NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 185. 2024 NFL Draft Summer Scouting: Edge Rushers

Episode Date: August 8, 2023

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers continue their Summer Scouting Series with their edge rusher rankings. The two talk about the names to know for the potential 2024 class, where they stand heading into the 2023 college football season, and give you their Top 5 pre-season rankings for the position.

This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all got back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better. With NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get the most live NFL games all in one place, every game, every Sunday. And you can even watch up to four different games at once with MultiView, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sundays more magical. And also, YouTube TV is great. I got it this year.

It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital only games. Welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. In this episode, we're hitting another premium position,

Edgerusher. This is another position that has the chance to be a number one overall selection depending on what year of the NFL draft it is. We'll tell you if there is a player of that caliber in this year's draft. We'll also give if there is a player of that caliber in this year's draft. We'll also give you our top fives heading into the 2023 college football season,

tell you what we want to see from each one of those guys, what they do well, what they can do better. We'll do the same for plenty of guys that did not make our top fives as well. You guys know the drill. I'm Trevor Sycamore. With me, as always, is Connor Rogers. Let's ring the bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. I'm Trevor Sikama. That is Connor Rogers here to give you guys a breakdown on the potential 2024 edge rush class for the upcoming NFL draft.

College football right around the corner. We got the coaches pull out already, Connor. Preseason is well underway. I'm going to get your thoughts on the Jets' preseason game, by the way. But that means that it's time to really start to close things out, get to some of the premium defensive positions that we have left in summer scouting, and then, of course, wrap it all up with a bow. But we're going to be talking about our top edge rushersers the guys that we're looking forward to watching this upcoming college football

season give you our top fives you guys know the spiel connor you are officially full steam ahead in a pre-season football my friend i saw you on the timeline firing off those will mcdonald tweets getting those clips out how does it feel did it feel magical again to live tweet a game of a team that you follow? It really did. As Twitter has, my tweeting has definitely regressed in terms of volume, especially over the summer. I mean, when we kind of take a little vacation time in June, we take some real vacation time.

It felt good to have an actual game on and give actual thoughts. And listen, Trev, this was a relevant hall of fame game if you are a draft analyst because there was so many notable rookies playing a lot you had will mcdonald out there you had to want jones who looked really good joe tipman looked really good dtr was the star of the second half cedric tillman had a couple nice catches jason brownlee had a couple nice catches it's just the constant let's do it let's slide in cedric killman had a couple nice catches yeah yeah people saw them people saw it i mean it's the perfect time to just victory lap every draft take you've ever had and if somebody looks awful that you love just don't tweet about it you just don't talk about it so we've never

missed on a draft prospect here on the stock exchange pod it is a beautiful thing that nfl football is back yeah no i absolutely love it man obviously i thought of you when cedric tillman made the catch we tweeted about it a little bit back and forth and i saw i saw the uh the addicts of the podcast get in on it as well so that's what preseason football is about man tweet out one highlight clip in training camp and this dude is on his way to canton i told you i was there uh no need to uh to check back in on it but uh yeah man it's so good that football is back hey before we get into it uh i wanted to shout out one i have a new hat and the reason why i have a new hat is because

drew over at fro muth pickleball hit me up because he saw on my Instagram that I was starting to play pickleball and I had horrendous gear, like Walmart level balls, racket, paddle, whatever you call it, anything. I don't even know the terminology yet. And he does some sales over from Muth, which is a big pickleball sales company. And he's like, dude, we got to hook you up. They sent me a little care package. I got this, I got a shirt. I got a brand new paddle, which I'm so stoked to use. So all that to say, huge shout out to Drew. Huge shout out to FroMuth. Go follow him on social media. Go to FroMuth.com. Check out all their pickleball stuff. If you're getting into pickleball, which let me tell you, your boy is addicted. I played for the first time like a month and a half ago, and I've played like eight times since. So if you're getting into it, if you're thinking about getting into it, check out FroMuth. Go check out their gear. Connor, do you play pickleball?

I don't think I've ever asked you. Have I asked you this question? No, but I am taking the plunge soon. Now that... You need to do it. Listen, yeah. No, I have to do it. Taking the plunge soon.

I mean, I need a new sports hobby that the odds of tearing a ligament are much lower. Like, I think my flag football days and pickup basketball is definitely behind me. That's like that's been gone for a long, long time. Pickups a tough scene right now. Pickup basketball is a tough. I'm just trying to not get dunked on at this point. Honestly, it's just stay out of the way. I didn't play in my lacrosse alumni game this summer i was like man 31 like i would so pickleball sounds like the good

happy medium right to still be an athlete dude it's two on two you know you can you can get super athletic with it but you don't have to you know it's all about positioning it's all about like precision of dude it's it's a great sport it's fun sport anyways connor's gonna get in on it i'm in on it if y'all are out there you are picking a pickleball go check out our friends over from shout out to drew for uh for hooking us up all right let's get into let's get into edge rushers man we don't have this big dissertation thesis paper that we're going to put out there like we did for linebackers on how the position is totally changing right but edge rusher does come in a lot of shapes and sizes right you have different types of fronts that a lot of teams like to deploy and really in today's game a lot of these edge rushers have to be so versatile no matter what like a lot of these guys the nfl level

and the college football level are asked to play in two point stance from a standup perspective, three point stance with their hand in the dirt, four point stance. Sometimes, you know, you could be shaded into a four eye technique, a five technique, a wide nine alignment, like whatever it is, there's just so many different ways to try to get the most out of bigger or faster edge rushers. How can these guys get from point a to point b which is to the quarterback's lap as fast as possible and so that's what makes this edge rusher episode so exciting we're of course going to give you our top fives we're going to explain to you why they are where they are in our rankings and then y'all know the drill we'll give a shout out to a lot of the guys who did not make the top five as well edge rusher very deep group so we're going to

have plenty of guys that we're going to be able to do that for. So Connor, you want to kick it off for us? Who do you got at number five? Yeah, let's get right into it here. This is a, of course, as it always is, very talented group. A lot of these guys are some of the premium athletes throughout the recruiting cycle.

Now you always get a couple of underdog stories. So number five for me ended up being Braylon Trice from Washington. Somebody who, my goodness, talk about filling the stat sheet last year, Trevor. I mean, it's kind of funny when you go into the database on this guy and just look what he was able to do in the pack. First off, he's 6'3 and 3'8, 270 pounds. Definitely a heavier edge, a heavy handed edge.

Sometimes when you do this exercise, you go through the data entry, you plug in as many guys as you can from your watch list. Um, and then you look on paper when you're about to watch them. And he's just one of those guys that really matches the height and weight of how he plays. He plays heavy handed. He plays with power. I wrote down that this is a dude that there's a kind of a bull in a China shop play style, but it often works to his advantage. There's a lot of players at the college level that do play recklessly like that. And it can be almost a disadvantage at times because it's hard to get under control. But I think with him, it works for him. He's just that

powerful. He plays that hard. He's got a great motor. This is someone that had nine sacks last year, 15 quarterback hits, 46 hurries. I mean, once again, he's really, really filling the stat sheet of how he impacts the game in terms of just a pure rusher. 26.2% pass rush win rate. You're not going to hear, I don't think on today's show, you're going to hear a higher number than that of anybody we talk about. That is an elite number. This dude is consistently wrecking the play. He didn't have a game all season, Trevor, whereas win rate wasn't a double digit percentage.

