Poona Ford

8 NFL seasons, 4 teams — the journeyman interior lineman who keeps producing.

Ford broke in as an undrafted 305-pound nose tackle out of Texas in 2018 and has now logged 8 NFL seasons across four teams. The 2023 BUF cameo (2 tackles in limited snaps) was the only down year — every other season he's posted 6+ TFLs, which is the kind of consistency the run-stopping interior demands.

The career arc: SEA (5 years) → BUF (1) → LAC (1) → LA Rams (2025). He's now anchoring a Rams interior that won the NFC West.

2024 was his career year: 3.0 sacks, 10 QB hits, 4 PDs — all single-season highs.

The Chargers gave Ford a one-year reset deal in 2024 after the lost 2023 in Buffalo. He repaid them with the best pass-rush season of his career: 3.0 sacks, 10 QB hits, 9 TFLs, 4 PDs — every one of those a career high.

The 10 QB hits as a nose tackle is the loudest number. Interior pressure as a 0/1-tech rarely shows up on the box score; getting to double digits is the difference between 'rotational' and 'starter who moves the line of scrimmage.' That season earned him the Rams contract.

5 SEA years: 1 game with 3+ sacks combined. 2024 LAC alone: 3 sacks, 10 QBH.

The Seattle Ford was a two-down run plugger: 6-8 TFLs a year, sacks in the 0-3 range. The LA Ford has been a real interior pass-rusher: 6 combined sacks and 16 combined QB hits across 2024-25.

Same player, same listed weight — the scheme matters. LAC's Jesse Minter and the Rams' Chris Shula give him 1-gap responsibilities that let him fire upfield instead of holding double-teams.

Career: 147 tackles, 45 TFLs, 14.5 sacks, 46 QB hits — UDFA built that line.

The full Poona Ford career ledger as of 2025:

- 147 tackles - 45 TFLs (averages out to 5.6 per season) - 14.5 sacks - 46 QB hits - 9 pass defenses - 1 forced fumble

Every one of those numbers came from a player who went undrafted in 2018. The Seahawks gave him a $30,000 signing bonus. He's made the league pay roughly $30M+ in cumulative contract value since.

The 2023 Buffalo year is the outlier: 2 tackles, 16 games. The rebound was immediate.

Ford signed a one-year, $3.5M deal with Buffalo in 2023 to play behind DaQuan Jones and Ed Oliver. He posted 2 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 sack all year — the worst non-rookie season of his career by a wide margin.

Then in 2024 with the Chargers: 26 tackles, 9 TFLs, 3 sacks, 10 QB hits. A 13x jump in tackles. The Buffalo year wasn't decline — it was depth-chart geometry. Given a starting role again, he's been the same Ford.

2025 with the Rams: 6 TFLs, 3 sacks — matching his Seattle peak years on a contender's D-line.

The Rams paid for the 2024 version. They're getting the 2024 version, basically: 21 tackles, 6 TFLs, 3 sacks, 6 QB hits through 2025. The QBH count dropped, but the sacks-and-TFLs floor held.

Lined up next to Kobie Turner and Braden Fiske on a Rams D-line that finished top-10 in defensive DVOA, Ford has settled into the role he's best at: the interior anchor on a four-man front that rotates fresh bodies inside.