DEFENSIVE LINE PROSPECTS DROP JAWS AT COMBINE
Newest batch of pass-rushers hoping to play in NFL put up impressive numbers
I just want to motivate myself to be the best player … with whichever team I can go to.
Coaches, GMs, scouts and NFL draft analysts seldom come to a consensus on anything.
Take extreme cockiness. One sees it as a fault, another as a desired quality. Some still maintain height and hand size are vital measures for a quarterback — others, not so much. And for every team that might forgive a player’s egregious off-field incident, another might remove that player from its draft board.
But it seems everyone here at the NFL Scouting Combine, which concludes Monday, agrees on at least one thing. The depth of stud defensive linemen in the 2019 draft class is the best in years, maybe the best ever.
Interior linemen and edge rushers — as well as all linebackers — took their turns Saturday afternoon speaking to the media, and Sunday morning and afternoon working out on the field for hundreds of league talent evaluators.
So many impressed. In so many ways. By some measures, they’re historically great. And some aren’t ashamed to tell you they’re great.
Asked what NFL teams should know about him, Michigan’s Rashan Gary said: “That I’m the best player in this draft, offensively and defensively. Period.
“I could stand up, rush off the edge. I could really do anything anybody wants me to be.”
On Sunday morning, the 277-pounder went out and ran an official time of 4.58 seconds in the 40-yard dash — blazing fast for even pure edge-rushing linebackers.
But Gary’s time didn’t set a D -lineman record at the combine. Montez Sweat of Mississippi State accomplished that incredible feat in the same halfhour. The 6-foot-5¾, 260-pound athletic freak officially ran the 40 in 4.41 seconds.
Incredibly, that time is faster than all but eight of 48 wide receivers here this week, and all but one of 28 running backs.
What’s more, it’s the same time running back Adrian Peterson ran at the combine in 2008, and faster than the combine times of (a) one of the most supremely athletic edge rushers in NFL history, 2014’s No. 1 overall pick Jadeveon Clowney, (b) speedy four-time all-pro receiver Antonio Brown in 2010, (c) the NFL’s top rusher of the past three years, Ezekiel Elliott, in 2016, and (d) two of the fastest NFL quarterbacks, Russell Wilson and Marcus Mariota.
“That’s just stupid,” NFL Network’s chief draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said.
“That’s not normal.” “But,” added Jeremiah’s colleague Willie McGinest, the former New England star edge rusher, “it’s the new normal.”
Jeremiah has Sweat ranked as his No. 17 overall prospect.
He said Sunday that while Sweat had good production with the Bulldogs in the SEC, the 22-year-old didn’t “convert speed to power” often enough. Yet Jeremiah said Sweat “might be moving north a little bit” in his post-combine rankings.
To tell you how deeply packed this draft is with star D-linemen, Jeremiah has eight of them ranked higher than Sweat.
The speed and athleticism on display inside Lucas Oil Stadium spun TweetDeck columns all Sunday morning like Vegas slot machines.
Two other D -linemen besides Sweat and Gary ran sub-4.6 40-yard dashes: Florida State’s Brian Burns (4.53) and Michigan’s Chase Winovich (4.59).
Ben Banogu of TCU set the combine standing broad jump record for D-linemen with a measurement of 11 feet, two inches. Throw in linebackers since 2006, and Banogu’s jump ranks third, after Jamie Collins’ 11-feet-7 in 2013 and Bud Dupree’s 11-feet-6 in 2015. Banogu weighed in Friday at 250 pounds and stood 6-foot3½.
And UCF’s Trysten Hill impressed all day, especially after the 6-foot-2¾, 308-pounder posted a vertical jump of an insane 35 inches. Almost three feet! For a 308-pounder!
By most projections, the best of the interior D-linemen is Quinnen Williams of Alabama. His combination of power, speed, athleticism, technique and production are maybe unrivalled. And he started only one season on Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide.
“He took off in Game 1 and wrecked things, inside and off the edge,” NFL analyst Charles Davis said Sunday. “This guy is something else.”
Williams’ official time in the 40 in Sunday’s first of two DL sessions was 4.83 seconds, the sixth fastest time at the combine since 2003 for players weighing 300-plus pounds. Williams measured in Friday at 6-foot-3, 303 pounds. Williams exuded nothing but humility and class in his turn at the mic on Saturday.
“I really haven’t thought about being the No. 1 pick,” the 21-yearold said. “I just want to motivate myself to be the best player … with whichever team I can go to.”
Nick Bosa of Ohio State — younger brother of Joey Bosa, whom the then-San Diego Chargers selected No. 3 overall three years ago — is generally regarded as the top edge rusher in this draft, although Kentucky rush linebacker Josh Allen is right there.
The younger Bosa, 21, said it’d be a “big mistake” if the Arizona Cardinals don’t draft him No. 1 overall.
He ran an official 40 time Sunday of 4.79 seconds. That’s faster than Joey’s 4.86 in 2016.
Twelve D-linemen on Sunday had sub-4.70 times, so Nick’s speed isn’t what’s eye-popping.
Rather, it’s his blend of the same traits Williams possesses, first and foremost his ability to dominate blockers and harass quarterbacks. Bosa missed most of last season after suffering a “bilateral core muscle” tear in his abdomen, so serious it took months to heal after surgery.
Bosa said going first overall to the Cardinals would be “a dream come true.”
Much like this year’s D-line draft class.