When you go through this, you and I often talk about our process, and I think both of us always try to watch the worst game, right? It could be a game where they didn't have any stats. It could be a game that the PFF grading system had them really low. It could be a game that just, it didn't seem like they were able to affect the game. So you go to the tape and see why. And for Braylon Trice, I mean, every single game, he was at least at what, 10 or 11% pass rush win rate. So he was making something happen. Now, when you get into the actual player, besides talking about how he's heavy handed ball in China shop, I thought the hand placement and the power is at a high level. He really understands how to attack offensive lineman, where to attack the offensive lineman to create a route to the quarterback. That is often a very straight line route to the quarterback. This is not somebody that tries to dance too much. I thought he has enough speed to threaten the outside shoulder

and keep tackles off balance. When you talk about balance of your pass rush package plan, you can't always just take the outside shoulder. You can't just always go right hands to chest and try to drive through them. And you can't always just try to win the inside gap with an inside move. You have to vary that up. But the problem is much easier said than done.

If you don't have the speed to win that outside, well, then tackles can find you a little bit predictable and they can anchor a little bit more consistently against you. And they just don't have to over set wide. And I think he does a good enough job with that aspect to really find a director to the quarterback when he counters with other rush with that aspect to really find a director to the quarterback when he counters with other rushes. Effort and sheer will to get to the quarterback is outstanding. I saw him work through both offensive tackles and running backs trying to help in pass pro. Once again, this is a guy that really filled up the stat sheet. He played, I don't want to say a rotational role, but he didn't play all of the snaps for Washington. They were rotating him in last year, and he still had this kind of production.

I mean, full energy, 120% on each play. There was a sack that I saw where he beat the tackle, then he beat the running back, and then he turned around and ran back to chase down the quarterback for a sack. Cannot emphasize it enough. Effort and power is phenomenal. You know, a couple negatives on him. I don't think he's overly agile or twitchy. He's not.

It seems like his lower half isn't as twitchy as some of these lighter rushers, but he's also 270. So keep that in mind. I don't think he played with the same speed and power combination against the run. It felt like when teams went to read plays, he was trying to contain and read the play

and he kind of overthought. And when he's just pin my ears back and go as a pass rusher, he looked like a totally different player with the power profile that didn't show up against the run because he's doing a lot of thinking. So it's not a physical issue.

It's more of a mental issue of trying to round out that run defense. And I think he'll get there with more playing time. He did struggle to set a hard edge in a few games where he just lost the battle at the point of attack. So I thought definitely a step down or two against the run. But as a pass rusher, Trevor,

this guy has dominated his conference where I don't really know what kind of encore he could put on this year in this conference. I'm just curious to see if he goes through the all-star circuit and if he gets even more difficult matchups when he gets there. Yeah, I almost wish, I don't know why, he wouldn't have done this. I don't think there's a reason to do this, but I almost wish he would have transferred to the SEC, right? Selfishly for scouting, of course.

His style of winning is just going to eat Pac-12 offensive tackles alive. I mean, like, certainly, no, I don't mean to just generalize, like there aren't big and powerful offensive tackles in the Pac-12, but I think across the league, more than other leagues, certainly before it became a four-team league. The Pac-4. Yeah, the Pac-4 became the Fantastic Four. You know, you just get to a point where his style,

like you highlighted so well of just this incredible first step explosiveness legs that never stop churning that 270 frame that strength especially when he gets low and he comes in you under your pad level i mean you got no shot he is he is like tackling quarterbacks sometimes with the quarterback's own offensive tackle on some reps, or it feels like he gets damn near close to it. I think that you said he had a 22.6 pass rush win percentage. And you flip those numbers.

26.2. 26.2, which is like you mentioned, we're not going to find one higher than that. I mean, now i'm not saying he's better than miles garrett or nick bosa but this is just to give you guys an understanding the best pass rushers in the nfl the nick boses the miles garrett's the the micah parsons they're right around like anywhere from 21 to 24 percent pass rush win rate This guy's got a 26.2. Nuts. That's crazy good production. I agree with you though. He was a different type of difference maker in the pass game versus the run game. And

that's why he did not make my top five. He was just outside of it. He was in that next year, right outside of the top five. And the reason why is because i am a little bit worried because one and he freelanced a little bit too much as a run defender or at least he was not in his gap as much as he needed to be right and two like you highlighted he needs to be better in that area if he's going to get on the field to highlight what he could be as a pass rusher now in the Pac-12 and at Washington, it's an easy path to playing time because he's the best pass rusher they got. They're going to put him on the field no matter what. Is the situation different if he's at a different school

where winning with that power profile as a pass rusher isn't so clear and obvious? Yeah, you got to start him. Because if he was in a competition to where he really had to earn those pass rush reps, would he have as many of them? I don't know. That's my projection part of all of this. And what I would love to see more from him going to the NFL level is just, I want to see him better on those run defense talents. I think that that would really round out who he is as a player, because, you know, we talk about some PFF stats that we have here on this podcast and some PFF data. And I'll be honest, we're always trying to fine tune our grading and our process and

our statistics and our data of how we are grading these players. But not every grade, not every data point is as translatable as some others are. For pass rushing, pass rush grade, pass rush win rate, and pass rush productivity. Those are three metrics that we have over at PFF that we boast pretty well. If you succeed at those things, good chance you're going to continue to succeed at them. Now, sometimes the jump from college to the NFL

throws a wrench into that. But if you're good as a pass rusher, as an underclassman at the. Now, sometimes the jump from college to the NFL throws a wrench into that. But if you're good as a pass rusher, as an underclassman at the college level, we've got a pretty good track record with our grades and our data that you're going to continue to be that. And that you have a good chance to continue to be that, or at least start at a good level when you make the jump from college to the NFL. So the fact that he had a 91.5 pass rush grade and a 26.2 pass rush win percentage, that to me means even more than the nine sacks and the 12 tackles for loss. The bull rush you mentioned, it's amazing because of his effort, because of his power. You don't see a lot of guys at 270 pounds who have as much effort and play with as much

of their hair on fire, if you will, that he does, which is great to see. Would love to see that arm rip move that he has be hit with even more consistency and use it more often. I mean, I'm talking like you've got the strength, you've got the explosiveness, hit these dudes with a club rip and get by him and attack that outside shoulder. You mentioned sometimes he's not as twitchy with the change of direction, but man, when you are using that power to club somebody over, turn their shoulder a little bit, and then you're ripping straight under him,

I feel like that's a move that he could really put in his pass rush repertoire that could really help out his pass rush profile even more. So I had him just outside, but I did like Braylon Trice a lot as well. Yeah, lots of like, I mean, just some hilarious games too. The game against Washington State. I mean, he had 18 total pressures i mean of course dude when i saw that when i saw that i went and watched every single one of them because i said there's no effing way he had eight sure it's insanity dude it's it's some of these guys some of these guys that we're going to talk about had like 23 pressures in his season.

Yeah. This guy, I mean, just gasping for air, I would think, by the time the game was over. Yeah. With how tired he was from chasing down the quarterback the entire game. Yeah. So Braylon Trice, good football player. Like you highlighted him. Not my top five, like I said, but right outside, he's in that next year.

JT Tui Malo out from Ohio State is my number five player on this edge rush list. A little background for him because the background definitely matters. Six foot four, 270 pounds also. So we got some big boys are starting out back-to-back 270 out here. So if you're keeping score at home, Tuima Loau at 6'4", 270 can host the pot. Just want to make sure everybody knows that. First and foremost, can host his podcast.

That's the 58th percentile and 65th percentile when it comes to edge rushers. Five-star recruit okay this dude was a very highly regarded high school prospect was the number four overall player in the 2021 class the number two defensive lineman leave behind only cory foreman of usc who hasn't panned out as well but we'll probably get to that later in the podcast. Also the 24th highest rated player in 247 history. So this dude, crazy good athlete, crazy big player. You just don't find that size, speed, strength combination the way that he has it. Played both football and basketball growing up and all throughout high school, I should mention. Also to the point where he received a basketball scholarship from both Washington and Oregon.

