Network he met with the New York Giants, Arizona Cardinals, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints and Jacksonville Jaguars ahead of the draft.
The East Camden, New Jersey, native said he spent much of the offseason in Florida preparing for the draft. He first showed off on the combine circuit at the East-West Shrine Bowl. A few weeks later, he wowed scouts at the NFL Combine by turning in an impressive 4.57 40-yard dash. The time was the third-fastest among defensive linemen, and he also posted a 30.5 inch vertical leap.
With an established body of work for scouts to evaluate, Diggs didn’t participate much in Syracuse’s Pro Day, benching 225 pounds for 26 reps and going through the short shuttle. His combine season statistics aligned with his most productive year of his career. Diggs earned an All-Atlantic Coast Conference Honorable Mention after tallying 14 tackles for loss and 45 total tackles.
Though he didn’t appear in Syracuse’s Holiday Bowl win over Washington State, Diggs showed off throughout the season. He clinched SU’s overtime win over VT by recovering a forced fumble. Earlier in the year, Diggs was named the National Defensive Player of the Week following two sacks in the Orange’s win over then-No. 25 UNLV.
Diggs bet on himself after the 2023 season, leaving an SEC program to follow his lead recruiter Elijah Robinson to the Orange. SU head coach Fran Brown described Diggs as the other piece alongside Kyle McCord he wanted in the transfer portal, setting a standard on the defense. With the Aggies across four seasons, he tallied eight sacks and 75 tackles, playing alongside multiple future NFL talents on the defensive line.
“(Diggs) is really one of the most dominant guys, because I’ve seen him knock back 6-foot-6, 350-pound first rounders and ragdoll them all around,” McKinnley Jackson, who was selected in the third round by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2024 NFL Draft, told The Daily Orange last August.
Now, Diggs will fight to make the Saints’ roster and build his professional career following five college seasons.
