Al-Quadin Muhammad
Tampa Bay BuccaneersModel Score
How good he is at what he is supposed to be doing, out of 100. Not a projection of what he will do next, and not a read on his contract. Median is about 70, and a 95 is rare. How it is built →
Season Stats · 17 games
Draft & College
He went about where consensus had him.
Comps
STM Take
Four career tier 8 finishes (2020-2024) to tier 3 (#17) breakout in 2025 is one of the most dramatic late-career edge defender reinventions in recent memory. The Miami 6th-round origin plus the Saints-Colts-Bears-Lions journeyman path plus the 2025 tier 3 finish puts Muhammad in the rare class of nine-year veterans hitting a career peak. The 2026 question is whether the tier 3 finish holds across a full second Lions season or whether 2025 was a one-year context spike tied to specific Dan Campbell scheme fit.
Muhammad came out of Miami as the New Orleans Saints' 6th-round pick (196th overall) in 2017 and has bounced through the Saints, Colts, Bears, and Lions across nine NFL seasons. His STTM career runs tier 8 (#115) in 2020, tier 8 (#79) in 2021, tier 8 (#109) in 2022, tier 8 (#66) in 2024, and tier 3 (#17) breakout in 2025.
Strengths
- Tier 3 (#17) breakout in year nine as a 196th overall pick puts him in the rarest outlier-positive late-career reinvention class at the position.
- Nine years of NFL survival across four teams gives him real veteran-depth value as plug-in pass-rush rotation.
Concerns
- Four straight tier 8 finishes before the 2025 breakout flags the structural ceiling as very likely Dan Campbell scheme-dependent.
- Age 30 plus nine years of pass-rush wear puts the late-career structural decline question on every 2026 projection.
What to watch: Whether Muhammad holds tier 4 or better in 2026 with the Lions, the threshold for confirming the 2025 breakout was scheme-fit rather than a one-year context spike.