Is Jayson Oweh At PSU A Good Prospect?

[AsthmaField]

I asked this in a Parsons thread but I wanted to get some takes on Oweh, so I’m making a thread.

Penn State head coach James Franklin was on the NFL Network a few days ago doing an interview. They asked him a number of questions about Micha Parsons, and it was clear that he thinks very highly of both the player and his game. He spoke very well about him and said that watching the Super Bowl, Devin White reminded him a lot of the way Micha plays.


Anyway, the guy interviewing Franklin on the show asked him who was going to run faster at their pro day, Parsons or Jayson Oweh and Franklin’s answer was eye opening. He said that the two have been training some together and they both called him a few days ago after a workout, and asked him then which one he thinks will run faster at pro day.

Franklin said that Micha was a little mad at him because he picked Oweh (at 6’5” 257 lbs.) to run the faster 40 time. He said he is an incredible athlete.

I haven’t spent much time looking at edge rushers but I know that Oweh is a terrific athlete... but if he’s doing that, he’s a very, very rare guy athletically. Does anyone have an idea on Oweh and his development? I know he’s raw and he is only a redshirt sophomore, so he’s really young.

Will he make it to the second round and would he be a good player to groom on the EDGE in Dallas? I’m usually a bigger fan of college production than of athletic traits... but I might use a second on someone that young and that talented.

 

[J-man]

TBH, as a huge PSU fan, I'm very shocked at how high he is rated by a lot of the boards. He's just so young and in reality has only played very little football, that it's tough to say what he is or will become. He looks like he has all the physical tools to be a dynamic edge rusher. Speed for days obviously. His power is ok but he needs NFL strength and conditioning. He has some good pass rush moves but he definitely needs to refine them and add to his tool box. I don't know if I 'd take a shot at him that early. I think he needs time to develop and we need day 1 contributors on the defense. If we could grab him in the 3rd/4th range it'd be hard to pass.

Having said all that, he may end up being a better Ryan Kerrigan type player and we'll be kicking ourselves for passing on him.

 

[Cowboyny]

I asked this in a Parsons thread but I wanted to get some takes on Oweh, so I’m making a thread.

Penn State head coach James Franklin was on the NFL Network a few days ago doing an interview. They asked him a number of questions about Micha Parsons, and it was clear that he thinks very highly of both the player and his game. He spoke very well about him and said that watching the Super Bowl, Devin White reminded him a lot of the way Micha plays.


Anyway, the guy interviewing Franklin on the show asked him who was going to run faster at their pro day, Parsons or Jayson Oweh and Franklin’s answer was eye opening. He said that the two have been training some together and they both called him a few days ago after a workout, and asked him then which one he thinks will run faster at pro day.

Franklin said that Micha was a little mad at him because he picked Oweh (at 6’5” 257 lbs.) to run the faster 40 time. He said he is an incredible athlete.

I haven’t spent much time looking at edge rushers but I know that Oweh is a terrific athlete... but if he’s doing that, he’s a very, very rare guy athletically. Does anyone have an idea on Oweh and his development? I know he’s raw and he is only a redshirt sophomore, so he’s really young.

Will he make it to the second round and would he be a good player to groom on the EDGE in Dallas? I’m usually a bigger fan of college production than of athletic traits... but I might use a second on someone that young and that talented.

If I stand correct he had zero sacks last year. Yes, he has all the athletic traits, but I worry about his production. Bucky Brooks has said, players who get sacks in college usually get sacks in the pros. He looks like strictly a developmental project to me.

 

[Sydla]

TBH, as a huge PSU fan, I'm very shocked at how high he is rated by a lot of the boards. He's just so young and in reality has only played very little football, that it's tough to say what he is or will become. He looks like he has all the physical tools to be a dynamic edge rusher. Speed for days obviously. His power is ok but he needs NFL strength and conditioning. He has some good pass rush moves but he definitely needs to refine them and add to his tool box. I don't know if I 'd take a shot at him that early. I think he needs time to develop and we need day 1 contributors on the defense. If we could grab him in the 3rd/4th range it'd be hard to pass.

Having said all that, he may end up being a better Ryan Kerrigan type player and we'll be kicking ourselves for passing on him.

He seems like your classic elite athlete projection type pick. You look at him, you see the raw skills, you see the limited PT and think you can mold him. Seems like a risk in the first round IMO.

 

[cnuball21]

Complete boom or bust...and definition of an upside pick. Wouldn’t touch him in the top 50.

