Clemson DT Peter Woods Scouting Report
If You Could You Wood
Image 1: DT Peter Woods (11) tackling RB Tae Meadows (22)
Height: 6’3
Weight: 315
Position: DT
Year: Junior
Background
Image 2: DT Peter Woods (11) in his final season at Thompson High School
Born on March 5th, 2005, Peter Woods was a Four-Star DL prospect in the class of 2023 coming out of Thompson High School in Alabaster, Alabama. Ranked as the 6th player in the state of Alabama, Woods was heavily sought after as a recruit due to his physical tools and three Alabama 7A state championships. As the target of a heated recruiting battle between Alabama, Clemson, Florida, and Jackson State, Woods would ultimately commit to Clemson.
As a Tiger, Woods would be an immediate impact player as he would see playing time in all 12 games and would earn Freshman All-American honors. In his sophomore season, Woods played all over the defensive line with snaps registered from alignments ranging from 3-Tech to 6-Tech. Entering his junior season, Woods is only being aligned as a DT and the hopes of being the top non-QB in the 2026 draft class.
Athletic Tools
Due to his great speed, agility, and explosiveness, Peter Woods is a highly disruptive player whose pass rush impact is not fully shown in his counting stats. With defensive line play in the NFL being a traits-first projection, Woods has enough athletic tools to have pass rush designed around him. Woods does flash solid play strength, but he is not a special strength athlete for the NFL. While he is not going to test anchors and collapse pockets, Woods’ movement ability is enough to make him a legit pass rusher.
Video 1: DT Peter Woods (11) using his speed and explosiveness when long sticking against a QB draw to get a tackle for loss
Video 2: DT Peter Woods (11) uses his quickness to get a tackle-for-loss when defending the read option
Video 3: DT Peter Woods (11) using his strength to lock out the OC to gain control of the gap
Despite having excellent physical tools, Woods does have a deficiency in his arm length. While length is not incredibly important for most of pass rushing, shorter arms do make it more difficult for defenders to finish plays when given angles to the QB. Due to being a poor finisher, Wood often fails to reliably turn pressures into sacks. In the run game, Wood’s length can lead to issues locking out longer IOL (though his lower pad level helps mitigate this) and making tackles on ball carriers. Though these issues are significant, the rest of Wood’s physical gifts help mitigate a lot of the concern surrounding his length.
Video 4: DT Peter Woods (11) penetrating on a stunt and whiffing the sack
Video 5: DT Peter Woods (11) utilizing speed-to-power as an EDGE and failing to convert the pressure into a sack
Video 6: DT Peter Woods (11) executes perfect peaking technique and whiffs the tackle
Technicals
Due to his athleticism, Woods can be a legitimate number one pass rusher in the NFL. The main issue with evaluating Woods’ pass rush refinement is that he rarely gets pass rush designed for him in Clemson’s defense. With the majority of their pass rush involving a type of stunt, Woods does not many opportunities to win technically pass rusher. While his lack of individual production will have analysts call him “raw”, I personally don’t think it’s fair to say, since he just has not been utilized in a role that would have him produce well. In my opinion, the overall “regression” of Woods as a pass rusher is more of a result of his role instead of him actually getting worse as a player. In terms of his ability on stunts, Woods is pretty great. By being a high-end athlete, Woods does a great job freeing up rush lanes for loopers and penetrating the backfield. While he is mainly used as a crasher, Woods would also be a very good looper due to his explosiveness and speed.
Video 7: DT Peter Woods (11) using a club-swim to get into the backfield
Video 8: DT Peter Woods (11) using a swipe-swim to get into the backfield
Video 9: DT Peter Woods (11) penetrates while crashing on a stunt and gets a sack
Video 10: DT Peter Woods (11) crashing to help create rush lanes for the looper
In the run game. Woods may lack length, but he makes up for it by having violent, strong hands when getting off blocks. Though he is not great at consistently tackling, Woods is not an overall poor one-on-one run defender as his movement and strength let him make impressive plays in space for a DT. Woods’ biggest issue is that he plays incredibly small when taking on double teams in the run game. While he is bigger than other twitched up athletic DTs (Ex. Osa Odighizuwa, Calijah Kancey, etc), Woods is unlikely to ever be great against double teams even as he gets stronger.
Video 11: DT Peter Woods (11) shedding two blocks before whiffing the tackle
Video 12: DT Peter Woods (11) fails to anchor down against the double team
Draft Projection
Peter Woods currently has a day one grade, as he is a high-end NFL athlete with legitimate pass rush ability. Like other high-end athlete DTs like Leonard Williams, Quinnen Williams, and Jalen Carter, Woods has the potential to develop into a team’s number one pass rush option. Though there is going to be a lot of discussion surrounding his production (something I personally don’t value for DL), Woods’ ability to be a great player on stunts will help him contribute early on as he gets more experience winning technically. While he is a player I doubt ever becomes a high impact run defender, Woods is still a good enough player to play early downs despite his tackling and double team issues. Given the state of the class, I expect Woods to go high, as he is one of the few true day one grades on the DL this year.
Athletic Testing
Will be updated after the NFL Combine/Clemson Pro Day
Pro Comparison
Image 3: DT Milton Williams (97) celebrating with DT Christian Barmore (90)
A sawed off, freak-of-nature athlete, Milton Williams is one of the few DTs that has similar movement ability to Peter Woods. Though he was smaller than Woods as a college prospect, Williams has filled out his frame and has become one of the league’s premier pass rushers due to his active hands, athleticism, and power. Like Woods, Williams struggles as a run defender due to his shorter arms and difficulty dealing with combo blocks. Despite his run-defense deficiencies, Williams still plays on early downs and is a full-time starter for the Patriots.
Date Published: 9/20/2025
Date Last Updated: 12/28/2025
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