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#6 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Joey Tryon (Washington)
6’ 4”, 250 pounds; RS JR
A former top-800 overall recruit, Joey Tryon redshirted his first year on campus and then was a big piece as a rotational player his freshman season for the Huskies. In 2019 – his only year as a starter – he recorded eight sacks and 12.5 TFLs, before opting out of 2020, to prepare for the draft instead. Still, his athletic skillset has scouts intrigued, and he is expected to be a top-50 pick come late April.
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Tryon has a lot of shock in his hands; he can set a physical edge in the run-game. He does not shy away from banging into pulling guards and often times meets them behind the center, to not even create a hole in-between that block and the play-side tackle, but instead starting a pile in the middle. You see him crash hard off the edge to track ball-carriers down from behind and adjusts his path on the fly.
Tryon can rag-dolls tight-ends in the run game, popping their pads backwards as he shoots those hands and then pulls them to the side, either to pursue the ball or to wrap up the running back coming that way. He was asked to drop into the flats, hooks or spy the quarterback quite a bit for the Huskies, where he looked smooth going sideways and backwards, seemingly being very comfortable when doing so.
The looseness in his lower body also shows with the way he can pivot off one foot, as he sees the quarterback get the ball out on screens and swing routes to the back, basically being able to cut 90+ degrees in that one step. He really flashed to me in the Las Vegas Bowl against Boise State at the end of the 2019 season, even though one tackle is all he added to the stat sheet that day.
Tryon really brings an all-around skill-set as a pass-rusher. He offers a dynamic first step, excellent short-area quickness to get around blockers and the strength to not lot allow offensive linemen to push him off-track. He comes off the ball with good lean and tries to shorten the arc with the long-arm routinely.
His best move right now is basically just a chop-down, where he swipes across both arms with good timing and then has the ankle strength to corner tightly. He is really tough to stop when knifing through the inside, thanks short-area and hand quickness on the club-swim, while stepping through, across the face of the blocker.
However, he also puts some offensive tackles on their heels, when transitioning to the bull-rush, as they set too soft on him, trying to counter the speed off the edge. That makes him a problem on wide nine alignments, because it takes great foot speed to cut off his angle to the quarterback and when the tackle has to raise his pads too much in the process, Tryon can take advantage of it by going through their chest.
Moreover, he continues to fight with his hands and gets plenty of effort pressures. Tryon has experience rushing over the interior three, doing wide loops and different stunts as a pass-rusher. In his first and only season as a starter, he contributed 41 total pressures on 301 pass-rush snaps (13.6%).
On the flipside, Tryon displays poor contain responsibility, blindly following one key on run schemes or just chasing the ball too hard and allowing the back to cut the other way, as everybody is flowing play-side. And while he does show the ability to be an edge-setter, a few times he will get caught from the side and driven way off his spot, because he loses his balance, or shoot upfield too aggressively on the frontside.
He can also lose vision on the ball when his head is in the blocker’s chest or he bites on eye-candy. In the pass game, Tryon tends to get out of his rush lanes and allows quarterbacks to escape. He is a little predictable in his approach and doesn’t string moves together particularly well yet. He also needs to do a better job of dealing with cut-blocks from the back on those full-slide protection.
Joey Tryon is a guy that really grew on me the more tape I watched of him. In terms of a 3-4 outside backer, who can set the edge in the run game, be a two-way pass-rusher, drop into coverage and be a versatile piece on passing downs, he could soon be one of the most complete guys at that spot coming from this class, despite such limited experience. After him, I’m not sure how many other 'sure things' there are in terms of all-around edge defenders, so he could be a high priority early on day two.