So, oh, I have this as well. I wanted to note this. In a pandemic-shortened senior season, he averaged 18 points per game and eight rebounds while playing guard, forward, and center at times throughout the season. So they use this guy absolutely everywhere. It just goes to show how well-rounded of an athlete he is. He had 32 total pressures last year with a 9.3 pass rush win percentage.

He had three and a half sacks, 10 and a half tackles for loss. I like this player. He's obviously in my top five for a reason. But there is a, I would say, lack of urgency, I feel like, when I'm watching his game, he's a technician, man. I mean, he has already a variety of pass rush moves that he can go to and his instincts. If you turn on that Penn state game alone, you see him batting pass at the line of scrimmage. You see him coming up with interceptions. Like this dude just has a great understanding understanding for especially that's why you see the run defense grade really high he knows where the ball is going he knows what offensive linemen want to do he can read things when it's swing

passes when it's outside zone you know when they're dropping to some quick game with some slants like he knows where the ball is going he's a super smart football player when he hits the long arm move i think that that's his best right now so when he gets into players and he's 6'4 270 he can extend that that single arm all the way out you know turn his shoulder a little bit and it's tough for those offensive tackles to hold on to him i mentioned that penn state game he's got a couple of really nice reps against olufashanu and that's because you know body type for body type he's able to go into him and play him pretty well but i mentioned he's a smooth athlete but but he's not to me. I didn't see a twitched up one. Like I didn't see a guy who is hammering off the line of scrimmage.

First step. That is the number one category that I have when I grade out edge rushers. I thought he had heavy feet. That's something I wrote down right away. Is first step explosiveness. You got to be able to get off the ball because if you can't get off the ball, no matter how talented you are, there's always going to be somebody else that teams are looking to upgrade your position with, with a better athlete. And I'm not saying that he's already this replaceable guy. Cause I do still think he's a talented player, but you mentioned he's got heavy feet. He's not a twitched up athlete and it leads to a lack of violence in his game. When I watch Tuimaloa, I think that he's got great finesse. He approaches the game with a cerebral mentality. The hands are going in places where they should. He's using leverage correctly. He's setting up offensive tackles to

attack their outside shoulder one rep and go inside the next. That's all there for him. He's got a great pass rush plan, but there's not this violence to his game like there is with Braylon Trice, like there is with Chop Robinson, like there is with Jared Verse, where there's just, you want, the trenches are about violence, man.

They are about finesse, but you gotta be violent with what you do. You gotta be precise. You gotta be violent. And I thought that that area was lacking for his game. So this is somebody who, like I said, love the way he approaches the position, but I wonder how much of what I'm looking for from him is fixable without him, maybe losing a little bit of weight, getting a little bit closer to let me, maybe two, maybe he's playing at two 60, right? Maybe two 60 is the sweet spot for JT because he's a talented football

player. But that part of his game is it's tough to change. It's tough to improve upon when you approach it as, as well-rounded as he already is. Um, listen, a lot of the things you said there at the end is what kept him out of the top five for me this exercise i really tried to find ceiling and i think with him i liked his floor i did but he came in as edge seven for me on my list and i'm with you that he's strong i wrote down i had a lot of nice things to say about when i wrote down his his pass rush plan right you look at active hands you see the two-hand swipe you see him experimenting with some moves I saw a cross chop to spin move his spin worked well versus Iowa uh long arm that you said Trevor push pull you know a vast

package of moves I think he's really instinctive up front the interception against Penn State was an amazing play an amazing play I think he's got good vision I think he's really instinctive up front. The interception against Penn State was an amazing play, an amazing play. I think he's got good vision. I think he's got good effort. He is going to be an effective NFL player. But do I think he'll be a game-changing pass rusher? I would be very surprised, very surprised. It's not just that he had a win rate of 9.3%.

It's the heavy feet. I mean, they play him as a wide alignment edge and there's just not a lot of explosiveness off the ball I didn't see flexibility I didn't see bend I didn't see like when you go up against an NFL tackle I think he's fundamentally sound yes and very productive in terms of an effort and coached coaching standpoint. And it's a nod, not just to Ohio State's coaching. We know all about their coaching with edge rushers, but it's a nod to him because this guy that's clearly worked very hard. He's got a muscled up frame. It's not that he's this bad athlete. It's not what I'm saying. But a theme of the

five guys I had in my top five, especially when we get from four and on, they're just simply, in my opinion, more impressive movers than him. And listen, I've done this long enough now and I've been burned in edge rankings plenty of times. There's a certain kind of player that takes over an NFL game as a pass rusher and they are very, very difficult to find. My hope for tui maloau is for this junior year coming up because remember he was just a true sophomore last that's very fair so as a junior do we see something different from him explosiveness wise because he might be more confident right that that is you know it's it's hard to teach explosiveness it's hard to teach speed we've said that time and time again and that's why i'm with you man like i totally understand it hey you're keeping them

out of your top five because those are things that that you you got to be some guys have it or they don't and if we go through this junior year and it's the same sort of, he's got some heavy feet with that lack of violence in his game, then you're probably going to see, even in my rankings, guys like Braylon Trice and maybe a couple of guys underneath him as well, pass him in the rankings because you go, okay, this is a solid football player. Like you mentioned so many of the pass rush moves he has.

I noted a lot of those as well, but I have a category. Now, this isn't a graded category. This is more for my notes. What are their go-to pass rush moves? And I mentioned I think the long arm is the one where he has the most effectiveness, but this dude's showing us all these pass rush moves, and I failed to really write down this is a go-to of his. And when I say go-to, it doesn't have to be just one.

I got some guys on here that they got four go-to moves. They got five go-to moves because they do it really, really well. But right now, Tuomaloa, to me, is a good player. A lot of these other players are already showing some greatness, especially in the past rushing category so that's why we'll have them a little bit higher but anyway who'd you have number four we got a good transition number four because this is someone who if you put tui malo out on an nfl field today he'd be a better or more effective player than this player right now but

this player has all the tools to develop into a superstar. And that's Dallas Turner at number four, six, four to 42, the junior at Alabama. This is a fascinating player, former consensus, five-star prospect.

Okay. 2022 for sacks, 11 quarterback hits 21 more hurries, 11.1% pass rush win rate. The good, really high-end initial burst off the ball when playing with his hand in the dirt. I didn't see the same one standing up, but with hand in the dirt, I like the burst. He can win and turn the corner with explosive speed as a stand-up rusher and excellent pursuit speed.

I saw a Euro step that creates rush angles for him. Really good athlete. He has the speed to cross the face of tackles to win inside. This is just once again, a premium athlete on the edge that can play in space and do a lot of different things. You could actually have him peel and cover running backs. You can have him drop. You can have him run and chase. You could even have him play a little off the ball if you asked him to. He's that level of athlete. But that is his pass rush ability right now. He is an athlete. He is trying to get around offensive linemen by kind of just being quicker than them more often than not.

And when you get to the concerns, he's not going to convert speed to power against a legit tackle right now. You go up and this is the luxury, but also the blessing and the curse of playing in the SEC. You know, a guy like Dallas Turner, who's still a really young player and is going to get stronger and I think is going to be able to develop this part of his game. But when you watch him try to convert speed to power in the SEC, he's going to get stonewalled a lot, really consistently. He looks a lot smaller than everyone else in the trenches right now. When you watch the all 22 and you look at the end zone angle, he is notably the smallest guy in the trenches, and it's by a pretty good margin.

I think he needs to get much stronger to become a three down player in the NFL. I thought the pass rush package was just based all around elusive moves and no real power. So Dallas Turner, freaky athlete. I've seen these guys turn a corner their junior year and turn to stars. I've seen it many, many times. He has all the tools in the world to do that. I think he, but he lands at number four in my rankings where honestly, most places you're going to probably see him as a top three, top two. Some people have him as number one. I think he has a long ways to go, but it's a good rawness. It's the type of rawness that this guy has a really good chance to figure it out.