 

[Future]

Not really. He's good as a late-round developmental pick.

 

[Jbone100]

I asked this in a Parsons thread but I wanted to get some takes on Oweh, so I’m making a thread.

Penn State head coach James Franklin was on the NFL Network a few days ago doing an interview. They asked him a number of questions about Micha Parsons, and it was clear that he thinks very highly of both the player and his game. He spoke very well about him and said that watching the Super Bowl, Devin White reminded him a lot of the way Micha plays.


Anyway, the guy interviewing Franklin on the show asked him who was going to run faster at their pro day, Parsons or Jayson Oweh and Franklin’s answer was eye opening. He said that the two have been training some together and they both called him a few days ago after a workout, and asked him then which one he thinks will run faster at pro day.

Franklin said that Micha was a little mad at him because he picked Oweh (at 6’5” 257 lbs.) to run the faster 40 time. He said he is an incredible athlete.

I haven’t spent much time looking at edge rushers but I know that Oweh is a terrific athlete... but if he’s doing that, he’s a very, very rare guy athletically. Does anyone have an idea on Oweh and his development? I know he’s raw and he is only a redshirt sophomore, so he’s really young.

Will he make it to the second round and would he be a good player to groom on the EDGE in Dallas? I’m usually a bigger fan of college production than of athletic traits... but I might use a second on someone that young and that talented.

I like him as a 2nd round pick. If he was just simply on the higher end of the spectrum athletically then given his production, consistency and refinement, I would view him as a mid-round developmental guy but I don't think that's the case. I think his testing is going to be more like 95-99th percentile for DEs entering the draft. I value consistent production over tools at most positions but edge rusher is one spot where guys who are the elite of the elite athletes tend to fair very well in the league even if they lack polish entering the NFL. Now, if they have character flags and are lacking in terms of work ethic, that's a different story but I don't think that's the case with Oweh. I think there's a pretty good chance of him being available for us in the 2nd and I'd be happy with the pick as long as we also manage to address corner in a significant way this off season.

I would much rather have Fairley or Surtain in the 1st and then get Oweh in the 2nd than take a guy like Paye or Rousseau in the 1st and one of the 2nd round corners. Corner is sort of weird in this draft to me. The way i view the group is that you have your big 3 that will go in the first round. Then I think there's a number of good corners who could develop into starters that will go between round 2 and 4. That makes it where I would prefer to either take a corner in the 1st, or otherwise maybe double up at corner with both 3rd round picks.

 

[Carson]

If I snag him day 3, I’m good. If we miss out, I won’t sweat that.

 

[CalPolyTechnique]

Bruglar seems to be high on his traits but I’ve got to see some sort of college production.

 

[CowboysLegend365]

I heard a draft pundit say Oweh could run in the 4.3’s at his pro day. If he does I expect him to jet up some boards off his potential alone.

 

[Bizwah]

I favor production over traits. But as you go further into the draft, I look at traits more. If he's there in round 3 or 4, then I take a good hard look at him. Zero sacks in 2020 is a worry. But he did get five sacks as a sophomore.

 

[lkelly]

I wouldn't want to be the GM who heads into his day 1 press conference to defend the Oweh pick when the first reporter asks if this is the first pass rusher ever drafted in the 1st wtih zero sacks his last year.

He's a freak athlete, but there are a lot of those that did squat in the NFL. You want some production in round 1. He's going to be hurt by the lack of a combine too. He would have shown in the Underwear Olympics.

I shake my head at mocks that have him in round 1, but I've also seen GMs draft kickers in the 1st, QBs like Tebow, and linemen that clearly dominated in college because they had needle marks on their rear ends.

Quick stat recap:

2018 he redshirted and had 2 sacks against Kent St. I remember those plays - the OT was undermatched athletically and the team had several other decent pass rushers on the field.
2019 he had 5 sacks. 1 came against Idaho in a game that shouldn't have been played (79-7 joke). 1 came in a blowout vs. a bad Purdue team. 2 came against MSU, which was on the last leg of a 3 game blowout run vs. OSU, WISC, and PSU. 1 came against a good Memphis offense in a shootout bowl game (Micah Parsons was the standout in that contest).
2020 he had one solid game in a bad loss to Maryland and I believe he secretly opted out late in the year so as not to get injured. As mentioned above, no sacks in the 7 games he played.

He clearly could have used another year but I think the mock draft projections had him convinced he was going in the top 40. We'll see.