recently highlighted transfers<\/a> who are \u201cmost likely to make an immediate impact on the ACC\u201d this season, and Heldt is listed among those ACC impact transfers poised for big seasons.<\/p>\nHere\u2019s what CBS Sports\u2019 Will Backus wrote about Heldt, the 6-foot-6, 265-pound edge rusher who joined Clemson following two productive seasons at Purdue:<\/p>\n
Welcome to the modern world, Dabo Swinney. Clemson\u2019s coach, normally rooted in tradition, actually used the transfer portal to bolster his roster ahead of what should be a big season for the Tigers. Sure, Clemson only made three additions, but it\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n
Heldt was a really good get. He earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors last season after logging 56 total tackles, 10 tackles for loss and five sacks, and there\u2019s the sense that his best football is still ahead of him. He\u2019ll have every opportunity to stand out alongside a pair of potential first-round picks in Peter Woods and T.J. Parker.<\/p>\n
Heldt played in all 24 games for the Boilermakers from 2023-24, totally 68 tackles, 11.0 tackles for loss, five sacks and a fumble recovery across his two seasons.<\/p>\n
Last season, he started all 12 games and finished second on the team in tackles for loss and sacks while finishing fourth in tackles. The Carmel, Ind., native posted 2.5 of his 5.0 sacks, and a 16-yard scoop-and-score, in back-to-back games against ranked opponents in Illinois and Oregon.<\/p>\n
Heldt, who came to Clemson with two years of eligibility left, was recently ranked by ESPN at No. 28<\/a> among the top 100 players who switched teams in the transfer portal this offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clemson made a trio of transfer portal additions this offseason, none bigger than former Purdue defensive end Will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[5320,7,5324,5322,5321,5323,5325],"class_list":{"0":"post-110246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-clemson-insider-podcast","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-gymnastics","11":"tag-hero","12":"tag-noonan","13":"tag-track-and-field","14":"tag-wednesday"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114640041187060437","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}