6’1”, 245 | EDGE | Bethune-Cookman

Other schools in the mix: Western Carolina, Clark Atlanta
Eligibility: One year

Greaves, a three-year contributor in the SWAC, jumped in the portal back in January to look for a new home in his final season of eligibility. KSU got involved in his recruitment a couple months later, reaching out in late March to set up a visit for the weekend of the spring game. Greaves committed on Saturday night, adding over a thousand snaps of Division 1 experience to promising but unseasoned group of edge defenders in Kennesaw. Greaves fits a couple of the market inefficiencies Mack’s staff has tried to exploit early on: He’ll be one of 8 former HBCU players on the roster, plus the Owls have gone to the well a couple times already on edges that might lack some of the measurables the power conference schools prefer.

Let’s dive into the numbers see how the new addition fits in.

2025 Season at Bethune-Cookman
Total Sacks: 3 (T-13th in SWAC)
Total Pressures: 35 (3rd)
Non-sack QB Hits: 10 (1st)
Pass rush win rate: 13.6% (4th)
Sack Rate: 1.2% (24th)
Pressure into sack: 8.6% (48th)
Pash-rush productivity: 7.6 (3rd)
Missed tackle (run def.): 5.9%
Avg. depth of tackle (run def.): 2.4 yards

* among SWAC DL/edges with 150+ snaps, data via PFF

Some interesting numbers from his junior year at BCU. Greaves put the quarterback under stress at a high level relative to the rest of the league, but barely ranks top 50 in the SWAC in turning those pressure opportunities into sacks. It’s obviously harder to quantity in the stats, but Greaves could be a heat-seeking missile if OLB coach Granville Eastman can channel his willingness to seek out contact against the run. Would be interesting to see the full tape and see what it looks like on a down-to-down basis.

2025 PFF grades
Overall: 73.1
Run Defense: 70.2
Tackle: 69.5
Pressure: 71.6

For his career, Greaves has been around or above the 70 mark since coming on the scene as a freshman at Bethune-Cookman.

Once Greaves officially signs and arrives on campus, he’ll join a group of KSU edges that looks like this at the moment. A few Owls - most notably returning starter Marcus Patterson - return up front, but there’s a lot of production to make up with the absence of passing down specialist Elijah Hill, who transferred to Kansas State after his freshman season.

That list separates out the two varieties of edges that Kennesaw typically uses, with a few uneducated guesses on how newcomers will fit in (spoiler: which ones KSU lists at OLB and which ones are at DL). There’s some versatility between the two archetypes, especially in some of the wilder personnel packages Mattioli keeps in his back pocket. Still, based on his size/experience Greaves seems like a more likely choice to get sorted into the Rush category, the on-paper name for KSU’s hybrid DE/OLB spot usually manned by Rod Daniels last season on standard downs.

Greaves weighs below the 260-ish threshold Mattioli would probably like to see out of his nominal DE - the Patterson role that requires the ability to effectively slide a gap or two inside as the Owls switch between 3- and 4-down fronts. Greaves’ lack of coverage reps (only 12 across his entire career at BCU) and ability to blow up guards on stunts and disrupt pullers might give him an opportunity to cross-train.

BCU experimented with Greaves at off-ball linebacker at times - last spring for example, with some practice tape available here. Over his three seasons in Daytona Beach, that only worked out to about 20 snaps away from the line of scrimmage, according to PFF. Otherwise, his positioning lines up almost exactly with the usage we saw from Daniels and Donovan Westmoreland last season.

Mattioli has shown a willingness - or desire, really - to let guys specialize, so Greaves will have every opportunity to find a niche in Kennesaw. For one example, please see Hill’s Big XII payday from essentially only playing on passing downs. One of Mattioli’s go-to chess moves on third-and-long was to move Marcus Patterson to tackle to get the true freshman on the field. That leaves plenty of pass rush reps up for grabs from the rest of the rotation.

Why make the move now if he was available and actively looking for a home since January? Bringing in Greaves at the stage of the offseason could be connected the status of Westmoreland, who was pictured on the sideline using a knee scooter. If Westmoreland has some sort of serious lower body injury, especially considering his Achilles tear and complications in the past, that leaves the position without much D1 experience prior to the Greaves commitment.

Corey Kelly played a little over 50 career snaps at Baylor, and Kai Russell was productive (7.5 sacks) at the D2 level for Wingate in 2024 before missing most of last season with an apparent injury. Along with Westmoreland, Nwoha (wearing a hefty arm sling) and Abdul Salaam were also out of uniform at the open practice, giving an urgent need for a little insurance at both roles on the edge. Kelly got the start at Rush on Saturday, with Jackson (who’s coming off a redshirt) tapping in for a few plays midway through the opening drive.

If you’d like a cross-sport comp, I think the Greaves signing could be similar in idea to Pettway’s Jaden Harris signing in basketball: A late one-year rental intended as a depth piece who could become more important than expected, depending on the health and development of the rest of the room.

I think it’s a good piece of business at this stage of the cycle.

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