NFL Draft Top Five Edge Rusher.
NFL Draft: Top 5 Edge Rusher
As far as things go within the football edge, Rusher remains the only position that can match quarterback and wide receiver Prominence across the entire spectrum of the game. In Terms Of Team Building, A "Good" Quarterback Always gets the Ball Rolling In The Right Direction, and teams Build Through The Quarterbacks. However, Many Have The Best Markman and Require a lot of Tending and a lot of High Maintenance, But At Great Pass, Rusher All Might Shift The Tide Of A Franchise In A propitious Direction. A Host Of Franchises, Especially Those In The AFC, Owe Their Playoff Berth From Last Season To Their Pass Rushers. Not only Do NFL Team Defenses Hinge on The Edge Rusher, But Entire Teams Can "Go In The Direction" Of Their Pass Rusher. The Steelers, The Browns, And The Texans All Owe Their Season To Upper Echelon Performances From Their Pass Rushers. The Detroit Lions' Lions's Entire Defense Scheme Centers On the Production of Aidan Hutchinson Because Great Edge Rushers Create So Much Flexibility. Pass Rusher Remain In High Demand, And The Best Teams In Football Have A Nuclear ArmsArms's Race Pass Rusher--Because You Can't Have One. Last year's Year's Crop Of Pass Rushers Fair Well, Willow Anderson Jr. won Defensive Rookie Of The Year; Jalen Carter Showed Off The Immense Upside Of His Combination Of Size And Speed. Other guys like Kobie Turner and Byron Young will ease the burden of the Rams' losing Aaron Darnold. The Jury Remains Out On Kayvon Thibodeaux For The Giants and Travon Walker For The Jaguars. Both were Drafted in the Top Ten Two Years Ago But Have Only Flashed High Upside In Spurts. Edge rushers Always raise draft Boards As A More Stable Projection From Amateurs To Pros, and TEAMS prioritize Guys Who Can Win Or Create Double Teams For others to Win To Generate Pressure With Fewer Bodies In Trenches And More Players To Sacrifice Into The Secondary.
Laiatu Latu, UCLA.
Most Football Players Inspire Awe In Their Movements and Performances As Men Of Such "Gurth" Who Mave With The Decor Of A Balerrania And Laiatu Latu Will Join The NFL as An Edge. Latu Moves Like A Combination Of Mr. FANTASTIC And The Thing with A 6'5, 250lbs Frame That Moves Like A M8 Around Corners. Latu Usee has A Distinctive Euro Step Or Jab Move Reminiscent Of Manu Ginobili And James Harden, Where he steps Inside to Sway The Offensive Tackle Off Balance, then swings Outside To Draw His Energy And Power Outside Before Sweeping Or Lunging At The Quarterback To Close The Gap. Pass Rusher Like Latu; You Have To Move In Ways That Defy Physics Because A Straight Line Creates The Quickest Way Through Two Points By Edge Rusher Like Latu Bend Their Line As Hard As Possible. Latu possesses a Good Swim and cross Chop. He's Not Polished But Efficient Enough To Respect As A Tackle. He's Quick, Registering A 4.6 Forty, and His Bend Shows Up On Tape In His Second Year Full-Time Starter, Collecting 15 Sacks And A 97% Pass Rush Win Rate. A lot Of Pass Rushers Of Latu's Kin—Those I'll Mention Eventually— Have The Ability To Convert Speed To Power As A Counter Move, Unfortunately For His Size Latu Lacks This Ability, Only Completing 25 Reps On The Bench Press Which For Regular Person, Great, For A Man Soon To Make Millions Go Push 300 Plus Pound MenAround, NO. He's A Tad Underweight At 260lbs Partially Because Latu Suffered A Near Career-Ending Injury A Few Years Back And Medically Retired From Football Before Returning And Dominating The Pac-12. The Years Lost Also presents another Caveat For Latu: Age; many Propests will Turn 23-24 This Season, And Latu is already Struck 23 Years Old, And The Upside Just won't Exist. He'll Add Muscle With Time, But the Upside Remains Unstable. Overall, Latu looks and feels like today's NFL pass rusher is one who wins the edge with speed and possesses enough athletic juice to Contend with more robust tackles. Latu Produced A Great Pass Rush Win Arte Last Year. Still, One Has To Wonder Whether He Can Consistently Win Against Stronger Competition At The Next Level, Especially If His First Speed Rush Gets Challenged. Remember, His Club Moves to Work More As An Accessory And Not An Actionable Game Plan. Latu Struggled Against The Run because of His lack Of Elite Length And Strength; his Arm Length Registered in the 16th Percentile. He's Somewhere In The Range Of Kayvon Thibedeaux.
