Leonard Williams – USC
Williams is one of the most
physically gifted players in the draft, and there is a reason he is number one
on a lot of draft boards. He is 6’ 5” tall, weighs in at 300 pounds, and
possesses the speed to chase ball carriers down from behind. He is a rare
athletic specimen, the sort who would be a first round pick even if he had
almost no skill as a football player. The fact that he happens to be one of the
more polished defensive linemen in the draft is what pushes him into the top five.
Williams can play anywhere along
the defensive line, and he boasts an array of technical moves that give him an
edge over anyone who tries to block him. He can knock a linemen backwards with
his initial punch, controlling him with his arms and giving himself the freedom
to shed at any time. He can also use his hands to swat a blocker away, opening
a lane into the backfield. No one in this draft class makes as many plays
behind the line as Williams, thanks to remarkable lateral quickness that allows
him to get around linemen with ease.
If there is a part of his game to
critique, it is how he comes off the ball. It isn’t uncommon for him to be the
last player to move at the snap, and when he does come out of his stance he
doesn’t always do so with great explosiveness. He has a habit to sink his hips
while in his stance, and when he makes his first move it is usually up rather
than forward. This robs him of his initial burst, gives blockers the chance to
get into his chest, and limits the explosiveness of his attacks.
These flaws are real, and with
other linemen they would be major concerns. But Williams is so physically
overpowering that it often doesn’t matter. He has the upper and lower body
strength to bend a lineman backwards and drive him into the backfield even
without the power of his initial burst. He has the quickness that he can shoot
through gaps even after the blockers have settled back. The flaws he has can be
corrected with coaching and technical work, and if he cleans them up he can
absolutely be one of the most dominant interior linemen in the NFL.
Arik Armstead – Oregon
The first thing you notice about
Armstead is his length. He is 6’7” tall, and he uses that height to its full
advantage. Players this tall often have issues on the defensive line, standing
too upright and letting blockers get beneath them. This isn’t an issue for
Armstead, who does an excellent job staying low. He fires hard off the ball and
strikes with his hands, landing a devastating punch that can bend linemen
backwards. His long arms create incredible separation between him and his
blocker, giving him absolute control once he is engaged.
His challenge at the next level
will be harnessing this control to become a truly disruptive player. At Oregon he mostly read
and reacted, slipping off to one side or the other when a ball carrier came by.
That made him a useful player, but if he wants to be anything more than an
average starter he will have to learn to use his hands. It shouldn’t be that
difficult for a player with his strength to learn how to rip and toss a lineman
aside. In college he showed occasional swim and spin moves, and if he can
develop a varied set of attacks at the next level he can become one of the more
dangerous interior defensive linemen in the league.
Armstead offers a lot of
positional versatility. He can play as an under tackle in a 4-3 with some
potential to move to the outside, though not enough quickness to consistently
play on the edge. His best position is probably as an end in a 3-4 defense, as
he played in college. There he will be able to blow offensive tackles into the
backfield, creating lanes for an edge rush against the pass or disrupting the
development of running plays. Probably not worth a top ten pick, he should go
somewhere in the middle of the first round.
Danny Shelton – Washington
The two
defensive linemen above gain value thanks to their versatility, but if you just
want someone to stand in the middle and swallow the field, Shelton is your guy. He is absolutely massive
and incredibly strong, fixed into the ground no matter how many blockers you
have shoving him. He moves fairly well for a 339 pound man, but he is best used
clogging up the middle.
Shelton doesn’t make a
lot of plays in the backfield, but he does a good job catching runners along
the line. His strength makes it difficult for blockers to seal him off, and he
has the ability to control an opposing lineman with a single hand while keeping
the other free to grab passing runners. He doesn’t cover any ground outside the
tackle box, but he can effectively close off the gaps on either side of him.
He shows the
ability to be dominant with his hands, but he needs to improve the consistency
of their usage. He can throw a blocker aside like he’s nothing, giving him
potential as a rusher on long developing pass plays. These flashes pop up
throughout each game, but there are also long stretches where he seems to
forget that he has arms at all. Unlike Armstead and Williams, he lets blockers
get into his chest and very rarely gives himself separation with his arms. His
size and strength in college prevented this from being an issue, but this might
prove a greater challenge in the NFL where he will be facing offensive linemen
bigger and stronger than those he saw in college.
Shelton is a space eater
on the inside, the sort of player who can be very useful manning a specific
role on the defense. He is the best pure nosetackle in the draft, and for that
I think it’s reasonable to see him going in the first twenty picks. But
anything in the top ten would be a stretch for a player with limited
versatility and upside. He’s a very good role player, but he will never
dominate the way Williams and Armstead can.
Jordan Phillips – Oklahoma
Phillips is one of the most
interesting players in this class. Phenomenally talented, his time at Oklahoma was defined by
its inconsistency. He was never the dominant player you would expect of someone
with his size and athleticism, but he showed plenty of flashes over the course
of his final season.
Phillips is quick off the ball,
and he does a fantastic job striking with his hands to take control of an
opposing blocker. He doesn’t allow himself to get turned about, and he does a
good job creating the separation with a blocker. The problems arise when he is
asked to make plays after he is engaged. He has good hands, but he often
forgets about them as he tries to shed, falling sideways and losing control
rather than throwing the lineman away from him. This could be an issue of
strength, but I think it has more to do with technique, something that can be
fixed on the next level.
