Chris Wells

Physical Profile

Long, lean frame with a true edge-rusher chassis. At 6-3 and 215-218 in high school he was a walked-down outside linebacker body, and the 227 on Auburn's roster shows he added roughly 10 pounds between signing and enrollment, which is the expected trajectory for a Buck. He was also a varsity basketball player, and that shows in his movement: he bends and redirects better than most three-star edges from his region. The frame has room for 245-250 without losing the twitch, and reaching that number is the whole developmental question. Right now he is quick but not strong enough to hold the edge against SEC tackles on run downs.

Play Style

Wells is an effort-and-length rusher rather than a power player. He wins with a fast first step, long-arm extension to keep tackles off his chest, and constant motor to chase plays down from the backside. He is most effective on movement calls, where his athleticism lets him loop and slant into gaps, and in pursuit, where his closing speed and ball-awareness produce the forced fumbles. His rush plan is still mostly a speed-to-bull with limited counters, and on run downs he tends to get displaced when he has to take on a blocker square. He plays best when he is allowed to attack a gap rather than read and react.

Strengths

• Length and first-step quickness for the position: the 6-3 frame with long arms lets him get hands on the tackle first and set up an outside rush, and the basketball background shows up in his hip flexibility and change of direction when working back inside.
• Disruption rate relative to his sack total: 17 TFL over two seasons on 3 sacks a year means he consistently gets into the backfield and forces bad plays even when he doesn't finish, and two forced fumbles as a senior show he attacks the ball, not just the ball-carrier.
• Scheme fit and versatility: recruited jointly by Auburn's OLB coach Roc Bellantoni and DL coach Vontrell King-Williams as a Buck who can play walked-down edge or stand up, which gives the staff two ways to get him on the field and mirrors the versatile-DL identity he cited as the reason he flipped.

Areas to Improve

• Finishing as a rusher: three sacks in each of his last two seasons on a 7A roster with a 4-star brother drawing attention inside is modest for a projected SEC edge. He needs a reliable counter and better hand refinement to convert pressures into sacks rather than TFLs on stunts and effort plays.
• Play strength and anchor: at 215-227 he will get moved by SEC run-blocking tackles and tight ends. Adding 20-plus pounds of functional mass while keeping his get-off is the prerequisite for any early-down role.
• Recruiting profile ceiling: the composite dropped from roughly No. 2,100 nationally / No. 55 in Mississippi at signing to No. 225 LB / No. 69 in-state on the final board, and his only P5 offer came from a staff already recruiting his brother. The evaluation should be honest that he was a Group of Five-level take by the market.

College Projection

Developmental Buck end at Auburn with a redshirt-year expectation. He enrolled at 227 pounds, so 2026 should be a weight-room and special-teams year with a possible four-game redshirt window. Realistic path is a rotational pass-rush-package role by his third year (2028) and a chance at meaningful snaps as a redshirt junior/senior if the frame reaches 245-250 and the rush plan develops. The brother pairing gives him a stable support structure, but Auburn's edge room recruits at a higher rating tier than his, and he will have to earn snaps over higher-rated classmates.

Best Fit

An attacking, multiple-front defense that uses a hybrid Buck/stand-up edge and calls a heavy dose of stunts and pressures, which is exactly what Auburn sold him. In a two-gap or heavy-run-stopping scheme his current play strength would keep him off the field; in a one-gap penetrate-and-chase system his length, get-off, and motor are the traits that translate first. If he does not add the needed mass, a move to a stand-up outside linebacker or a return to the Sun Belt level (where he had South Alabama, Troy, and Southern Miss offers) is the fallback.