Jared Verse, Florida State University.
I've Heard Of Jared's Verse For So Long. I'm amazed I have been waiting so long to take a good look at him.
Verse Could've Left College Football Last Season And Hear His Name Called Last Season Along With Tyree Wilson, Willow McDonald, And Will Anderson. Verse Had The Hype to Push Him Into The First Round. Still, he Only Produced One Season Of Top Competition Production After Transferring Over from Albanz, Where Verse Added On 40 Lbs During The Canceled Covid Year For Albany, Then Eventually Transferred To High-Level FBS Competition At Florida State University And With 20 Touchdown, A 97% Pass Rush Win Rate In Two Season In Tallahassee, Verse Proved He Belong Amongst The Best In The Sport. Those 40 Lbs Verse Added Turned Verse Into Possibly The Best Rusher In The Draft. He's A Freakish Athlete. Bith Verse's Broad Jump Amd Forty Time Registered In The 90th Percentile, While His 35 Inch Vert And 31 Bench Press Landed In The 80th Or Above; he's incredibly Explosive With the Power Of A Dumptruck but The Thrust Of A Rocket. Even If Verse Gets Off The Line Late, He Digs Into His Assignment And Rages To The quarterback's Lap With A Brazen Bull Rush. Not An Elite Hands fighter, Verse Uses His Bend To Move Around Blockers Whose Space He's Clogged Up With His Frame. Like many Of The Pass Rushers in Verse's Class, The Florida state Product Lacks the Elite To Make A constant Impact In The Run Game. In Run Blocking, The Tackles Act As The Initiators Of The Action, Taking On The Strength Of The Rusher In Those Instances, Making Contact Fall to The Periphery Compared To Dislodging From Tackles. Of course, Florida State's defensive design usually asked for a verse to pin his ear back and attack the quarterback. His Combination Of Burst and Power Reminds Me Of Demarcus Lawrence.
Dallas Turner, Alabama.
We've Arrived To The Token-Alabama Pass Rusher, And With How The Crimson Tide Develops These Guys, We Get One Each Year. Last year, We Got Will Anderson. Now We Get The Kid Who Rushed Opposite Anderson For A Season At Alabama, Dallas Turner. When you Turn On The Game Footage, The Highlight Tape, The Study Reel, One Thing About Dallas Turner's Pass Rush Gambit Takes precedence over Other Aspects Of His Game: He's Fast. From A Prospect Prospective, You Want Your Pass Rusher To Get Home To The Quarterback Quickly. However, Turner has the speed of a punt returner, and the agility is witnessed Only by Naruto Characters and other anime characters. The 21-Year-Old Turner Eats Space Like A Lawn Mower Eats Grass And Started Racking Up Sacks As A Freshman With Nine Playing For Saban Straight Out Of High School. Turner Finished His College Career With 25 Total. Turner Clocked A 4.4 Forty at the Combine, And That Speed Helps Him Greatly With Chasing Down Today's Fleet Of Foot Quarterbacks. ESPN said Turner's Play Style is "perfectly suited for the modern edge rusher."
Turner Uses His Speed To Shift Heavier Tackles Off-Balance Before Turner Uses His One Arm Stab To Push Blockers Out Of The Way To The Quarterbacks Lap: His Arm Length, 40 Time, Broad Jump, And Vertical Jump All Register In The 90th Percentile. With his extreme explosiveness, quarterbacks seemingly had no chance of escaping once Turner broke free from tackles. Turner's speed cut reaction times in half because he closed the gaps quickly. I Can Tell Out Of The Box Turner's Pursuit In Madden Will Rank Amongst The Best. Like So Many Talented Athletes Of Turner's Kin, Turner's Not A Tactician With His Hands On Most of His Moves On; Most He Doesn't Seem To Know What To Do With His Hands. He Uses His blinding Speed to Fly by Blockers and His Length To Disengage and cross-chop club, Just Freakish Athleticism Despite his arm Length, and Turner Struggled to Defend The Run Game. Turner Reminds Me of his Former Teammate, Texan Will Anderson. Anderson, Like Turner, Like To Get Around Tackles With Their Athletic Ability Rather Than Technical Proficiency. Anderson Explodes Out of His Two Points Stance Like A Mole Out Of The Ground To Attack Around The Edge Of Right Tackles. Turner Attack Primarily From The Right Side Last Season. PFF's Draft Guide doesn't prove the coverage snaps for Turner, but his foot speed suggests he has strong potential to drop into coverage from odd fronts. Even With His "Weak" Run Defense Metric, I'm Comfortable With Dallas As My Top Edge Player In The 2024 NFL.
