Let’s look at the defensive disruptors.
Missouri football’s season-opener for the 2025 campaign against Central Arkansas on Aug. 28 on Faurot Field is just 50 days away as of July 9. Fall camp is right around the corner, as the Tigers typically have players report to campus in Columbia over the final weekend of July.
Missouri has had some good success with its edge rushers in recent seasons. After the 2023 season, Darius Robinson went to the Arizona Cardinals as a first-round draft pick. Picking up where he left off, Johnny Walker Jr. led the squad with 9.5 sacks in 2024 and was an undrafted free-agent pickup by the Denver Broncos.
So, who’s next in line to break out for the Tigers?
Here is how Missouri’s defensive end room looks heading into fall camp, including a projected (but not finalized) depth chart, the upside and possible questions for the room, and some snippets of what the coaches said during the spring:
Missouri football projected depth chart at defensive end
Starters: Joker: Damon Wilson II, jr.; Field: Zion Young, sr.
Primary rotation: Darris Smith, r-jr.; Nate Johnson, jr.; Javion Hilson, fr.; Langden Kitchen, jr.
Reserves: Daeden Hopkins, fr.; Aidan Dubbert, jr.
Mizzou is potentially six-deep at defensive end.
The ‘Joker’ defensive end role is the position that defensive coordinator Corey Batoon and the staff tab as the Tigers’ primary edge rusher. They’ll operate from the side of the line that is closest to the boundary from where the ball is spotted, and from time to time the player will be tasked with dropping back into coverage.
That was the role Walker played for Mizzou last season, and Smith appeared to be in line to play the position before a season-ending injury in fall camp took him out of the full 2024 campaign. Wilson, a headline transfer addition out of Georgia this offseason, fits the physical profile MU is looking for to play the role.
Young likely will resume his starting role as the field end, which operates from the side of the line that has more open field from where the ball is spotted. Although the roles aren’t entirely settled, Johnson appears to be a fit to play a similar role to Young.
The upside
This has the potential to be the most impactful — and potentially the deepest — room on Mizzou’s roster this season.
Yes, the quartet of Wilson, Young, Smith, and Johnson shapes up as a high-impact group.
Now, go a couple players deeper …
Hilson and Kitchen may be a little further down the depth chart than the top four, but there’s a very good chance both players are involved early and often in the rotation this season. Hilson was a top-50 recruit in his high school class. Kitchen is listed at a gaudy 6-6, 264 pounds, and was productive at the Division-II level. Mizzou fans know better than most — the name Cody Schrader should ring a bell — not to turn their noses up at that.
That’s about as ideal as it gets.
It’s a high-impact position, and the fresher the Tigers can keep their players, the better. Potentially having the ability to run three-deep at each edge rushing spot should help the cause.
Questions, concerns to answer
‘Havoc’ is the in-vogue term for the edge-rushing position. It’s essentially what it says on the tin: Disrupting opponents for negative-yardage plays as often as possible.
So, who is going to create the most chaos?
Until the games roll around, there’s also no way of knowing if Mizzou has a true star in the group. Is there a player who can take the bull by the horns and single-handedly replace Walker’s team-leading 9.5 sacks, 12.5 tackles for loss, and three forced fumbles last season? That, you don’t need to be told, certainly would help.
On paper, there’s reason to be optimistic. Wilson certainly has the promise. Young was consistently excellent in his debut campaign in CoMo. Johnson is a former freshman All-American, and Smith had the staff extremely excited before his injury last year.
But until a leader breaks out, it remains a question in need of an answer.
Breakout candidate
We mentioned him above: Hilson.
The Cocoa, Florida, product signed with MU at the 11th hour of the 2025 recruiting class. The recruiting pitch appears to have been that Hilson will see the field as a rookie.
Hilson looks to have an elite burst from the line of scrimmage and lived in quarterbacks’ faces as a high school edge rusher. If that translates to the college level, he’s got a chance to have an impact in Year 1.
“That’s a position that has proven in the SEC that you come in and play early,” Eli Drinkwitz said after Hilson signed in December. “And especially with what some other people have done as freshmen in this conference, I think he saw an opportunity to leave his mark on one of the best conferences in college football.”
What the coaches said in the spring
“Just really excited for what can become,” Batoon said at the beginning of spring camp in March. “The ceiling is a lot higher, I think, as a position group, in terms of us being disruptive and creating more havoc.”
“That is a group that has an incredible amount of depth, talent,” Drinkwitz said on April 8. “They’ve got the ability to stop the run, rush the passer — really affect and influence the game at a really, really (high) level. … Really very excited.”
