{"id":715058,"date":"2026-01-29T22:57:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T22:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/715058\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T22:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T22:57:14","slug":"dolphins-could-find-effective-run-stuffing-dt-at-senior-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/715058\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins could find effective run-stuffing DT at Senior Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI BEACH \u2014 Texas Tech defensive tackle Lee Hunter, who spent three years at UCF, has been a top-notch performer at the Senior Bowl<\/a> this week by using an impressive combination of speed and power that have made him almost impossible to block.<\/p>\n

Really. No one can block the guy. He\u2019s been wrecking plays.<\/p>\n

Hunter, long-armed and violent at 6-foot-3, 320 pounds, has been a standout in both 1-on-1 drills and 11-on-11s, where he\u2019s been seen splitting double-teams to make run stops at the line of scrimmage.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday he split a double-team in impressive fashion. On Wednesday, he shoved center Keylan Rutledge<\/a>, one of the top-performing guards at the Senior Bowl, into quarterback Diego Pavia\u2019s lap with sheer force. Hunter has been relentless.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the thing: while Hunter is conducting his run-stuffing wrecking-crew service during this week, he\u2019s remained humble.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t trying to show anything,\u201d he said. \u201cI just wanted to be myself, just be Lee Hunter and whatever takes place, takes place. But I just want to stay true to myself, who I am on a day-to-day basis, who I\u2019ve been throughout my college career. I just want to be myself and just help others around me be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunter, a consensus top-five defensive tackle in the April 23-25 draft, could be attractive to the Dolphins<\/a> as a mid-round run stuffer. The Dolphins have five picks in the first three rounds of the draft \u2014 one in the first round (No. 11), one in the second round and three in the third round.<\/p>\n

Miami<\/a> returns lots of defensive tackles among Zach Sieler, Kenneth Grant, Jordan Phillips and Zeek Biggers. They are a young crew aside from the 30-year-old Sieler. Grant was last year\u2019s first-round pick who had a sluggish year, Jordan was a 2025 fifth-round pick and Biggers was a 2025 seventh-round pick. None was especially impressive.<\/p>\n

A couple of veterans, Benito Jones and Matthew Butler, were on one-year contracts.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins could use some run-stuffing reinforcements such as Hunter, someone who isn\u2019t much of a pass rusher but eats up space and figures to serve as an effective early-down player.<\/p>\n

At UCF, where he went after attending Auburn, Hunter\u2019s disruptive skills began to surface. He earned second-team All-Big 12 honors in 2024 after recording 45 tackles, including 9.5 tackles for loss. He had 11 tackles for loss in 2023 as a junior.<\/p>\n

Miami\u2019s run defense was atrocious last season. The Dolphins allowed 12 opponents to rush for at least 100 yards last year, and they went 2-10 in those games. Their run defense, often an unglamorous job, needs help.<\/p>\n

And getting back to Hunter\u2019s humble personality, he doesn\u2019t seem to be an attention-seeker.<\/p>\n

That was evident when the Mobile, Alabama product spoke about performing in front of his home folks this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels great,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cI\u2019m blessed, I thank God. Just coming back to the city where I grew up watching this game, coming back to the city and just playing football, it feels amazing. I want to put on for the city. I want to give back to the city and just put on for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunter\u2019s relatively low-key personality is also evident when he talks about his role on Texas Tech\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n

The Red Raiders had plenty of other key defensive players that helped them form one of the nation\u2019s top units, such as linebackers David Bailey, Jacob Rodriguez and Romello Height. But Hunter, who started his career at Auburn, has been the standout this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I was overlooked (at Texas Tech) because the record speaks for itself and we won a Big 12 championship at Tech and we never did that before,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cSo I won\u2019t say I\u2019m overlooked. I\u2019m grateful for that opportunity and grateful for the people that were around me to help me be successful and get to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he seems to be genuine about that sentiment. Ask him what he thinks about his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cBliss,\u201d he said. \u201cI thank God. I thank the people who helped me get to this moment. It\u2019s lost for words, but I\u2019m just thankful. I\u2019m so excited, so blessed. And just being back here in Mobile, it just, it feels like a dream. But we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI BEACH \u2014 Texas Tech defensive tackle Lee Hunter, who spent three years at UCF, has been a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[217,7,929,216,251,2087,6,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-715058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-dolphins","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-dolphins","13":"tag-miamidolphins","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715058","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=715058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}