And we're going to see if he can this year. Well, this podcast is not going to be one of those places where Dallas Turner is a top three edge rusher going into the season because I also have him at number four because you watch the tape because because I as I watch the tape you know and again kind of a little bit towards the Tui Malo out conversation we're watching him as a true sophomore and so there is still reason to believe that a lot of these things get better but I noted a couple of things about Turner. You mentioned his size measurable is he's six foot four, 58th percentile, but he's 242. So it's a fifth percentile can still host the pod, but fifth percentile for an edge rusher, that's really light. We talked about the need for

Will Anderson to gain weight last year.allas weighs less than will does i think by well will measured into the combine at like 250 right so put on weight for the combine he put on weight for the combine but i think both these guys are pretty much playing around the same weight but we asked will anderson to gain weight so we had to gain weight, but look as a, so did you say you liked him better as a standup or as a hand of the dirt guy? My take was, I thought he was more explosive getting off the ball with his hand in the dirt. But I thought when he stood up, he did a good job winning the corner with that flat out pursuit speed so it's weird what i'm saying is he's better in phase one with his hand in the dirt yeah he's way better in phase two and three as a stand-up

guy does that make sense it does it does so i like him i like him more as a three four outside linebacker right now certainly it's what he has to be basically the weight aside like i feel like he is like you mentioned after the snap he feels more comfortable coming from that stand-up spot so i think it's very natural that anybody would be a little bit more explosive a little bit violent when you're coming from that three technique especially because i do think he's a flexible guy i think he can get pretty low and when you're firing off the ball at a lower height you know you're going to generate some more power that's when the i, I think the, the speed to power moves, you know, that bull rush can definitely help when he was trying to push guys back. He was more effective

when he was coming from that lower three point stance, no doubt about it. But I will say this I think pound for pound, he is pretty strong, right? Does he need to get stronger? Does he need to gain weight? Yes. I think that that's very true, but I watched a handful of times where, whether it was, he was coming from a three point stance or even a two point stance, you know, he'd get guys where the hands would come up and in he'd stack them and he'd shed them. He'd throw them to the side with guys who are a lot bigger than him. And I saw that on enough occasions to where I noted it as a strength of his, even at his lower weight, that he was still able to do that. So I like the burst. I like the flexibility. All of that stuff is there. But I mentioned, you know, I have him,

some of his weaknesses, categories, initial punch of his bull rush is good because of the explosiveness, that first step explosiveness. I think it's going to be one of the better ones in the class, but after the initial punch, you start to see the weight and the strength issues. He has, and this is part of him from a two-point stance. I think he has an occasional false step from the two-point stance. Like when he's down in the three-point stance, it's almost like it's just natural that he is on his toes, that he is loading up the head part of his quad muscles to where when that ball is snapped, there's no thinking about it. He is just bursting off with the top of his quads. And when he comes from a two-point stance, he's a little bit more relaxed.

The stance is a little bit wider. And I saw a couple of times he had a little bit of a false step there. So that obviously causes a little bit of a lack of power. You start to clean that up. Maybe you get a little bit more power coming out of that two point stance, which is nice or which is nice to say that he can definitely get better in that area. So I have him in number four. I see a lot of the same issues that you have, but here was my big takeaway with him i i said this in my spark notes version of of his scouting report three things stand between dallas turner and becoming a really nice edge rusher at the nfl level a more developed inside move right because he's got the first step he can explode he can attack the outside shoulder but i did not see enough inside moves in his past

rush plan. So whether that's a, whether that's just a little like crossover and you're just getting across their face, whether it's a swim move, whether it's a spin move, let's see something there. Give me a little bit more of an inside presence in your pass rush plan. I want to see more consistent hand swipes, right? Because if you're going to play it a little bit lower of a weight, don't let them get hands on you. You know, when they're trying to shoot your hands, be ready for it. Be a little bit, I don't want to say hesitant, be a little bit more reserved, wait for them to flash their hands out and then boom, fire them to the side. You're attacking

that outside shoulder. You're getting right around him. I think he's got the speed to be able to do that. Let's see a little bit more hand swipes for him. And then I say, gain about five to 10 more pounds. And I think that then all of a sudden, if he develops all three of those things with the speed profile that we've already seen, that's really effective on paper projection for a good NFL edge rusher. So I'm pretty similarly, but I had him in number four as well.

We really did. So that brings me to number three, kind of a fun comeback story, I would call it. Leatu Latu from UCLA. I did not think, man, I thought I was i was i thought i was gonna be like alone i don't know why like having him in my top three oh i mean we watched the same tape brother it's just no this dude you just gotta watch tape so now here's the thing with him right six four and three4 and three quarters, 261, good size. This is just the reality.

I didn't think he had like crazy length, though, at that size. Here's the reality, though, for those that don't know much about Latu. He, while at Washington in 2020 and 2021, had a neck injury that he missed two years of football and had to medically retire. And I believe this was the almost same situation with Jalen Phillips, which is funny. Was it the same? Because they both wear the 15 at UCLA. It's just, I don't remember Jalen. Are they doing cloning at UCLA?

I know they're a cutting edge program. Is he clearly cloning people? Jalen's, I can't remember ifalen. I don't remember Jalen cloning UCLA. I know they're a cutting edge program. I can't remember. Is he clearly cloning people? Jalen's, I can't remember if it was a neck. I know it was a medical retirement though. But with Latu, yeah, medical retirement. Couldn't get cleared by the Washington staff. And revives his football career.

Gets cleared by the UCLA staff. Comes back to football last year. And just explodes onto the scene in the conference. He finished 2022 with 10 and a half sacks. He had eight quarterback hits and 44 pressures, five tackles for a loss against the run, an absurd 20% pass rush win rate after missing two years of football. That is just bananas. Desired mass for the the position I thought he put on a master class of keeping hands off of him an absolute master class uh when he wants to when he is going into a rush and he's saying I don't want to get let this tackle even get near me

I'm going to keep the hands off of him and create desirable rush lanes, drives his hands into the opponent's chest and bull rushes through them. Pass rush toolbox. Another guy with a deep pass rush toolbox, cross chop, rip and dip, spin, bull rush, long arm. He plays like a guy that had football taken from him for two years. Every single down is relentless. Every single down is like, this this is this could be the last play i ever get let me make the most of it they let him rush from the interior in the bowl game against

pitt i i think i don't know if they were just like hey this is fun or just go do this and he was too quick for the interior offensive lineman when you watch all these games and the last game i watched was the bowl game and i was like all right i was like where is he and i was too quick for the interior offensive lineman. When you watch all these games, and the last game I watched was the bowl game, and I was like, all right. I was like, where is he? And I was like, why is he at Shade Nose? It's like, what? And he just stutter-stepped the hell out of a guard or a center,

and it was really cool to see that, just the versatility. I thought his pursuit speed or lack thereof cost him a few sacks, which is wild because he had 10.5 a couple times if he was a step faster in pursuit he might have had 14 the crossface inside counter he works a lot

it was just a step too slow it was the one move I saw tackles just get a read on and kind of take him out of a play on a couple times times. But Latu is really fricking good, man. He is a near pro ready pass rusher today. I am praying this guy's medicals at the next level are okay because he, I do not want to see him robbed of being a first round pick.

He was tremendous to watch. He's obviously worked like hell to get his football career back. He's capitalized on every single second of it. And he's a big time prospect. So I have him at two. I have him. I have him as H2. We'll obviously talk about him now to keep the conversation going.

