College sack master Antwaun Powell-Ryland ready for his Eagles opportunity
The sixth-round draft pick might be undersized, but the Eagles have a need at edge rusher and Powell-Ryland recorded 25 1/2 sacks over two seasons at Virginia Tech.
Antwaun Powell-Ryland didn’t wait nervously at his home in Portsmouth, Va., to receive the fateful phone call on draft weekend. He didn’t wait anxiously.
Rather, the 23-year-old edge rusher out of Virginia Tech waited patiently, open-minded about which round would reveal his NFL future as long as he got an opportunity to compete for a job. When Howie Roseman called the 6-foot-3, 258-pound Powell-Ryland in the sixth round of the draft, he took one step closer to realizing his dream.
“I love the game,” Powell-Ryland said Friday on the first day of Eagles rookie camp. “[As] long as I get a shot, that’s all I need. I’m not really worried about how big my arms are or how big I am. I’m a ballplayer. You cut on the tape, you’re going to see it. I’m just happy with the opportunity.”
The opportunity is his for the taking. The Eagles are entering a transitional period at edge rusher, with Josh Sweat departing in free agency for the Arizona Cardinals and Brandon Graham retiring after 15 seasons with the team.
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Powell-Ryland could have an opportunity to make an impact in a young edge-rushers corps featuring rising stars Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt. Last season, his second at Virginia Tech after transferring from Florida in 2023, Powell-Ryland proved his pass-rushing chops by collecting a team-high 16 sacks and 19 tackles for loss.
The year before, Powell-Ryland racked up a team-best 9½ sacks and 14½ tackles for losses. He attributed his increased production to his sense of comfort in the Virginia Tech system in Year 2.
“I had to come straight into fall camp,” Powell-Ryland said of his first season at Virginia Tech in 2023. “The first year, that was at Virginia Tech, and try to get it as fast as I could. I was able to settle down the second year and take off.”
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His 25½ sacks over two seasons put him in historic company at Virginia Tech. He had three four-sack games in those two seasons (two in 2024, one in 2023). Powell-Ryland and Pro Football Hall of Famer Bruce Smith are the only players in school history with multiple four-sack games. (Smith had two total in 1983-84.)
Powell-Ryland is well-acquainted with the Virginia Tech legend, having met him when he was in high school. They have kept in touch ever since.
“There were times where he told me I could text him,” Powell-Ryland said. “Record some stuff and ask him advice on whatever it is that I had. So I definitely got a good relationship with Bruce, and he also kept in contact with me over this draft process, just letting me know when it’s time to get into the program, you just be ready to work.”
In addition to his penchant for sacks, Powell-Ryland also has a knack for knocking the football from his opponent’s grasp. Powell-Ryland notched nine forced fumbles in his last three seasons, including his final year at Florida.
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“Definitely, an emphasis with it on coaching,” Powell-Ryland said. “And not only that, that’s definitely something that I wanted to do as well. I wanted to get the offense as many opportunities as they could to score. So my mind was definitely on that ball.”
Still, there’s a reason Powell-Ryland fell to the Eagles in the sixth round despite his sensational college production. He is relatively undersized for the position, ranking in the 20th percentile in height and 35th percentile in weight among edge rushers, according to MockDraftable. His arm length (31¼ inches; second percentile) and wingspan (76⅛ inches; third percentile) are even bigger outliers at the position.
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The Eagles have had success at developing undersized edge rushers, though. Nolan Smith, Hunt, and Powell-Ryland aren’t exactly hulking edge defenders, but Smith and Hunt have better athletic testing numbers than the team’s latest draft pick at the position.
Regardless, Powell-Ryland said he views his size as an advantage, not a weakness, when going up against bigger offensive tackles.
“They say I’m undersized, so it’s nothing for me to really be as low as most people could be,” Powell-Ryland said. “So being able to go against those tackles is definitely with my advantage because they’re a lot bigger than me.”
Come training camp, Powell-Ryland likely will have an opportunity to hone his craft against two of the best tackles in the game in Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata.
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“Definitely not only their technique, but the mindset and how they view the game as far as the other side,” Powell-Ryland said. “Just mainly the things that they do to be successful, I would like to know the things that they do so when it comes to opposing offensive tackles, I’ll know how to control it.”
While the makeup of the pass-rushing corps is shifting, Powell-Ryland is familiar with the Eagles’ tradition of excellent edge rushers cultivated by players such as Graham.
Draft pedigree and size aside, Powell-Ryland is eager to keep that tradition going.
“Being here at the Eagles is great,” Powell-Ryland said. “It’s a high standard here. So having to follow those footsteps, I’m definitely ready for the challenge.”