Chop Robinson, Penn State University.
I Don't think Penn State Gets Enough Credit For Producing High-Level NFL Talent. Going Back Better Of A Decade, The Nittany Lions Have Sent A Steady Stream Of Pro Players To The League, But The University Remains Overshadowed, A Consequence Of Playing In A Division With Ohio State And Michigan. Chop Robinson Will Join Micah Parson And Yetur Gross-Matos As Penn State NFL Defensive Edge Rusher. Chop, At A Generous 6'3, Stands On The Shorter Undersize Platform Of The Position. A 6'3, 240 lbs Mass Of Muscle SoundS Fine For Us, But When you Consider Chop Rushes Primarily From Outside Of A Tackle in A 5 Tech Position Facing Off Against a 6'7 Larger Human, Robinson's Standing 6'3 Marks As A Disadvantage, Especially When Coupled To His Poor Arm Length. His height, weight, and arm length are all measured and weighed below the 40th percentile for a guy who eats up 250 plus snacks from outside the tackle. Teams may query if Robinson may generate more value along the line, kicking inside.
Robinson Didn't Bench Press At The Combine. A Quick Look At The Tape/Video Can Remind Evaluators of What is So Tempting About Robinson: his Explosiveness. His "Short" Frame Makes His Body A Hive For Kinetic Alternating Energy As The Power In His Body Has Less Space To travel across. Robinson Lifts Off The Ground Like Lightning, And Because Of His Arm Length, He Doesn't Want To Hand Fight With Tackle. He Wants To Beat Blockers To The Landmark. Robinson's Size Allows Him To Get Compact Bends Around Tackles Who Are Too High And Can't Get Their Hand Into His Chest Or Offensive Tackles Who Over Set To Boundary. Otherwise, Robinson stays under tackles when caught and ultimately fights to go home to the quarterback. Robinson Lacks Length, and His Arm Measured In The 18th Percentile, Which Makes Dislodging Blockers A Massive Undertaking And A Pass Rusher You Want To Dislodge From Guys. He's Feline Quick With a Low 4.4. Speed, 10'8 Broad Jump, 34.5 Vertical Jump, 4.25 Short Shuttle. He's All The Athlete You Want At The Position With A Lot Of Lost Traits. His Reliance On Athleticism stripped Him From Bolstering His Technical Refinement Thus Far in His Career.
Many Contenders In This Class Hold A Strong Argument For The fifth Edge rusher. Jonah Ellis Of Utah Notched 13 Sacks For The Utes In 2024 Despite Entering The NFL a Tad Undersize, But His Frame Fits Perfectly In This Lighter Weight NFL Edge Game. Darius Robinson Of Missouri More Of The Power Type Rusher With One Of The Best Bull Rushes In The Draft. Chris Braswell, The Second Half Of The Explosive Alabama Tag Team With Dallas Turner Braswell, Finished With an 18.2 Pass Rush win Rate On His Way To A 13 Sack Season With An 87.9
Adisa Issac, Penn State University.
The Other Half Of Penn States Pass Rushers Isaac's Combination Of Quick Feet, Second Effort, And Length As Him Ranked As A Top Five Talent On Some Boards. Heights need more technical aspects (Hand placement and Movement) of the position and rely on force instead. PFF Says Isaac Reportedly Has A "Club And Rip Move," But for the most part, I Witnessed A Young Man Who Fights With an Offensive Lineman Until One Of Them Wins, And Isaac Finished With A 13% Passer Rating In Rush Win Rate, 9 Sacks 72.9 Pass Rush Grade. He Played Standing Up Outside Of The Tackle and With His Hand In The Dirt Over The Tackle, And Standing Up Worked Better.