His lack of production in college
has more to do with the scheme he was put in. More often than not he was asked
to play two gaps, standing a lineman up and holding his ground at the line. He
could get some push this way, and he occasionally was able to shed and make a
tackle. But he was much better when asked to play only a single gap, giving him
the freedom to shoot through the line and make plays in the backfield. His
quickness off the ball gives him a step on most linemen, and he does a
fantastic job getting skinny to slip through gaps. He usually plays on the
offense’s side of the line of scrimmage, and if he ends up in the right scheme
in the NFL he can be a truly disruptive force.
Most people have Phillips pegged
as a second round pick who might slip into the first. I think much more highly
of him based on the tape I’ve seen. Properly coached and used, he could be
every bit as good as Armstead or Shelton.
His final game in college, the bowl loss to Clemson, is evidence of what he can
do, among the most dominant individual performances I broke down this year.
Whoever does end up grabbing Phillips has a good chance of getting fantastic
value, a potential Pro Bowl player down the line.
Malcom Brown – Texas
Brown is a safe, reliable option
who can be an immediate contributor for a team drafting in the second half of
the first round. He doesn’t match up physically with the other top defensive
tackles, but he is a skilled and polished player coming off a very productive
college career. He was always around the ball at Texas, making more tackles than most of the
other top interior defensive linemen. Those skills should translate to the NFL,
even if he has little room for long term growth.
Stylistically, Brown is a version
of Phillips with much smaller variance. He is better as a one gap player, using
similar quickness and leverage to get into the backfield. He doesn’t have the
same burst off the ball, but he does a better job using his hands to disengage
from blockers to get himself into the backfield. He doesn’t use his arms to
create separation as much as Phillips does, but he possesses a lot of subtle
moves to swat a blocker’s hands away and free himself.
Brown’s biggest failing is his
strength. He doesn’t generate push into the opposing backfield, and he often
finds himself moving in the wrong direction. When he can’t get penetration, he
almost always ends up stuck on the defense’s side of the line of scrimmage. He
does a good job shedding blockers and making tackles, but many of these tackles
come two or three yards down the field. He cannot slide down and play nose
tackle, so like Shelton
he is a player hurt by limited versatility. Unlike Shelton, there are several other players in
this draft who can do what Brown does.
Brown will never be a dominant
player, but he can be a reliable starter. I wouldn’t spend more than a high
second round pick on him, but I could see a team in the latter part of the
first round deciding to go for immediate impact rather than long term upside.
He has a polished game that can make him an immediate starter, but don’t expect
him to be making regular Pro Bowls down the road.
Michael Bennett – Ohio State
Bennett is another player who has
limited upside but will be a useful contributor right away thanks to his skill
with the little things. Like Brown he is an experienced veteran who found
consistent success at the college level, occasionally dominating but for the
most part just serving as a valuable role player. He uses good technique but
rarely flashes anything special, and his NFL upside is as an average starter.
Bennett is better as a pass
rusher than a run defender. He holds his ground better than Brown, but he
doesn’t generate any push into the backfield. He isn’t quick enough off the
ball to shoot through gaps, and offensive linemen have no trouble washing him
down the line to open up a hole. He spent very little time in college two
gapping, and he might have some success if asked to do more of that in the NFL.
But for the most part he is a below average run defender.
Against the pass he is slightly
more valuable. He is good with his hands once he’s engaged, able to swat a
lineman aside and escape after the quarterback. He doesn’t create immediate
pressure, but he can corral a quarterback late by shedding the blocker using
his hands or his feet. His hands are active in passing lanes, and he stays home
well enough to prevent quarterbacks from stepping up into the pocket.
Bennett can contribute in the
NFL, but he doesn’t have the upside or the value of a first rounder. He can be
a solid part of a defense, but he isn’t someone you build around. Draft him in
the second round and he can step in as an immediate starter or as a situational
pass rusher. His technique can develop over time in the league, but he will
always be limited.
Eddie Goldman – Florida State
Goldman offers more upside than
the two prospects above him, but he does enough negative things that I had to
drop him down the list. He larger and slower than most of the others on this
list, and like Shelton his only real use is as a runstuffer up the middle, using his
336 pound frame to clog up the workings of the offense.
Goldman is at his best when he
can catch a blocker and hold his ground. He doesn’t move backwards, and he
doesn’t really move forwards either. He anchors in the ground with the
intention of playing two gaps, creating decent separation with his initial
punch to hold blockers off him. At times he can turn this separation into
tackles as ball carriers run past him. He has strong arms that will stop a
runner in his tracks, and he can stuff almost any run in his vicinity.
The problem with Goldman is what
happens after he’s engaged. He creates separation with his arms, but separation
means nothing unless you can use it. His slow feet means he has difficulty
turning control into leverage, and linemen can usually recover to get him
turned before he can slide off into the gap. He does very little with his hands
to move blockers after the initial punch, though this is something that can be corrected with
time and effort in the NFL.
For a team looking for a pure,
run stuffing nosetackle, Goldman is probably the best bet after Shelton. But at his best
that’s all he can be, a two down player who needs a lot of work if he is going
to be a dominant force. The potential to be more than he is right now will
probably be enough to sneak him into the first round, but I personally would
not look at him until the middle of the second.
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