Player Dossier

2022-2025

Air Force

Payton Zdroik

DL • 6'0" • 275 lbs • Brentwood, CA, USA

Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile

Payton Zdroik shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 26.7 disruption score.

Usage / Role

86%

Featured defensive role

lowfeatured

Impact Production

67

Solid production for a defensive lineman

lowelite

Reliability

57

Useful contributor with volatile peaks

lowhigh

Star Power

76

High-upside career profile

limitedstar

Career Arc

Value trend by season

Best season by Season Value: 2025 Regular Season · Air Force

222223232425

Snapshot

Career Teams
1
Unique Seasons
4
Program Path
Air Force
Peak Game
Peak game by takeover score: Colorado State

Player Story

Payton Zdroik built his college career from 2022 through 2025 as a defensive lineman from Brentwood, CA wearing No. 96, spending time with Air Force. The clearest part of Payton Zdroik's career was his defensive...

Read the story

Payton Zdroik, DL. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2025 Regular Season · Air Force. Payton Zdroik shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 26.7 disruption score.

Stat Footprint

Career production snapshot

Tackles
113
TFL
28
Sacks
14
QB hurries
17
Passes defended
1

Quick Answers

Payton Zdroik quick answers

Latest team and position
Air Force · DL
Career Tackles
113
Tracked sample
4 unique seasons · 6 entries · 43 games
Best season
2025 Regular Season · Air Force
Top game
Colorado State
High school pipeline
Liberty · 10 FBS recruits · 1 drafted player
Latest roster
No. 96 · Senior
2025 Tackles rank
36 tackles · DL 87th (top 9%) · Mountain West 87th (top 17%) · National 1,090th (top 18%)

Season Ledger

Crawlable season-by-season stats

SeasonTeamGamesTacklesTFLSacksQB HurPDTDOverall
2022 PostseasonAir Force13111--062.4
2022 Regular SeasonAir Force132684.53-062.4
2023 PostseasonAir Force92211-054.1
2023 Regular SeasonAir Force9304.53.51-054.1
2024 Regular SeasonAir Force9186.533-054.9
2025 Regular SeasonAir Force12366191066.6

Related Context

Payton Zdroik played DL for Air Force. Across 4 tracked seasons, Payton Zdroik recorded 113 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2025 with Air Force.

Player insights

Lead takeaway

Best season by value score: 2025 Regular Season

Air Force paired 17 primary output with 26.7 efficiency.

Supporting note

2025 Regular Season role shape

impact-led usage with 26.7 efficiency.

Supporting note

Career value is trending up

2025 Regular Season improved on the prior stop by season value score.

Supporting note

Peak game by takeover score: San José State

Win with 4 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.

2025 Regular Season · Air Force

Games

12

Havoc Plays / G

1.4

Efficiency

26.7

Usage

16.5

Consistency

42.4

Best Game by takeover score

San José State

Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.

Active game

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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.

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Chronological game order.

Game by game trend chart. Bucknell: 0. Utah State: 0. Boise State: 1. Hawai'i: 2.5. Navy: 1. UNLV: 1. Wyoming: 2. Army: 1.5. San José State: 4. UConn: 1. New Mexico: 3. Colorado State: 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. Bucknell: 2 by 8.3. Utah State: 3 by 12.5. Boise State: 2 by 18.3. Hawai'i: 4 by 41.7. Navy: 3 by 22.5. UNLV: 2 by 18.3. Wyoming: 4 by 36.7. Army: 5 by 35.8. San José State: 3 by 52.5. UConn: 1 by 14.2. New Mexico: 4 by 46.7. Colorado State: 3 by 12.5

Split Comparison

Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.

Wins1.5 · Games = 4 · +0.1 vs Losses
Losses1.4 · Games = 8 · -0.1 vs Wins

Game Log

Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.

12 games

Featured metric

Havoc Plays

Top game by takeover score

San José State

Best efficiency game

52.5 vs San José State

Result
Fri 11/28@ Colorado StateW 42-2130000
Sun 11/23vs New MexicoSplash gameL 3-2043200
Sat 11/15@ UConnL 16-2611000
Sat 11/8@ San José StateSplash gameW 26-1632101
Sat 11/1vs ArmyL 17-20540.5000
Sat 10/18vs WyomingSplash gameW 24-2142110
Sat 10/11@ UNLVL 48-5120000
Sat 10/4@ NavyL 31-3431100
Sat 9/27vs Hawai'iSplash gameL 35-44420.5000
Sat 9/20vs Boise StateL 37-4921000
Sun 9/14@ Utah StateL 30-4930000
Sat 8/30vs BucknellW 49-1320000

Player Story

Payton Zdroik story

Payton Zdroik built his college career from 2022 through 2025 as a defensive lineman from Brentwood, CA wearing No. 96, spending time with Air Force. The clearest part of Payton Zdroik's career was his defensive production: 113 tackles, 28 tackles for loss, 14 sacks, and 1 pass defended across 43 career games in the available record. His largest box-score season came in 2022 with Air Force. Those numbers show where he fit, how often the ball or action found him, and how his role developed over time.

Defensive careers can be hard to read from one number, but Payton Zdroik's production has multiple signals. With 43 career games in the available record, his career has enough shape to show both opportunity and production across Air Force.

The arc is straightforward: Payton Zdroik moved through the depth chart, found a larger role, and turned that opportunity into production that can be understood through standard football numbers.

Career Arc

Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.

  1. 1

    Air Force

    2022-2025

    Opening stop

Season Value Progression

202220222023202320242025
SeasonTeamPrimaryEfficiencyUsageDelta
2022 PostseasonAir Force17.522.110.8
2022 Regular SeasonAir Force17.522.110.80
2023 PostseasonAir Force1329.39-4.5
2023 Regular SeasonAir Force1329.390
2024 Regular SeasonAir Force12.522.210.5-0.5
2025 Regular SeasonAir Force1726.716.54.5

Signature Performances

Top Games

#1 Featured game

vs Colorado State

Week 12 · W 24-12 · Conference game

Win with backfield disruption leading the way.

5

Havoc Plays

87.5 takeover

5 disruption/tackle impact with 87.5 takeover score.

#2

@ No. 118 San José State

Week 11 · W 26-16 · Conference game

4

Havoc Plays

84.2 takeover

Win with 4 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

4 disruption/tackle impact with 84.2 takeover score.

#3

vs James Madison

Week 1 · W 31-21 · Postseason

4

Havoc Plays

82.8 takeover

Win with 4 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

4 disruption/tackle impact with 82.8 takeover score.

#4

vs San José State

Week 2 · L 7-17 · Conference game

4

Havoc Plays

82.8 takeover

Loss with 4 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

4 disruption/tackle impact with 82.8 takeover score.

#5

vs Wyoming

Week 7 · W 34-27 · Conference game

3.5

Havoc Plays

79.7 takeover

Win with 3.5 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

3.5 disruption/tackle impact with 79.7 takeover score.

Top Seasons

#1 Season by Season Value

2025 Regular Season · Air Force

17 primary output · 26.7 efficiency · 16.5 usage

66.6

#2

2022 Postseason · Air Force

62.4

17.5 primary · 22.1 efficiency · 10.8 usage

#3

2022 Regular Season · Air Force

62.4

17.5 primary · 22.1 efficiency · 10.8 usage

Milestones

12

Impact games

17

Splash games

0

10+ tackle games