Usage / Role
25%
Rotational defensive role
lowfeatured
Player Dossier
2018-2021Southern Miss
Tahj Sykes
DL • 6'3" • 308 lbs • Columbus, MS, USA
Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile
Tahj Sykes shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 13.8 disruption score.
Impact Production
32
Developing production for a defensive lineman
lowelite
Reliability
23
Sporadic game-to-game production
lowhigh
Star Power
53
Limited ceiling signals so far
limitedstar
Career Arc
Value trend by season
Best season by Season Value: 2020 Regular Season · Southern Miss
18192021
Snapshot
- Career Teams
- 1
- Unique Seasons
- 4
- Program Path
- Southern Miss
- Peak Game
- Peak game by takeover score: Louisiana Tech
Player Story
Tahj Sykes built his college career from 2018 through 2021 as a defensive lineman from Columbus, MS wearing No. 3, spending time with Southern Miss. The clearest part of Tahj Sykes' career was his defensive...
Read the story3★
- Committed To
- Southern Miss
- Commit Date
- Jan 1, 2017
Tahj Sykes, DL. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2020 Regular Season · Southern Miss. Tahj Sykes shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 13.8 disruption score.
Stat Footprint
Career production snapshot
- Tackles
- 58
- TFL
- 8
- Sacks
- 1
- QB hurries
- 5
Quick Answers
Tahj Sykes quick answers
- Latest team and position
- Southern Miss · DL
- Career Tackles
- 58
- Tracked sample
- 4 unique seasons · 4 entries · 28 games
- Best season
- 2020 Regular Season · Southern Miss
- Top game
- Louisiana Tech
- Recruit profile
- 3-star · Columbus · Southern Miss
- High school pipeline
- Columbus · 6 FBS recruits · 1 drafted player
- Latest roster
- No. 3 · Junior
- 2021 Tackles rank
- 20 tackles · DL 334th (top 36%) · Conference USA 228th (top 34%) · National 2,017th (top 34%)
Season Ledger
Crawlable season-by-season stats
| Season | Team | Games | Tackles | TFL | Sacks | QB Hur | PD | TD | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 Regular Season | Southern Miss | 6 | 9 | 0.5 | 0 | - | - | 0 | 8 |
| 2019 Regular Season | Southern Miss | 2 | 3 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | 39 |
| 2020 Regular Season | Southern Miss | 10 | 26 | 5 | 1 | 2 | - | 0 | 51.7 |
| 2021 Regular Season | Southern Miss | 10 | 20 | 2.5 | 0 | 3 | - | 0 | 32.2 |
Related Context
Keep exploring Tahj Sykes
Tahj Sykes played DL for Southern Miss. Across 4 tracked seasons, Tahj Sykes recorded 58 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2020 with Southern Miss.
Player insights
Lead takeaway
Best season by value score: 2020 Regular Season
Southern Miss paired 8 primary output with 18.8 efficiency.
Supporting note
2021 Regular Season role shape
impact-led usage with 13.8 efficiency.
Supporting note
Career value cooled off
2021 Regular Season fell back from the prior stop by season value score.
Supporting note
Peak game by takeover score: North Texas
Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet. It landed in the 100th percentile of the selected season.
Analysis workspace
Season Workbench
Filter the strongest season sample, inspect game-level shape, and then drop into the full log without losing the story of the year.
Season Explorer
Understand the selected season before dropping into the full game log.
2021 Regular Season · Southern Miss
Games
10
Havoc Plays / G
0.6
Efficiency
13.8
Usage
4.3
Consistency
10
Best Game by takeover score
North Texas
Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.
Active game
Hover over a point
Hover or select a game to keep its context visible here without the page shifting around.
Game-by-Game Trend
Follow how the selected stat changes from one game to the next. Spikes mark standout outings, while dips show quieter weeks.
Chronological game order.
Game by game trend chart. Grambling: 2. Troy: 1.5. Alabama: 0. Rice: 0. UTEP: 0. UAB: 0. Middle Tennessee: 0. North Texas: 2. Louisiana Tech: 0. Florida International: 0
Volume vs Efficiency
Each dot is a game. Farther right means the player carried more of the workload, and higher means they were more efficient with those chances.
