The National Football League (NFL) Combine is specifically designed for players like former Boston College football defensive end Quintayvious Hutchins.
A fifth-year senior last year, Hutchins only made 16 starts in his collegiate career, but his game was still recognized as one that boasts NFL-level potential.
While Hutchins is not a projected day-one or day-two draft pick, and his NFL.com prospect grade is 5.86 — which places him in the tier of “average backup or special-teamer” — participating in the combine gives him an opportunity to improve his draft stock and prove that he could develop into a starter one day.
“Speed,” Hutchins said of what he is trying to show NFL teams at the combine. “I’m fast, I can move. Smooth is fast.”
The 6-foot-3, 233-pound Bessemer, Ala., native lacks in size as a stand-up edge rusher, and his get-off from the line of scrimmage needs improvement. Yet his ability to set the edge in the run game has caught the attention of scouts and analysts, especially after his performance in the 2026 Panini Senior Bowl earlier this month.
“[The focus is] get faster, get quicker, consistently bend, and get a good 40-yard dash time,” Hutchins said. “[I’m trying to show] the knowledge that I have, be able to play position that they put me in, I’m able to be consistent with my rush, be consistent in the run game and stuff like that.”
Hutchins really took off when he started playing on the opposite side of the edge from former BC defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku, the Dallas Cowboys’ 2025 second-round selection, during the 2024 season.
He played in all 13 games that season and started seven at defensive end, generating 31 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks. Two fumble recoveries, a forced fumble, and eight quarterback hurries.
Hutchins was then named a team captain for the 2025 season, in which he totaled 35 tackles, seven quarterback hits, and two sacks in nine starts.
When he arrived at BC, before BC head coach Bill O’Brien was at the school, Hutchins started at defensive end before briefly switching to the offensive side of the ball and playing tight end.
“It’s always going to be a change,” Hutchins said of what he learned from that experience. “Every opportunity you should seize it, it don’t matter if you like it or not. You make changes for the team. It’s always a brotherhood and I’m always down to [change].”
While Hutchins played a little bit of everything on both sides of the ball in Bessemer City High School, his preference has always been hitting people — not getting hit.
“I love going to hit people, always,” Hutchins said. “Offense, it was a thing I did in high school, I don’t mind it. But I love to go head hunt.”
When Hutchins thinks about the impact that O’Brien had on him throughout the two years he spent playing for the Eagles’ skipper, he is reminded of that ability to adjust for the greater good of the team which defined a major leg of his career on the Heights.
“The way he adapts to my [process] of learning how to play, he’s able to help me with things like preparation for the games and stuff like that, like walk-throughs and installations,” Hutchins said.
So far, Hutchins said he has met with a few teams, including the New England Patriots, which is basically just down the road from BC compared to the other 31 NFL franchises.
Defensive lineman are set to participate in on-field workouts and drills at the combine on Thursday starting at 3 p.m. ET, including linebackers and placekickers.