He's awesome, man. I thought you highlighted him really well. I have the very first part of my SparkNotes version for him is Latu spent a lot of time away from the game due to a neck injury, and it's very clear that during that time, all he thought about was getting back and somehow being a better player than he was before he left. And so I think you see that in his production.

You mentioned the 64 pressures, 20% pass rush win rate. You know, it's nice when you get the backfield production with sacks and tackles for loss. It's even better when it combines with the pressures and the pass rush win percentage. And he checks all of those boxes for backfield production, whether you're looking at common sets or whether you're looking at PFF data. Had a 91.0 pass rush grade, which is an elite grade because it was over 90. Unfortunately, he is going to be off some teams' boards. I mean, there's no other way to say it.

It's the flat out truth. There's going to be NFL teams that flag his injury history. And it's a bad injury history, man. It's like spinal cord injury. Washington was not going to clear him to come back to football. UCLA did obviously they have been able to work with him and he's, it, it sure seems like he is pain-free and he is, he has all the mobility again. And, and you just love to see that from him. But the reality is he's going to be off some teams' boards.

But for those that still have him on their board, you highlighted so much of what he does well. I have in his go-to moves the two-handed swipe, the Eurostep, the crossover, the long arm, the dip and rip, the club and rip. Like, he does everything so well. He is a 6'4.5", 260-pound technician of an edge rusher. And I think that this is absolutely somebody that, medicals aside, which is tough to do,

in a vacuum, he's no question to me, a first-round pick. No question about it. This is somebody who's tape alone I'm taking in the top 20. The weaknesses that I have in his game. So I have this one here. Hand placement on inside spin moves needs a little work, but it will be great once he gets it. It's kind of funny, wasn't it? I want to see him come off the the line scrimmage you know

you are chopping the hand away and then you are you are i think i got that wrong but you are chopping hand away and then you are spinning to where your elbow is catching you know the shoulder the arm of the offensive tackle and you are boom next thing you know you're spinning around you're straight in the quarterback's lap the hand striking the placement of it wasn't what it needed to be on the spin move, but you saw him working on it. And I think when he works on it, that inside move is definitely going to be there. He could be better at bull rushing and he could better be better run defense, right? I think we, for as much as we like this guy a lot, 66.1 run defense grade. Like he can

play two of the things that he needs to do. What I want to see from him this year, other than just being healthy, let those legs drive in the bull rush, man. You're big enough. You're powerful enough. You've got those long arms. You've got the potential to have good leverage, but leverage is another part of it. I felt like too often he was either coming out of a two point stance and he was letting himself be too high. That pad level was not where it needed to be. Uh, or those legs just stopped churning or having the effectiveness that they could have in the bull rush. So maybe that's him rushing from a three-point stance a little bit more, but I like him as a three-four outside linebacker from a stand-up stance.

You just got to get low, right? When you're firing off that line of scrimmage, even if you were in a two-point stance, you got to get down. You got to, like I said, load up the head of those quadriceps and fire off the ball, get into those offensive tackles. And I think that you're just going to have a complete player there. So I am a number two on my edge rush list. La to la to one of my favorite film watches that I had during this,

during this position, he was, he was a pleasant surprise because I did not know anything about him really coming in and the PFF grades check out the tape checks out. And yeah, that's why he's number two no doubt dude i think honestly without the medical question i i might have had him at least in the combo for two but two for me i'm wondering if this is three for you maybe my because number one i just i had already evaluated for a draft like signed sealed delivered stamped and i watched them again and it was nothing new it was awesome but number two for me i had not watched play yet on coach's film and that's that's pork chop chop robinson pork chop

baby what a name what a name there's a chance that this is my favorite player in the draft and not just off of talent because he's not even my top edge. He's number two. This man dresses for the game like it's 1953. Wait, does he? Yes, he I want to make sure I think I wrote this down. I wrote down old school aesthetic, no gloves, tape or anything. Oh, yeah.

I thought when you said dress, I thought you were talking about like pre-game dress no no no i should have i should he was dressed in the 70s he gets in his uniform especially when he doesn't wear sleeves there's sometimes where he's where in some games where he just wears sleeves and gloves but right there was at least a few games where he's just out there bare hands. And I'm like, he's raw dogging it, dude. Completely. Okay, the game against Auburn, nothing. I mean, nothing.

That man showed up with his helmet, his jersey, and his cleats. And a jockstrap. That's it. And he's like, what's up, boys? Let's get after it. I mean, this dude's awesome. I hope that he actually like really runs with the bit and does that for every game. Is that the equivalent of like a fullback or linebacker neck roll is when a pass rusher

has no gloves, no nothing, like maybe just like wrist tape. And that was what was crazy. There's some games where like the Auburn game, he wore like wrist tape and that was what was crazy there's some games where like the auburn game he wore the wrist tape against you're literally going through the tape right now looking at yeah i i see it in your eyes you're going through and you're looking at a clip of him in every game i i actually really had there is some games notably the auburn one just nothing literally nothing and i'm like this guy is just a killer. He's a stone cold killer.

He finished 2022, five and a half sacks, nine hits, 34 hurries, nine TFLs against the run. He rushes so damn low, Trevor. He looks like he's almost crawling at times. Rushes low, plus burst, gets under pads, drives tackles off balance. This wrecking ball build. I mean, he's listed 6'3", 255. I don't think he's 6'3", and I don't care.

It almost reminded me of Carl Lawson. Carl Lawson was this way at Auburn, where you look at him, and he's this way with the Jets right now, where he doesn't have this crazy length. He's not very tall but he's one of the most jacked humans on planet earth and plays the leverage game speed to power and i saw a lot of that from chop but here's the thing with chop besides the thunder in the hands right i thought the twitch and burst across the face of tackles was really good.

Really good. There was a couple times they tried to cheat wide on him, and his twitchiness and his burst allowed him to just explode through the inside. And if you can have that kind of diverse package, I mean, you're going to be a problem. Can rip and dip to turn the outside shoulder or the corner. Watch the Auburn game. He took over the game against Auburn.

He took over the game against Auburn. He single-handedly said, I will not allow us to lose this game and took over the game. 20.9% pass rush win rate in 2022. The only thing that bothered me with Chop, and obviously he's going to get to go on a war path this year if he so chooses i thought the ohio state tackles did a really good job against him i thought notably dewan jones threw him on the ground a lot what what are you thinking

arm length man yep that's why that's that's that's one of the only real now obviously like that was spot on i think his hand i think his hands could sometimes be a little bit too bow in a china shop like i think he could be like a little frenetic with his hands like they're kind of going everywhere now you love it like you love the effort you love the violence you love how fast the hands are moving but sometimes i feel like he he looks a little bit out of control um so i'm not saying that he's this like polished, perfect player, but one of the big things that worries me with him is simply that arm length, because you, I am glad you mentioned it because I have the exact same thing in my notes.

DeJuan Jones gave him a ton of trouble because Jones was able to get hands on him before he was even able to get within striking distance of DeJuan Jones hands. And look, Jones has 99th percentile wingspan for the NFL. So it's not like every NFL tackle is going to be as long as DeJuan Jones is, but that to me highlighted, okay. Yeah. His arm length is a little bit of an issue. It's going to be something that he's going to have, you know, that just means you got to get even better at disengaging. You got to get even better at planning where these offensive tackles are going to try to put hands on you, the angles, where their placement is. And you got to be ready to swipe it away.

You've got to be ready to counter it, however it is. So didn't mean to cut you off, but that was. No, I'm glad. I'm glad we saw that the same. And I just think that... Two things came to mind. Because I've had DeJuan Jones overload for a couple days now. I watched him in the Hall of Fame game against the Jets.

