NFL April 30, 2026 0 Comments

The Untold Secrets Behind Caleb Banks: What You Never Knew

• The finishing is a concern. Gets into the backfield a lot but hasn’t made enough plays once he is there. Being able to recognize the ball direction without slowing his feet will put him in better positions to be a finisher. Has to close quicker in space

• Played in 3 games and just 96 snaps in 2025

• Suffered a broken foot at the Combine and won’t be healthy until (hopefully) right before training camp

Scheme Fit & Outlook

Caleb Banks is a versatile defensive lineman who mostly played 3-tech to 4i for the Gators, but could see his role expand in the NFL. He spent his first two seasons at Louisville, playing less than 50 snaps before eventually transferring to Florida in 2023. Injuries have plagued Banks and limited his production, but he played 364 snaps in 2023 and 422 in 2024 before a disappointing 96-snap 2025 campaign.

It should be noted that Banks came back from foot surgery after his first game of the season in Week 3 in order to play in Weeks 13 and 14. Most of the time, with an injury like that and the NFL on the horizon, players will just sit out the rest of the season. So major props to Banks for working hard to get back in action.

Unfortunately, with his reoccurring foot issues over multiple seasons now, combined with how little he’s played and how raw he is, it would not be surprising if he is off the board entirely for some teams. Still, Banks is the most talented interior defensive lineman in the class, with the best combination of pass rush ability and physical tools. He was able to beat offensive linemen on their edge with quickness and devastating hand usage more frequently than anyone else I’ve seen in the class.

Banks played in a 4-point stance for a lot of his snaps at Florida, so the shining examples of elite upfield burst are really limited in his tape. If that improves with a different stance in the NFL, the payoff could be significant. Banks already has good side-to-side movement sudden hands, crazy length/strength and an array of rush moves, but he just doesn’t threaten fast enough on most plays. A good bit of that is because of how Florida deployed him as a gap holder more so than an attacking player.

But in game situations where he was allowed to let it rip, you see how explosive he can be. Banks destroyed LSU in 2024, when the Tigers were trailing in the 4th quarter and in pass heavy mode, allowing Banks to tee off. He finished the game with 45 pass rushes (career high), 9 pressures, 2 QB hits and a sack.

Also, because of Banks’ collegiate playing style and pad level issues as he moves up the field, there just isn’t a whole lot of impact as a speed-to-power rusher. So he’ll need to be a player who wins by crossing the face of his opponent or accessing the edges of blockers, which he seems well-prepared to do.

As a run defender, good luck figuring Banks out. His approach isn’t always one you’d show in the defensive line 101 videos, but some of these unconventional sized defensive linemen do play this way, even in the NFL. Banks has inconsistent take-on technique, sometimes crashing into blockers with his shoulders and not using his hands at all. But he’s so big and strong that throwing his body into gaps somehow works for him, even if he doesn’t always control space well enough to stack/shed/stop in the run game.

It should be noted that Banks did seem to be improving his run game technique and awareness toward the end of the 2024 season. The tapes against Tennessee and LSU feature a lot of strong take-on play and block awareness, and his pad level in the run game is a strength on most plays. It’s actually crazy to watch a player his height come off the ball so leveraged. When he isn’t moving gaps at the snap, Banks showed the ability to hold points and stack blocks, even if he’ll probably never be the “front fracture”, devastating run defender that the special guys are.

Also, like apparently almost every defensive tackle in this class, Banks is a dreadful finisher/tackler. 21 stops (tackles that constitute a “failure” for the offense) and 13 missed tackles over 5 years of college play is a hilariously bad ratio, and a troubling lack of production. But Banks is probably a little more impactful than those stop numbers would indicate, even if his style of play won’t have the same level of success in the NFL. He’s disruptive on a regular basis, yet the finishing has been elusive.

Banks isn’t always going to be a textbook run defender, and there will be ups and downs in the duo world of the NFL where more double teams attack him. The really talented offensive linemen with great technique might make his life miserable, at least at the beginning.

But, in one of the worst interior defensive line classes we’ve seen in awhile, Banks is one of the few defensive tackles with blue chip talent and traits to go with improving tape and pass rush skill/upside. I’m terrified about the health, but he’s the defensive tackle in this class that it makes the most sense to bet on based on the on-field play.

Banks landed confidently in Tier 3 for me as a Good Starter, but it’s very possible if he’d played in 2025 and had more production I could trust, that I would have him as a Tier 2 player. I think he easily offers the most valuable skill set amongst all defensive tackles in the class.

Banks best reps are reminiscent of Chris Jones coming out of Mississippi State, big guys who play more of a finesse, athletic, slippery style rather than a raw power down the midline approach. That isn’t to say he’ll have the same career as Jones, who was uncorked as an attacker in Mississippi State’s scheme far more than Banks was at Florida. But the traits and strengths and weaknesses are similar enough that you can see a path to better, more productive ball in the NFL for Banks than there was in college. Close your eyes and roll the dice.