starfrombirth
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I've gone on record many times saying that Joey Bosa is not my preferred pick at #4. That is not to say he is bad or will be a bad player in his professional career, just not good enough to justify that high of a pick. My choice list in order of preference is Ramsey, Wentz, Elliott, or trade back and get Lynch or Lawson BEFORE Bosa. Having said all that I thought I'd go back and do a comparison between him and his challengers.
Bosa:
In comparison to his possible draft competition as it relates to pass rush, Bosa is the most technique sound of the bunch. He works angles well to be disruptive and beat the blockers to the point of attack. He works well down the line is almost always in or near the pile. For all his vaunted strength though, it is not in his hands, many times allowing the ball carrier to slip from his grasp. Both his sack numbers and TFL's would have been much better with a stronger grip. There are some "if's" that could change his prospective career immensely. He is already technically proficient but IF he can get stronger and put on a little weight he could be devastating. That's a big IF tho as Ohio state has one of the better weight programs in the country so I don't see this happening. IF he can be part of a line that puts pressure on the qb besides him he won't be double teamed quite so often and will have a chance to put up better numbers. I see an "Almost" Anthony Spencer comparison, which is good but not #4 worthy. Just my take from an amateur armchair scout.
Buckner:
In all honesty, this is the biggest disappointment for me. I can't explain why but for years I've wanted Dallas to draft a bigger DE that was still a force. I very much wanted Buckner at 291 lbs to be that guy. Quite simply.. he is not. He is a slow footed plodder who is easily stalemated. He is very rarely double teamed and when he is, he just stops. The play is over for him. He is often turned sideways by one blocker and he likes to try and use a shoulder to power the blocker into the hole to stop the runner. This never worked that I saw. He plays without awareness often running himself out of the hole that the runner is hitting. He can't or doesn't fight thru blocks, even if they are single blocks and he isn't good at setting an edge letting the runner get around him or cut up inside for large gains. All in all just a meh guy.
Dodd:
He and Lawson were a tremendous bookend tandem for Clemson this last year with very different styles. Dodd played with more speed than strength but had very good awareness that allowed him to use his speed to penetrate often disrupting the runner or moving the qb off his spot or just plain creating his own rush lane. He tends to play the wide end around too much tho and needs to develop his swim and spin move a little more. Although he was disruptive and put up good numbers, he was most definitely the beneficiary of the attention Shaq Lawson drew.
Lawson:
He was the power, the "Thunder" if you will, of Clemson's two headed attack. He was able to use his power to overpower most of the LT's he played against but was still able to generate enough speed to take advantage of pass rush lanes as they appeared. It looked to me like he had a read and react assignment which often led to him taking an extra second before starting his rush. This allowed the LT to set up in front of him but I believe he would excel in Marinelli's rush first philosophy. Although he isn't really any bigger than Bosa, you can see room for him to grow into his frame. He has some technique but it definitely can be better and he is already close to Bosa in production. For these reasons, I believe that he would be more worthy of the #4 than any of this group ... maybe even the #4 period. Just my take from an amateur armchair scout.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Bosa:
In comparison to his possible draft competition as it relates to pass rush, Bosa is the most technique sound of the bunch. He works angles well to be disruptive and beat the blockers to the point of attack. He works well down the line is almost always in or near the pile. For all his vaunted strength though, it is not in his hands, many times allowing the ball carrier to slip from his grasp. Both his sack numbers and TFL's would have been much better with a stronger grip. There are some "if's" that could change his prospective career immensely. He is already technically proficient but IF he can get stronger and put on a little weight he could be devastating. That's a big IF tho as Ohio state has one of the better weight programs in the country so I don't see this happening. IF he can be part of a line that puts pressure on the qb besides him he won't be double teamed quite so often and will have a chance to put up better numbers. I see an "Almost" Anthony Spencer comparison, which is good but not #4 worthy. Just my take from an amateur armchair scout.
Buckner:
In all honesty, this is the biggest disappointment for me. I can't explain why but for years I've wanted Dallas to draft a bigger DE that was still a force. I very much wanted Buckner at 291 lbs to be that guy. Quite simply.. he is not. He is a slow footed plodder who is easily stalemated. He is very rarely double teamed and when he is, he just stops. The play is over for him. He is often turned sideways by one blocker and he likes to try and use a shoulder to power the blocker into the hole to stop the runner. This never worked that I saw. He plays without awareness often running himself out of the hole that the runner is hitting. He can't or doesn't fight thru blocks, even if they are single blocks and he isn't good at setting an edge letting the runner get around him or cut up inside for large gains. All in all just a meh guy.
Dodd:
He and Lawson were a tremendous bookend tandem for Clemson this last year with very different styles. Dodd played with more speed than strength but had very good awareness that allowed him to use his speed to penetrate often disrupting the runner or moving the qb off his spot or just plain creating his own rush lane. He tends to play the wide end around too much tho and needs to develop his swim and spin move a little more. Although he was disruptive and put up good numbers, he was most definitely the beneficiary of the attention Shaq Lawson drew.
Lawson:
He was the power, the "Thunder" if you will, of Clemson's two headed attack. He was able to use his power to overpower most of the LT's he played against but was still able to generate enough speed to take advantage of pass rush lanes as they appeared. It looked to me like he had a read and react assignment which often led to him taking an extra second before starting his rush. This allowed the LT to set up in front of him but I believe he would excel in Marinelli's rush first philosophy. Although he isn't really any bigger than Bosa, you can see room for him to grow into his frame. He has some technique but it definitely can be better and he is already close to Bosa in production. For these reasons, I believe that he would be more worthy of the #4 than any of this group ... maybe even the #4 period. Just my take from an amateur armchair scout.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