And he looked great. And I watched him up against Chop. And I thought, what happened to him during the draft process, because. He's he's he's got such great length. He looks good on a lot of tape you watch. He looked good already in the NFL. I know he's got a long road, but I didn't like Trevor and I was seeing both chop stinks like I was like, yeah, DeJuan Jones, like tough guy to get around.

Dude, there's people out there who thought DeJuan Jones had first round tape. Yeah, I think I should. I'll see where I write. I know I didn't write him in the first, but I think I think people, the senior bowl spooked people because he absolutely dominated the first day of senior bowl practice and just disappeared. And he's like, I'm out. I'm done.

And I think that rubbed NFL teams the wrong way. For sure. That's honestly when you're you're a heavier guy carrying some bad weight. They just get fearful of that. So I have a quote about Chop Robinson that I'm going to read in a second, and then I'll obviously kind of finish out his profile before we get to the guy that I believe both of us have at number one. But before I get to that quote, which is it's a good one. It's a good one. This season, DraftKings has launched the largest best ball tournament ever in DraftKings history. Right now, you can enter DraftKings best ball tournament for a shot at over $10 million in guaranteed cash prizes. Make your entry today, sit back, relax, and enjoy the NFL

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But he said, Chop is just a force. Some games, he doesn't even wear gloves. That's when I knew he was a little bit crazy. He doesn't wear gloves, arm sleeves, nothing. He just puts the shoulder pads and pants on and walks out there. That's when I knew he was serious because he's dangerous. Oh, my God. That's just unbelievable.

His own teammate. But it's fucking true. It is, man. It is. I'm telling anybody that just loves football, you don't even have to be a scout or you want to be a draft analyst, nothing like that. If you just love the game, just watch this man against Auburn,

and you'll laugh because it's psychotic. It is psychotic. I got him at number three. Strengths in his game, carries his weight well, well built, good balance. He does. See the core strength. Really powerful leg drive that continues to move offensive tackles back as the play goes on.

That bull rush is ferocious, especially, dude, when he's coming from a four point stance when they ask him i think they did this a couple times in that auburn game when they ask him to put both hands in the ground and they say go get the quarterback holy hell i wouldn't be one i wouldn't want to stand in front of this dude he's got he's got a ton of power and it continues as the play goes on the false steps from him very few and far between when we see it i think it's only because it feels like he's a little right leg dominant and that's just like a preference of kind of where he wants to get most of his power but it's not really a technique thing i did not see many false steps

from him at all whatsoever he when that ball is when that ball is snapped he is bursting off of that front foot to try to get into the backfield and try to get past the offensive tackle shoulder as quickly as possible he's all out at all times you absolutely love that um and i mentioned the only thing that i really had to complain about with him outside of kind of well rounding his game getting more of a pass rush profile is you'll hone in the hands love that they're fast and violent but hone in on him a little bit and then the arm length it's just something to watch so those are the two things that's why i've got him at number three i like him a lot he's gonna be i mean he's gonna be a top 15 probably top 10 player for me for sure even as edge three that's how good he is so number one a guy that you and i really talked up on the pod

last year great day to be a great dane it is a great day if you're listening to this to be a great dane because former great dane j Jared Verse is the number one edge for the podcast right now. And you know what? You and I texted about this. We were laughing. You go back and watch Jared Verse, and you're just like, man, he must really like school.

Because... I got one question for you, Jared. Why are you not on the Las Vegas Raiders right now? That's it. one question for you jared why are you not on the las vegas raiders right now why are you not wearing silver and black screaming off the edge across from max crosby i mean he would he should have been the pick instead of tyree wilson i had heard this is like in november that the falcons were in love with the idea already of taking jaredse. That's how, and I don't think he would have got there. I really don't.

I really don't think he would have got there. Would have been a top ten pick. But that's how high teams were on him. He didn't get bad feedback. He didn't get bad feedback. He just went back to school. So. The man loves school.

What do you want? The man loves school. Loves school so much he's gone to two schools. Albany and Florida State. Dude, what a nerd. Man, we got to ask him what's going on. But this dude is just, he's a phenomenal football player. It's scary he's only getting better.

He's 6'3 and 5'8, 252 pounds with 33-inch arms. He has an explosive first step. He could time the snap to gain an advantage early in the rep. 2022, he had a 22.6% pass rush win rate. Twitchy with heavy hands, converts speed to power to run through tackles. He's starting to unlock a push pull to fully utilize his power. Burst and stop and start really stands out when he's in pursuit. I thought his lower half is in sync with his upper half when making

his pass rush move. It's just all put together. I think he sets a hard edge and can be trusted against the run. I didn't see a drop off when playing a run. A couple of times teams put a tight end on him. He discarded them like it was a child. The acceleration of the sideline is extremely, extremely explosive. The only two things I wrote down with verse because he is my top edge. He's one of my top players in the entire draft. Again, you can add some strength to his lower half. I think, I think you can get a little stronger in that lower half. And he battled through a lower body injury in 2022.

I'd like to see him put together a fully healthy dominant season because this is a phenomenal pass rusher, a good run defender. From everybody I've talked to, a awesome human being that is really driven and put together where he will have a long NFL career, long NFL career. So if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, one shout out to you. We love you. We appreciate it. You already know the Jared verse background. I got to sit down with him during the college football season last year.

Got to write a feature piece on him. Awesome dude. Really love my time getting to talk to him. You guys can see that over at pff.com. If you just search Jared verse, I know the story will probably pop up. But for those who might be new to the podcast, who are listening, who might not know Jared versus background, he split time between tight end and defense event in high school when he was

only six foot four, 221 pounds, didn't have a single FBS offer. Not one when his senior season wrapped up also ran track want to mention that ran the 100 meter running the 200 meter which you see that explosiveness also participated in the high jump and was part of the state championship uh 4x100 relay so this dude was all about track and you see that explosiveness from him that track background very important we talk about that with corners we talk about that with wide receivers we talk about that with wide receivers. We talk about that with running backs. When you have a track background, especially a sprinter background,

as a pass rusher, you probably get off the ball pretty well, and he absolutely can. So no FBS offers coming out of high school. Attended Albany, an FCS school, because they let him play full-time defense fan. There were some other schools that wanted him to play tight end, but wanted to play defensive end even though we know we're doing much would you say we know what we're doing in albany okay right yeah of course yeah they saw the vision they saw the vision so remember he was only about 220 pounds when he got to albany he's a pass rusher

he redshirted that first season and then the second season was canceled due to COVID. During that second season, and I talked with him about this and asked him this myself, he made a home gym that entire year and put on 40 pounds to get up to like 250, 255. And then he lost a little bit of that weight but like the man stacked up just straight peanut butter and creatine sandwiches three times a day never gets old

and then obviously he came back to albany his first year as a starter he was an fbs all-american or sorry fcs all-american had 11 and a half tackles for loss 10 and a half sacks um was the conference rookie of the year transferred to florida state and then what we're talking about here what we saw last year was his first year at florida state he absolutely dominated his his tape is so much fun we we highlighted you know with braille and trice we chop robinson violence that's what you want to see from these guys. Jared verse is the epitome of that. He comes off the line of scrimmage like a bat out of hell. Like,

and you watch that LSU game specifically. And I talked about how I want to, I wish I could see Braylon Trice play in the sec. Well, I watched Jared verse play against the sec and he made those dudes look like they didn't have the power to hang with him i mean he's coming off the line of scrimmage he's getting into their chest and he is blowing these dudes three four yards off the ball and they are 300 320 pound players extremely strong for a player who is just 250 pounds i mean there are guys on this list that

are 265 270 whatever it is that do not have the strength that Jared Verse has at 250. So he's rocked up. He's extremely strong. He's extremely explosive. Love the long arm. When he can get that single arm in your chest, the full power that he has in that single arm makes it an incredibly effective pass rush move

