Is Oregon DT Derrick Harmon the Next Cam Heyward? | Steelers 2025 NFL Draft Profile
INDIANAPOLIS — Last week, Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon participated in the 2025 NFL Combine. In the process leading up to the NFL Draft, it’s just one step of many, but it’s also one of the most publicized steps.
Over the years, the combine has gone from an event only the scouts cared about to a televisions spectacle. Harmon, a football lover from a young age growing up in Detroit, Michigan, remembers watching the event on TV.
“Me and my mom was watching this, straight from the combine to the NFL Draft,” Harmon said.
Harmon said his mom is the reason he is so driven to be a great football player.
“She’s gonna get after me if she feels like I left some plays out there,” he said. “She’s gonna call my phone if I left some plays out there, to this day. So, a lot of love for momma dukes. That’s my why right there.”
But for Harmon to get to the point where he is a projected first-round selection in the 2025 NFL Draft, he had to leave his mom and the rest of his home life behind. Harmon grew up in Detroit and attended Loyola High School in Detroit’s West Side.
Coming out of high school, Harmon had scholarship offers from several schools, including Memphis, Ole Miss and Purdue, but he was always going to pick Michigan State, even though his mom was a Michigan fan. He called one of his favorite Michigan State moments the infamous “trouble with the snap” punt gaffe by the Wolverines in 2015.
“My mom would be rooting for Michigan and I’d be going for Michigan State. And I remember the last play of the game where they blocked the punt, I went crazy,” Harmon said when he committed to MSU. “My mom was so upset that day, man. It was a good memory.”
But things didn’t go the way Harmon planned in East Lansing. He said on his commitment date the coaching staff, led by head coach Mel Tucker, was a big reason for his commitment.
“Really, it was the coaching staff,” Harmon said. “I saw that they were about to build something really special up there and I really wanted to be a part of that at Michigan State.”
Tucker was fired amid an allegation of sexual impropriety in 2023. Harmon immediately entered the transfer portal, then waffled, returning to Michigan State for spring practice before exiting for good in April of 2024.
His destination turned out to be quite far away from his mom and the rest of his life in Michigan, ending up with the Oregon Ducks.
“I feel like it was the best fit for me,” Harmon said. “It was a hard decision because I went 2,000 miles away from Michigan. That was probably the hardest decision that I’ve had to make, but I had to make it for my future.”
There was an unexpected benefit to the move. At Michigan State, Harmon played almost exclusively as a three-technique defensive tackle, aligning in the B-gap. Over three seasons with the Spartans, he had just 47 snaps in any other alignment, according to Pro Football Focus.
At Oregon, the Ducks play a defense called Mint, developed by Kirby Smart at Georgia, where Ducks head coach Dan Lanning was a linebackers coach and defensive coordinator from 2018-21.
The Mint is a hybrid of 4-3 and 3-4 concepts that lines up defensive ends on the inside shoulder of the offensive tackle, in what’s called a 4i technique, with a nose tackle in between them. The fourth lineman plays a seven or nine technique on the outside. It’s similar to the Steelers’ 3-4 scheme, except that only one of the outside linebackers is a pure edge rusher. The other plays off the ball.
The different alignment and different responsibilities unlocked something for Harmon. He had seven tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks in his three seasons at Michigan State. In 2024 with Oregon, he had 11 tackles for loss and five sacks, along with four passes defended and two forced fumbles.
According to PFF, Harmon played 353 snaps over the B-gap, 188 aligned with the tackle, 28 in the A-gap and 21 outside the tackle this past season. The versatility paid off.
“Really me playing that 4i,” Harmon said as the difference in his game at Oregon. “I never played the 4i in the three-down front. It was really a four-down, tight front at Michigan State. Going all the way Oregon, playin the 4i, sometimes the five or the six over the tight end, I really didn’t do that much [at Michigan State], but it showed how versatile I can be and will be to the next level.”
Harmon had to leave home in Michigan to find his home in Oregon’s defense, and that’s going to get him taken in the first round of the draft. Mom will definitely be watching.
HOW DOES DERRICK HARMON FIT WITH STEELERS?
The defensive end in Oregon’s defense does a lot of the same things that the defensive ends in the Steelers’ defense do, so it makes a lot of sense that when Harmon was asked about which players he looks to for inspiration at the NFL level, that he went straight to Pittsburgh stalwart Cam Heyward.
“Definitely Cam,” Harmon said. “The run, how he plays that run. If I want to watch some run tape, I’m turning on Cam Heyward.”
The Steelers have multiple needs along the defensive line this offseason. Larry Ogunjobi is a potential salary cap casualty at one DT/DE spot. Heyward is getting long in the tooth at the other. Keeanu Benton could slide off the nose and fill one of those slots. Backup nose tackle Montravius Adams is a free agent.
Harmon would be a replacement for Ogunjobi and/or an eventual replacement for Heyward as a three-tech in the Nickel and Dime and a five-tech in the base defense.
Harmon said he had a formal meeting with Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin at the combine.
“That’s a great guy. That’s a guy you can sit down and have an hour talk with, two-hour talk with, talk ball, talk life. Just a great guy to talk to.”
DERRICK HARMON COLLEGE STATS
Harmon preserved his redshirt by playing only four games in his 2021 freshman season. He decided to declare for the draft after one season at Oregon, anyway, after a career-best season.
| Year – Tear | GP | Tkl | TFL | Sack | PD | INT | FF | FR |
| 2024 – Oregon | 14 | 45 | 11 | 5.0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 2023 – Michigan St. | 12 | 40 | 4 | 1.5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2022 – Michigan St. | 12 | 30 | 3 | 2.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2021 – Michigan St. | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
TALE OF THE TAPE
Tested at the NFL Combine: 4.95-second 40-yard dash, 1.74-second 10-yard split
Measured at the NFL Combine: 6-foot-4 1/2, 313 pounds, 34 3/8-inch arms, 10 3/8-inch hands
Listed by Oregon: 6-5, 330 pounds
WHERE WILL BE DERRICK HARMON BE DRAFTED?
Derrick Harmon has hovering between the back of the first round and the start of the second round since late November, according to NFL Mock Draft Database. His best position has been No. 23, meaning he is the Steelers’ potential first-round prospect that will almost definitely be there when they pick at No. 21.
FILM ROOM
ODDS AND ENDS
Part of a program-record Oregon 12 recruits invited to the NFL Combine in 2024. … The Steelers have drafted 10 players all-time from Oregon, the last of which was tight end David Paulson in 2012. … Harmon was a two-year teammate of current Steelers defensive lineman Jacob Slade at Michigan state.