Siaki Ika 2023 NFL Draft profile: Scout report for the Baylor IDL

Siaki Ika, Baylor: 6’3”, 340 pounds; RS JR.

A four-star recruit for LSU in 2019, Siaki Ika had a modest two years with the Tigers. He then followed his (former) defensive coordinator Dave Aranda to Baylor, where he had a breakout season, racking up six tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks and impressive underlying numbers rushing the passer.

In 2022, he matched the number of total tackles (24) and batted down two passes, but the number of negative plays forced was minimal (two TFLs, zero sacks). Still, Big-12 coaches recognized his impact and elevated him from second- to first-team all-conference.

Siaki Ika scout report: Strengths

Siaki Ika #62 of the Baylor Bears and teammate Garmon Randolph #55 pressure Layne Hatcher #3 of the Texas State Bobcats

+ Siaki Ika is a massive nose-tackle who can stack and shed like a true zero, but also be a menace as a penetrator, with highly impressive agility for that size.

+ Ika constantly demands double-teams in the run game and set the table for a Bears defense that held opponents to 3.4 and 3.9 yards per rush respectively over the last two years.

+ When he is soloed up, you frequently see him bench-press centers and then slide into either A-gap as the ball-carrier approaches.

+ If he is shaded towards one shoulder of the blocker and can just stack blockers, he will force ball-carriers to cut upfield earlier than they’d like to usually.

+ Flowing laterally with wide zone concepts, Ika’s ability to stop his momentum and eat up ball-carriers as they try to cut up behind him is very impressive.

+ Does a great job of reducing his surface area against angular blocks and minimizing the momentum opponents are able to build up.

+ Kind of swallows that bump guys try to deliver on quick combos a lot of times.

+ If the offense legitimately double-teams him on vertical run schemes, his ability to drop that knee closer to the lineman arriving on an angle, allows him to still own his space.

+ Will surprise blockers with sudden club-swim moves and working cross-face in passing situations.

+ If he goes for a straight up bull-rush he can walk just about anybody back to the quarterback if you give him some time.

+ Off that, he flashes an impressive push-pull maneuver, as blockers have to lean into him.

+ Every once in a while, he will pull off a spin move that made me go “Whoa.”

+ Quickly recognizes when it’s play-action and that he needs to disengage from blocks to get to the QB, particularly back-dooring zone-blockers.

+ When Baylor mugged the MIKE backer over the center in five-man fronts, Ika would line up at three-technique and show the ability to use that little bit of extra runway to build up power.

+ Was frequently utilized as the set-up man for LB wrap-arounds, slanting across a guard and crashing into the center.

+ Was one of the most productive nose-tackles rushing the passer in 2021, with 33 total pressures on 275 pass-rushing snaps. While that number did shrink (18 on 215 such snaps), having established himself in that conference and receiving more attention, he still put up a more than respectable 12.2% pass-rush win rate.

+ Routinely tracks the eyes of the quarterback and gets his hands up into the passing lane when doubled and/or not having an opportunity to get home.

Siaki Ika scout report: Weaknesses

Siaki Ika #62 of the Baylor Bears walks off the field following Baylors 42-7 win over Texas State

– Siaki Ika's short arms (32 and 3/8) do show up at times trying to disengage and I think he could still become a little quicker with doing so altogether, to become more of a play-maker at that spot. He only earned a PFF run-defense grade of 69.1 in 2022, where his down-to-down consistency wasn’t quite the same as the year prior.

– Has to do a better job staying on his feet, not crossing them over as he works laterally and just improving his body-control in general, in order to stay balanced.

– Presents a limited tackling radius and missed nine of his 33 attempts last season (27.3%).

– Would benefit from attacking the edges of blockers more regularly in passing situations.

– Doesn’t show any plans of a legitimate secondary move, if his initial approach doesn’t work out.

Siaki Ika scout report: Grade

Spencer Sanders #3 of the Oklahoma State Cowboys is met by Dillon Doyle #5 and Siaki Ika #62 of the Baylor Bear

Siaki Ika to me was undoubtedly a top-five interior defensive lineman heading into the 2022 college football season.

With Baylor not being as relevant on a national scale and more of my focus shifting towards giving NFL analysis, I didn’t track his development as much. I heard a lot about a drop in effort and overall play by the D-tackle and while I do believe he was less impactful, I still think there’s a lot to like about this massive human being with much better movement skills than you’d expect.

Where I was a bit disappointed about his ’22 tape was the fact that Siaki Ika looked much more like the space-eater people think of for a 350+ pounder rather than the play-maker I saw the prior season. However, with the proper coaching to revitalize that facet of his game, I believe he can become a plus starter as a two-down nose-tackle, with the potential to add more to his pocket-pushing when teams do drop back.

Weight management will be key for a guy of his dimensions, however, after he surprisingly showed up a good 20 pounds lighter than expected at the combine.

Grade: Third round

You might like other 2023 NFL Draft Scouting Reports: Tyree Wilson (EDGE), Texas Tech; Will Anderson Jr. (EDGE), Alabama; Jaxon Smith-Njigba (WR), Ohio; Zay Flowers (WR), Boston; Jordan Addison (WR), USC; Jordan Addison (WR), USC; Quentin Johnston (WR), TCU; Zach Charbonnet (RB), UCLA; Bijan Robinson (RB), Texas.

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