because of how he is able to push those guys back with just one arm and create that separation. Hands are super quick and violent. Did not see many false steps from him at all in his game. High level of understanding of pass rush moves and counters already for a player that was only one year removed from the FBS. Sometimes that all-out effort can make him look a little bit off balance and out of control at times. But you'd much rather see that and want to coach that a little bit down than the opposite. I think that sometimes he lets offensive linemen into his chest a little bit

too easily, but he's already shown. He knows the understanding of swipes and counters and the ability to break the grip of offensive linemen to where it's just a matter of seeing more snaps to where those things become less and less. He is going to be, he was one of my favorite prospects in the 2023 less and less he is going to be he was one of my favorite prospects in the 2023 nfl draft and he's going to remain one of my favorite prospects of the 2024 nfl draft he would have been a top 10 pick last year he's going to be a top 10 pick this upcoming draft i just pray that he is healthy that's all i care about this upcoming season just stay healthy

jared and you're going to be great he's so good and their offense is so potent. It just makes you wonder what the ceiling of that football team is. That's why he came back, right? Because Florida State's incredibly talented. They had Jordan Travis as quarterback. They got Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson in the passing game. They have Trey Benson in the backfield. What'd you say?

Jaheim Bell's just hanging around there. Jaheim Bell's just floating around doing whatever. Swiss Army knife. Yeah. I mean, I think the defense is going to be tough. So, like, I think that he came back. Like he's Kirby. Kirby floats, right?

What'd you say? Nothing. Is that Super Smash Bros. reference? Yeah, yeah yeah yeah it's jaheim bell's new nickname kirby just kirby because he's floating around he's just floating around at florida state nobody really knows like he's gonna reach his potential but he's there so i gotta think that verse came back one because he's a nerd and he loves school i'm just kidding jared we're just kidding but literally kick both of our asses in the handicap match could literally double choke slam.

Both of us could murder the pod, um, could the actual podcast. So like, I got to think that he's probably coming back to try to win a national championship. Cause they got to be the favorites in the ACC. Um,

you figure that's going to be a hot ticket to get them to the college football playoff. And especially coming from having zero offers at of high school getting to play for a national championship that's got to be pretty damn cool and it's something that for as much as the nfl is something that you want to try to capture while you're healthy while you have that ability you get more years hopefully to play at the nfl than you do to win a national championship and for him the window has been small so i can understand um why he's wanting to go back that definitely makes sense and we salute him there for it we mentioned that we got a lot of other passwords that we had watched

that we want to get to give you some thoughts on before we get to that got to tell people that smooth sack summer you got to get reminded every single episode our friends over at manscape are making sure that you're going to have fun in the summer sun over the next. How many months of summer do we have? Like one? Summer's over. Come on. No, summer's over.

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It's also got a 7 000 rpm motor you went fast and furious with that by the way a new multi-functioning on off switch that can engage a travel lock and gives you the ability to run a led spotlight for those uh precise shave needed situations it's also waterproof gotta mention that as well beach lake shower which connor's like all right don't be doing that at the beach or the lake. And I agree. It'll direct. You just got to be an animal if you're doing that.

But hey, again. You're Chop Robinson. You go. What'd you say? I said you're Chop Robinson. No gloves. No nothing. Just shaving in the lake. What the oh boy all right we gotta get it we gotta move on

get 20 off of free shipping with promo code pff or manscape.com that's 20 off at free shipping using the promo code pff or manscape.com it's smooth sack summer or fall so get on board or get left behind connor who are some players outside of your top five in this edge rush group that you just wanted to give a shout out to? I'll give two here. One had the coolest pass rush move I saw in the entire watch, and the other I just think is a really cool FCS sleeper. So the first one, Nelson Caesar, is the Houston edge,

6'2 and 5'8, 248, definitely a lighter situational pass rusher kind of player. He had a move though, Trevor against UTSA where he faked the long arm. He like really held it out there almost like, you know, putting a carrot in front of a horse and then pulled it down when the tackle shot his hands and dipped right by him and got like a little ghost move like an extended ghost move it was it was filthy though he yeah he really like he really delayed it and

sold it uh that was the coolest move i saw so shout out to nelson caesar of houston who landed right at edge 10 for me kind of an interesting player he was in my top 10 i haven't been yeah he was interesting so go ahead i was gonna say probably for the same reasons that you do man i mean like the pass rush plan the long arm move and i mean for him to have that ghost move down already in college it's a really great understanding of what he does well because i think that all of his pass rush moves kind of stemmed from that long arm. So it was probably I'm assuming here because I didn't see I didn't watch that game specifically. But I got to think that it was him using the long arm multiple times and then goes to do it again.

Once they go to brace for it, boom, you're dipping right under him. And so that's he he was such a smart pass rusher i loved watching his tape because he the way that he approached pass rushing what there was there was always a reason to what he was doing the move the counter to it the timing of it he just understood things very very well not a physically dominant player no one who was really smart and fun to watch my other one my sleeper from the fcs is david walker he was playing at d2 southern arkansas and transferred to central arkansas and he transferred to central arkansas 62 260 and just i mean blew up the fcs we talked about how with trice we won't find a pass rusher with a win rate that you know

is above his 26.2 david walker had a 24.7 pass rush win rate so he came pretty damn close fcs or not one of three finalists for the buck boot cannon award that's the top defensive player in the fcs of course 12 sacks seven quarterback 31 hurries. He is a leverage monster. Low man, relocates. These tackles, they're a joke to him. A joke to him. And if you want some glass half full for level of competition, he had 13 pass rush snaps against Ole Miss,

and he had two quarterback hits. Two really, really nice rushes. So this dude dominated the FCS after transferring from D2 in 2022. He can legitimately run the hoop. He can angle his body that way. There was one rep I saw where he ran the full hoop to get to the quarterback. It doesn't have length, but he's going to need the all-star circuit to get more reps against better competition. And I can't wait for him to get that opportunity because I could see a road from this guy from Southern Arkansas to Central Arkansas to the NFL. I didn't watch him. I got to watch him.

We were talking earlier in the show. You mentioned, honestly, you watched, I have not seen this guy mentioned anywhere. He just pops in our system, pops. He's popped in our system for a while because his grades and his numbers are

off the chart. What's his grade? It was like a 90.1 or 91.2 solid yeah and there's there's legit translatable skills with this dude legit yeah i'm watching you uh somebody that i definitely want to shout out was brandon dorlis from okay oregon um he so he is listed now at six foot three 278 pounds but he's got an interesting background because he started his career as a defensive tackle at oregon he was a three-star recruit came in played defensive tackle his first couple of years he is a he's a redshirt senior now so those first two years he was playing at like 290 295 and since has trimmed down every single year i think is redshirt sophomore year he was like 288 and then last year he was like 283 285 now slowly melting

yeah well now it's because now he plays defensive end. So these last two years he has played at the defensive end spot. So he's wanted to lose some weight, understandably so. And he has a really nice combination of defensive tackle strength and defensive tackle tendencies when it comes to holding the line of scrimmage, but also really nice burst, especially with that lower weight, nice speed to power, good good hands love the bull rush i love his ability to stack and shed like he's a more heavy-handed defensive end edge prospect for sure like he's somebody that you would play in like a hybrid 4-3 defensive end spot or 3-4 defensive end spot he's not a guy that you're going to want to stand

up but like he does a lot of things really well again the defensive tackle background means that he takes double teams super well he's got a ton of confidence I think the punch at contact is fantastic like the long arm move is from him is nice despite him being only about six foot three I think he's got a really nice rip move as a finisher like he's consistently whether he's attacking the inside or outside shoulder, he'll go to a move, and then he is trying to forklift their outside or inside arm just over so he can bend in or make sure that they can't get hands on him. And so I really like the way that he approached it, man.