Low volumeHigh quality
High volumeHigh quality
Low volumeLower quality
High volumeLower quality
Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.
Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. Grambling: 1 by 24.2. Troy: 4 by 31.7. Alabama: 1 by 4.2. Rice: 1 by 4.2. UTEP: 2 by 8.3. UAB: 2 by 8.3. Middle Tennessee: 1 by 4.2. North Texas: 5 by 40.8. Louisiana Tech: 1 by 4.2. Florida International: 2 by 8.3
Split Comparison
Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.
Wins0.7 · Games = 3 · +0.2 vs Losses
Losses0.5 · Games = 7 · -0.2 vs Wins
Game Log
Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.
10 games
Featured metric
Havoc Plays
Top game by takeover score
North Texas
Best efficiency game
40.8 vs North Texas
| Result | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sat 11/27 | vs Florida International | W 37-17 | 2 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/20 | @ Louisiana Tech | W 35-19 | 1 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/6 | vs North TexasSplash game | L 14-38 | 5 | 3 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/30 | @ Middle Tennessee | L 10-35 | 1 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/16 | vs UAB | L 0-34 | 2 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/9 | vs UTEP | L 13-26 | 2 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/2 | @ Rice | L 19-24 | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/25 | @ Alabama | L 14-63 | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/18 | vs Troy | L 9-21 | 4 | 2 | — | 1.50 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/11 | vs GramblingSplash game | W 37-0 | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
Player Story
Tahj Sykes story
Tahj Sykes built his college career from 2018 through 2021 as a defensive lineman from Columbus, MS wearing No. 3, spending time with Southern Miss. The clearest part of Tahj Sykes' career was his defensive production: 58 tackles, 8 tackles for loss, and 1 sack across 28 career games in the available record. That gives Tahj Sykes' career enough real context without stretching the story beyond the available production.
Career Arc
Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.
- 1
Southern Miss
2018-2021
Opening stop
Season Value Progression
2018201920202021
| Season | Team | Primary | Efficiency | Usage | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 Regular Season | Southern Miss | 0.5 | 7.1 | 1.6 | — |
| 2019 Regular Season | Southern Miss | 0 | 6.3 | 1.3 | -0.5 |
| 2020 Regular Season | Southern Miss | 8 | 18.8 | 6.1 | 8 |
| 2021 Regular Season | Southern Miss | 5.5 | 13.8 | 4.3 | -2.5 |
Signature Performances
Top Games
#1 Featured game
vs Louisiana Tech
Week 3 · L 30-31 · Conference game
Loss with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
3
Havoc Plays
80.8 takeover
3 disruption/tackle impact with 80.8 takeover score.
#2
vs North Texas
Week 10 · L 14-38 · Conference game
2
Havoc Plays
80.3 takeover
Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2 disruption/tackle impact with 80.3 takeover score.
#3
vs Florida Atlantic
Week 15 · W 45-31 · Conference game
2
Havoc Plays
66.4 takeover
Win with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2 disruption/tackle impact with 66.4 takeover score.
#4
vs Grambling
Week 2 · W 37-0
2
Havoc Plays
62.8 takeover
Win with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2 disruption/tackle impact with 62.8 takeover score.
#5
vs Troy
Week 3 · L 9-21
1.5
Havoc Plays
58.1 takeover
Loss with 1.5 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
1.5 disruption/tackle impact with 58.1 takeover score.
Top Seasons
#1 Season by Season Value
2020 Regular Season · Southern Miss
8 primary output · 18.8 efficiency · 6.1 usage
51.7
#2
2019 Regular Season · Southern Miss
39
0 primary · 6.3 efficiency · 1.3 usage
#3
2021 Regular Season · Southern Miss
32.2
5.5 primary · 13.8 efficiency · 4.3 usage
Milestones
4
Impact games
4
Splash games
0
10+ tackle games
Next best actions
Keep exploring Tahj Sykes
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