Is it Kansas State's best position group? It might be for 2022. It is composed of the Big 12's preseason defensive player of the year, two other players that have shown that they are excellent at rushing the passer and one of the more aged veterans on the team.

Of course, the star of the show is Felix Anudike-Uzomah. If not for a rules correction that made little sense, he would have recorded north of 13 sacks a year ago as a redshirt freshman.

Nate Matlack is viewed as the next big thing along the defensive line that can do something similar. He's up to about 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds. The sky is the limit for him. Khalid Duke has been banged up but has shown to be prolific at chasing quarterbacks.

Jaylen Pickle has played a ton of football. They have all the components and tools to be an elite group in the Big 12.

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As you'll see in the depth chart below, we envision up to six players potentially contributing at defensive end this season for the Wildcats.

One of those is Khalid Duke. Though we have him on the two-line because it is unclear how much he'll play the spot.

Duke will also see some linebacker, and he was seeing some time on the second level of the defense last year when they were first learning the 3-3-5 scheme. Obviously, that was before he was injured and had to miss the remainder of the season.

The emergence of Reggie Stubblefield really just took them a different route with the scheme. The role that Duke was owning prior to that was not a weapon K-State had to uncork because they didn't have it in their arsenal.

Will they lump him back in that spot from last year or shoe-horn him into different places on the field, such as defensive end and the 'Sam' linebacker spot?

The only issue with him being at defensive end, and it is a good problem to have, is that it likely means less snaps in some form for Matlack.

1: Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Jaylen Pickle
2: Nate Matlack, Cody Stufflebean/Khalid Duke
3: Brendan Mott