Fabien Lovett scouting report: Exploring the Florida State interior defensive lineman's strengths and weaknesses

One of the top-500 national recruits for Mississippi State back in 2018, Fabien Lovett started all but two of 15 games a true freshman, recording 19 tackles, 2.5 for loss and a sack.

He decided to transfer to FSU the following offseason, where he only started two of eight games in year one and then 16 of 20 the next two, before actually playing a career-high in snaps (337) despite not starting any of 13 contests in 2023. This past season, he recorded 22 tackles, four TFLs, one sack and three passes batted down at the line.

Prospect: 6-foot-4, 315 pounds; RS SR.

Breaking down Fabien Lovett's scouting report

Run defense:

• Sturdy presence on the interior, who doesn’t allow himself to get far off his landmarks
• Packs a strong first punch to create stalemates at the line of scrimmage and then a pretty quick arm-over to disengage as the ball-carrier tries to go through the gap next to him
• Shows the ability to lock out, peak and shed for two-gap assignments with those insanely long 35.5-inch arms
• Looks like a bear almost at times, where he just yanks solo-blockers from side to side trying to track the guy with the ball before ultimately tossing them aside to create initial contact
• Has an uncanny ability to feel pressure being applied from one side and positioning his lower body to absorb and anchor against it
• Playing without gloves, it truly feels like Lovett is more slippery than most guys at the position and you regularly see blockers end up without anybody to block
• That combined with the force to pull large men off himself allows him to legitimately split double-teams occasionally
• Capable of sliding off blocks and creating first contact on the back after it seemed like the center was at least in his way just a moment ago
• Regularly is able to grab a hold of the ball-carrier even as he’s engaged with blockers with the long arm of the law, and didn’t miss a single tackle last season

Pass-rush:

• For a man of his stature, Lovett’s level of activity and variety of hand-combats is impressive
• Throws out a nice two-handed downward swipe move to defeat the hands of interior pass-protectors
• When he gets those hands off early with a head of steam, it’s tough to still slow him down at all
• Plus, because he’s the one with control, transitioning into bull-pull maneuvers and getting blockers off balance is something he’s very capable of
• Will aggressively redirect and chase after quarterbacks pulling the ball on bootlegs
• Locates the quarterback, slides off blocks and tracks him down well for a big bear
• Recorded 46 total pressures on just under 700 pass-rush snaps with the Seminoles despite seeing four hands coming his way in that A-gap alignment a lot

Weaknesses:

• Lacks the short-area burst once he’s disengaged from blockers to track down nearby ball-carrier regularly
• As fun as it is to watch for Lovett slip off bodies initially, not wearing gloves combined with sub-par technique leads to more missed tackles than you’d like to see if guys don’t run straight into him – missed at least 14.3% of attempted stops each of the prior four seasons
• While he wasn’t allowed to just attack up the field a whole lot on defined dropbacks, you’d like to see some more pop off the snap when he does get those chances
• Pedestrian production as a pass-rusher without the quick feet to collect early wins
• Will likely be a two-down player at the next level who plays between the guards

Fabien Lovett's 2024 NFL Draft prospect

What you see is what you’re going to get with Fabien Lovett, but I think what he puts out there is being undervalued. Playing alongside Jared Verse and Braden Fiske on that Seminole D-line, he was kind of overshadowed, and with a deep rotation on the interior, he didn’t play a ton of opportunities particularly in defined dropback situations.

However, this is a nearly immovable object, who looks like he’s oiled up with the way he’s able to slide off contact at the right moment to wrap up the ball-carrier. He’s not going to give you a lot of juice in passing situations, he can push the pocket and then has the active hands to pull bodies off himself or find secondary paths towards the quarterback.

I just talked about Fabien Lovett as one of “my guys” among this draft class and can’t believe that based on consensus boards, he’s projected to barely get draft at all. He may never log North of 500 snaps in a season for me, but I’m happily targeting him early on day three as a nose-tackle with some scheme versatility.

Grade: Early fourth round