I feel like Dorilus is a little bit lower on a lot of rankings, but I liked him. He was right at, I and he was six for me then he was edge six so i was i was a big fan of uh brandon dorlis so i wanted to mention him too i'm excited to watch more of the oregon guys for sure there this was obviously a long process for us we were saying how we really wanted to take the right amount of time to do it right because the edge group is always so so deep and what i found throughout this process was it felt like all the big powerhouse teams have two guys to watch all yeah do you watch sawyer speaking of do you i did i really like sawyer i had sawyer as edge six okay so you're you're a little bit higher on him than me what'd you

like about sawyer let's just talk about him real quick yeah I'll pull up my notes right now because I actually had him because he's a former five star like he was a big deal I had him over uh Tui Malo out Tui Malo out I mean to say over him I had Sawyer at six and JT at seven so I kind of manufactured a take there but jack sawyer uh okay here we go former high school quarterback i think he was a wildcat quarterback and basketball player like a good basketball player five-star recruit you said that trevor really well built he might be maxed out he looks like he right i think he's maxed out he's they got listed at 265 i think he's maxed out it he's they got listed at 265 i think he's maxed out i think he's maxed out i think he he has that you know the muscled up frame where he generates explosive acceleration yeah scratches and claws his way to the pocket with power he had a spin

move on penn state's right tackle where i was like hello like it was legit a legit spin move. Power profile allows him to stack and shed against the run. He's got no length. When he starts to lose a rep, he ducks his head, and he's got to break that habit. I think he's always been the strongest guy on every field he's ever been on, and when he ducks his head and starts to, you know, manufacture all of his strength into the rep, it probably worked his whole life. So I thought some tackles with good anchors kind of stalemated him because his power rushes

became predictable. Yeah. But he's, you can see the athlete and you could see the kind of hard-nosed player he is where I really liked him. I had him as the sixth edge in this class. Yeah. I had him at edge 10. So he was the last guy in my top 10.

And he's a very natural athlete, clearly. I mean, you mentioned he played a little bit of quarterback in high school, switched over to defensive end. He played a little tight end as well. I think he started his career tight end, actually. And that's right. He ended up flipping over to defensive end because, oh, yeah, this is right. His high school coach called him unblockable in a couple of reps at defense

end. So he's like, okay, you're staying there actually. So he played basketball as well. And I think that you see that really good all-around athleticism. For a guy who's 6'4", 265 pounds, I mean, he moves super well. I have this in his notes as a strength. He could play defensive end. He could play outside linebacker.

He could play off-ball linebacker he could play off ball linebacker like ohio state using him in a lot of different areas and they just try to make the most out of him being a really good well-rounded athlete who's got hot motor i mean he's always the legs are always turning no matter what he's going up against whether it's an interior offensive lineman an offensive tackle whatever um i think he's good at holding the point of attack especially for his weight but i just didn't see when i was thinking about the reps where we were really channeling who he was as a pass rusher because remember we got to separate right versatility is cool but i have a hard time building a compelling scouting case for you if i just say, oh, you're versatile.

Because I'm looking for an area where, okay, where do you win? Where do you truly win? Where are you a big difference maker? And I felt like the length limitations, as well as just the overall explosiveness limitations from him as a pass rusher, were two areas where I was like, okay, I feel like I'm not as impressed as I should be here with him. And I didn't watch every snap of him.

I'll obviously admit that I watched three games of Sawyer. So getting to see him this year, I would like to see him get more pure pass rush reps. Him and JT, I'm hoping are the starting edge rushers for Ohio state. You know, like they had Zach Harrison last year year so Sawyer was kind of on the field but he wasn't always playing as an edge player sometimes he was that off ball linebacker sometimes they put him head up standing in front of the nose tackle right so I want to see more streamlined pass rush edge reps from him to really evaluate what kind of a player that we

have here but um that's why he's a little bit lower for me they're just guys that are clearly more have a home and have their strengths as pass rushers that are a little bit ahead of him in my rankings he also if football doesn't work out for him and he stays looking as young as he does he'd be like the perfect casting for a bully in a movie oh in a movie he looks like i was gonna say wwe character well he might evolve into that honestly at the rate he's going this dude just gets bigger and stronger every single month it looks like so yes he he might be brock lesnar is what we're saying oh shoot there was a speaking of wrestling what prospect was it i wrote in

somebody's notes oh here it is jaheim davis from wake forest do you watch okay a little bit yes so i had him he's he's lower i think i had him like edge 13 or 14 same he wasn't in my top 10 but worthy of watch oh for sure he's six foot three 250 pounds but he's speaking of guys who just don't win with length he's got really short arms like he just he just does not have the length to win i think the way that you really need to as a pass rusher but this dude is shot out of a cannon he will give you 100 of his effort and the line that i wrote for him was he's trying to turn pass rushing into into a ufc fight and then in parentheses i have i think that's a good thing question mark because there are times where wake forest does a little bit of like what uh army did with um oh who was it last year the big tall oh andre carter yes andre where

play him play him at the the 14 is what we're calling it right the wide 14 the wide sideline don't take that seriously but they will play jaheem davis at a wide nine alignment because they love the power and I do too I love the power that he gets when he gets a full head of steam going he's just stiff like he doesn't really turn the corner as well as he does explode off the ball so they will play him in these wide nine alignments and you can tell he is just going full steam ahead and some of these offensive tackles are like are you going to slow down, dude? And he's like, nope.

And then the hands will start light. And it's like, he's like UFC fighting the guy for a pass rush rep. And sometimes it works. So I don't know. He was a fun watch because of that. But that reminded me of that little note that I had in his prospect profile.

Solid class, real solid class. And we will be tracking and talking about this group throughout the entire season for sure yep no doubt about it uh we know that you guys got takes on edge rushers as well edge rushers is one of those positions that uh like wide receiver like corner i know a lot of people like a lot of people like the k4 they'll watch guys and be like oh can't wait till this guy becomes trapped eligible well now he is let us know what you think about those players let us know what you think about those players. Let us know what you think about our top five,

some of the guys that we mentioned outside of the top five as well. Best way to do that is to get in on the NFL Stock Exchange community in the YouTube comments here on the video. If you're already watching on YouTube, please like and subscribe. We would love you forever. If you're not, youtube.com backslash at NFL Stock Exchange Podcast for those of you that are listening to audio only.

If you don't want to make a YouTube account, which will be sad, but you can hit us up on Twitter, on Instagram, on threads, on TikTok, whatever it is as well, at Tampa Bay Trey,

at Connor J. Rogers. Yeah, you build a Pinterest board. Yeah, build us a Pass Rush Pinterest board and then send us the link. So we'll, we can kind of cool. We check that out as well uh corners next week correct connor we doing corners yeah we're here we only have two groups left two groups left wow that one summer's over i already told you summer's over you didn't believe me dude smooth sack fall is

gonna be here before we know it you know so? So we don't chop Robinson in the lake. We had Jesus put that on that man. No, no, don't shop in the lake. Yeah, no way. No gloves in the lake. Get out of this show immediately. We got two positions left. Like, like Connor mentioned, we got corners and we got safeties.

And then that week after we're going to be talking about maybe some of the players that we didn't get to during the other positions, we're going to be building out our positional big boards. You know, Connor and I are going to have an official NFL stock exchange preseason big board for you guys. So it's not just, Oh, how did these players stack up in these positions? It's how do these positions stack up in these positions it's how do these positions stack up against one another that's when you can really start to see the strength

and weaknesses of the class before we get to the college football season i'm trevor sycamore that is connor rogers thank you guys so much for listening and watching the show see you guys next time Thank you.