The Miami Dolphins welcomed a litany of rookies to the team via the NFL Draft and undrafted free agency in 2026. Of the post-draft additions, no player received a larger guarantee from the franchise than former Rutgers and Louisville defensive tackle Rene Konga. Konga had been on the Dolphins' radar for a long while, dating back to when they invited him to team headquarters for a "30-visit" in April.
Despite considerable NFL interest, Konga was a combine snub even though his final season was his best one yet. He stayed healthy and totaled 29 tackles, five tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, and six pass deflections. For fans who remember Emmanuel Ogbah and his penchant for batting down low passes, it appears Konga shares a similar knack. Some Miami fans who root for the Hurricanes as well might remember the name, as Konga was a prominent force in the massive upset Louisville pulled off at Hard Rock Stadium in 2025.
Athletically speaking, Konga is in rare air. His 9.78 Relative Athletic Score (RAS) ranks 51st out of 2,279 defensive tackles since 1987. Konga put up elite speed and explosion scores and impressed with his agility as well. The only thing that worked against him is that he's supposedly not very big — even though he'd dwarf the average human considerably with his 6'4", 298-pound frame.
So, frankly, what gives? How did this Miami Hurricane tormentor go undrafted? We sought answers to those very questions from the football coach who knows Konga best, his defensive line coach at the University of Louisville, Mark Hagen. Hagen spoke with us from his new gig at Oregon State, where he'll coach the defensive linemen for the Beavers — and it's safe to say he wishes he could have Rene Konga on his defensive line for another year.
The Miami Dolphins may have unearthed a secret weapon in UDFA Rene Konga according to his college position coach Mark Hagen
PP: As a person, what should Dolphins fans know about Rene Konga as he begins his NFL career? How do those qualities set him up for success?
MH: “Number one, I think Rene is a great person. We actually were able to get him after spring ball in 2024. He had had a solid career up to that point at Rutgers playing for Greg Schiano. Everybody's got different reasons why they go in the [transfer] portal — a lot of times, it's about finding a better home in terms of playing opportunity.”
“When I first got to know him, I [found him to be a] very well-spoken young man. Guys come in different shapes and sizes and whatnot, but he’s a very, very hard worker. He communicates well. The recruiting side of it's not very long when you're dealing with the portal, so we basically had him on campus for about 24 hours. Obviously, his size and his strength and those types of things jumped out to us, but just getting around Rene Konga the person — he was a guy that I, personally, as a position coach, wanted to be around.”
“I thought he would add very well to our [defensive line] room. I knew our guys would like being around him. He wasn't one of those guys where it’s all about him — he understood he had to come in and compete. I thought he had a good football IQ — he could sit and talk about the game. I think those things translate to the next level.”
PP: Konga went undrafted despite a strong senior season. What's your read on why he didn't hear his name called, and how did he end up in Miami?
MH: “He’ll be very, very hungry. I think he's a guy that certainly could have been drafted. I was surprised as his position coach — based on his body of work and last two years at Louisville —that he wasn't invited to the [NFL] Combine. I asked some different scouts and I guess there's a voting system and I think he came up, maybe one vote short of getting [invited].”
“I think he wowed a bunch of people with his on campus workout at the [Louisville] Pro Day, and that's where [things took off]. There were high hopes that he would get drafted, but one of the benefits of being a free agent is you can figure out what the best situation is for you out there. And obviously he felt very strongly about his opportunity in Miami.”
PP: When did you realize Rene had a legitimate chance at the NFL? Was there a specific game, practice, or moment that convinced you?
MH: “When he got [to Louisville], we had seen some things on video. You never truly know [until] you get around guys in person, but when he showed up on campus, you [saw] a guy that had length at 6’4” and weighed between 290 and 300 pounds. He dove into the weight room and you start seeing a guy that’s big and athletic who can change direction, and you're hopeful. Then we start playing games, and I thought he was really good early in the season.
"The game that really jumped out to me was his junior year — we’re playing Georgia Tech at home. They had a really good dual-threat quarterback and just a team that has been really good in the ACC the past few seasons. I thought Rene really had a breakout game — [he] was very disruptive. That was the game where he kind of burst on the scene. It was after that Georgia Tech game that he really became a starter.”
PP: What did you want to see from him as a senior to prove himself to NFL scouts? Are there any specific moments that stand out from his senior season?
MH: “I told him, ‘You've been a good player. If I'm an NFL team, though, I'm looking at you and thinking, can this guy string together a full season without being on the shelf from an injury?’ And he did that. I thought he had a really, really good senior year for us. He was one of the top guys in the country in terms of batting balls down. It’s not always about creating sacks. I mean, everybody loves sacks, right? But you really want to make the quarterback uncomfortable.”
“We had a long season last year — we had our ups and downs. But he always showed up every week. He had a big game against the University of Miami. We went down to Hard Rock Stadium and beat the No. 2 team in the country. Rene had a huge, huge play in the game. Carson Beck had [thrown] a couple picks. His timing was off a little bit. Rene had a quarterback hit on Beck in the second half that forced [Beck's] third interception.”
PP: What do you believe is the most underrated part of his game, or the trait that will translate quickest to the NFL?
MH: "He’s disruptive. I think he’s a good interior pass rusher. Everybody always thinks about EDGE guys, right? And I know you've got some great interior rushers [in the NFL]. But I know those kind of guys are few and far between. I think he's a guy because he's athletic — he can help as an interior pass rusher. He's got a violent club that he was very effective with. He would kind of jab one way and get an offensive lineman off balance, and it was just a really violent [move], using that other arm and clubbing and just knocking those pass protectors off balance.”
“I think he's got a really good knack of what we call matching the quarterback's hand from a timing standpoint. That's easier said than done. Maybe it looks easy, but you've got to have great timing to be able to get that arm extended and to be able to bat those balls down. Maybe that's not a real sexy trait for people to think about, [but] if you bat a ball down, you win the down.”
PP: Is there a story, moment, or memory that you think best captures who Rene is, either as a player or as a person? It could be funny, work-related, or simply something that stuck out to you.
MH: "The thing that's always stood out to me was just the type of person that Rene is. I wanted to be around this guy; [he’s] just someone I enjoyed hanging out with. You can't always say that about everybody. He was very important to us, though, for another reason too. After the 2024 season, we lost [Ashton Gillotte] as a third-round pick to the Kansas City Chiefs. We were going to have a huge void because we really lost our backup to him at defensive end and then our number 3 guy [as well]. Rene did a great job in helping us get Wesley Bailey, who was [his] teammate at Rutgers.
“We identified Wesley as a guy that we were going to go after, but there's no way we would have gotten him had we not had Rene. These guys had grown up together, knew each other, spent time together out at Rutgers, and Rene did a critical job in recruiting Wesley to being a Louisville Cardinal last year.”
Rene Konga will have his work cut out for him earning a spot with the Dolphins out of training camp. It works in his favor that he isn't competing with a draft pick for a spot, and that historically, Jon-Eric Sullivan opted for between five and six defensive tackles in his previous post with the Green Bay Packers. Still, in a room with a grizzled veteran in Zach Sieler and a trio of promising sophomores in Kenneth Grant, Jordan Phillips, and Zeek Biggers, it's going to take quite the effort from Konga to get on the field.
In Coach Hagen's estimation, Rene Konga's going to do just that.
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