Behind Derrick Harmon’s 2025 NFL Draft rise from COVID-impacted football recruit to potential first-round pick

When Derrick Harmon ran a 4.95 time on his second 40-yard-dash attempt Feb. 27 at the 2025 NFL Combine, NFL Network’s Rich Eisen let out a “my goodness.”

Kevin Rogers, who was the coach at Detroit Loyola during Harmon’s senior season, had a different reaction.

“I thought he would run faster,” Rogers said.

Harmon agreed.

“I was trying to get to a 4.8,” he told NFL Network after his run, “but I’ll take the 4.95.” The 6-foot-4 1/2, 313-pound Harmon also clocked a 1.74-second 10-yard split.

“Listen, his athleticism is crazy,” Rogers said. “We would end practices with sending him 50 yards down field and have him catch punts out of the Jugs machine, and he would catch them out of the air and always do it.

“He had the athleticism. We knew that. The kid could run, jump. He was a natural bender, so none [of Harmon’s combine performance] surprised me.”

Harmon is trending as a likely first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. But he was not an obvious blue-chip recruit. 

Prior to Rogers’ Loyola arrival, the high school’s previous staff had been telling college football programs that Harmon was similarly gifted to Malik McDowell, an elite edge rusher in the 2014 recruiting class who had begun his career there before transferring to Southfield (Mich.) A&T and signing with Michigan State. McDowell was a national recruit, so schools dismissed the thought that a Division 7 football program in Michigan would have developed two monster defensive linemen.

As it turns out, lightning struck twice.

Harmon was gifted, no doubt, but he had work to do. He was 313 pounds at the NFL Combine, but he weighed 359 at a camp that he attended in high school. His 40-yard-dash time was in the 5.50-second range, which may not seem extraordinary. But at his age and size, it was clear that he had movement skills.

Entering his senior year, Harmon got serious about training while COVID-19 impacted recruiting.

“It’s quite funny because when I got there, I literally got the job on a Monday, had a team meeting on Wednesday and on Friday, COVID hit,” Rogers said. “They canceled everything. I was trying to build relationships, implement our system of discipline in the program and then I had to be away from everybody. But DJ (Harmon) was the lead catalyst in helping me. He put together Zoom meetings, made sure guys were working out and was transitioning from being this big baby into a monster.”

“He was losing weight during COVID. He got bigger, stronger, faster. The first thing I told him was if he really wanted to be a Power Five guy, he had the ability, but he had to change his body. That’s a testament to him. That was the hardest thing to do during COVID was be consistent. But he did it, he lost about 20 pounds of baby fat and really turned into a monster.”

From there, Harmon was dominant as a senior. By that time, though, programs filled up their classes and were uncertain about where the scholarship numbers would be with players getting an extra year of eligibility due to college football’s COVID-shortened 2020 season.

Programs were limited in recruiting exposure to prospects with a lack of visits during the 2020 spring evaluation period and getting players on campus for camps that summer.

“It was extremely hard,” Rogers said. “I didn’t want to send film from the previous year because I didn’t think his body looked good on film. We sent workout film and it got more serious towards the end of his senior season.”

Some schools discussed preferred-walk-on spots. Harmon was also performing well as an offensive lineman, and Division II Grand Valley State loved him on offense. Harmon and the Loyola staff felt good about then-offensive line coach Scott Wooster, who is now GVSU’s head coach, so Harmon considered that route.

But as the process went on, Purdue came on strong, and it appeared that Harmon would be a Boilermaker. Then Ole Miss and Michigan State offered.

Even then, Purdue was the lead school. But when Harmon got around then-Michigan State coach Mel Tucker‘s staff more, Harmon ultimately chose to sign with the Spartans.

After a redshirt season in 2021 and two subsequent years as a key contributor from 2022-23, Harmon was among the Big Ten’s top defensive tackles. He entered the transfer portal in December 2023 and picked Oregon, where he started all 14 games of the Ducks’ 2024 season, and is now being projected as a mid-to-late-first-round pick.

“I’m not surprised because of the ability,” Rogers said. “I watched him in little league and knew he had the ability. I don’t know if he always knew it. When he started to take it seriously, that’s when he took off.”

That time period during COVID was the catalyst.

“I’m not trying to exaggerate, but I never had to check on him,” Rogers said. “He checked on me. He was leading all of it. He had a weight set at his house. He was eating right, lifting and running and was super serious about it. He was in this weird space where he had a few offers, but not a lot of offers, so it could have gone either way for him.”

It went the way of Harmon becoming elite.

Thursday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, we will find out where that next step of his journey takes him.