Great athlete. Actually, I expect he's higher on our board than other teams. Has that kind of McDowell vibe as a rare athlete. He absolutely doesn't have the head case baggage -- just comparing the two as raw athletes. Also has great length. And has had to deal with personal tragedy/adversity. So he ticks a LOT of boxes for us. And plays at our position of critical need.
He's fast. Very flexible. Very long. Should be awesome at the combine. And you can't coach that. But a few things I see that trouble me:
1. He clearly is a poor technician. Thrives almost exclusively on his physical gifts. If he gets blocked, he stays blocked. He doesn't appear to have any sort of plan on how to attack an OL player. Doesn't appear to set up moves as the game unfolds.
2. Appears hesitant quite often. I don't think his play recognition is very good. He plays like the game is too fast for him much of the time. And this appears to rob him when winning on the snap.
If he didn't have these liabilities, we wouldn't even be discussing him at #27. He is truly gifted. And if the light comes on, whether by work, coaching, experience or any combination of the three -- he has the chance to be a real star -- a regular double digit sack kind of player. If he can better recognize offensive tendencies and play loose -- he looks like a Clemons in his prime.
He's probably not unlike Bruce Irvin was for us. Bruce seasoned very well for us, and by his 3rd year was a much better player than his first two seasons. YGM is a much more appealing blend of size, length and speed. He doesn't have ridiculous speed like Irvin, but should be much better in base D.
Every year, there is a guy that is a great athlete, who kind of had a meh final year that seems to have a lot of liabilities that we end up picking first. It's like we draft guys based on their play the year before they enter the draft. Guys that I kind of hope we avoid. YGM feels like that kind of player to me.
If we take him, which I think is really highly possible -- I'll root for him. I'll hope like hell I am totally wrong about him and I don't know anything. He will need to confirm his athleticism at the combine.
