2023 NFL Breakouts: Second and third-year defensive players ready to explode ft. ft. Drake Jackson, Daxton Hill and more

#4, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Cleveland Browns (Linebacker)

Cleveland Browns v Buffalo Bills

Coming to Notre Dame as a 17-year-old three-star recruit in 2017, Owusu-Koramoah basically redshirted his first two years at South Bend (initially based on a decision, then due to a foot injury, which cost him all but two games).

The following two years, he started all 25 contests at the ROVER position for the Irish and worked his way up to first-team All-American accolades, combining for 142 total tackles, 24.5 of those for loss, seven sacks, an interception, seven PBUs, five fumbles forced and four more recovered.

While the slender frame at 6-foot-2, just over 220 pounds, did cause JOK to fall further than he should have, the Browns acquired him at 52nd overall in 2021. Through two years in Cleveland (24 games), he’s put together 146 combined tackles, ten of those for loss, eight PBUs and four fumbles forced.

Owusu-Koramoah showcases the slipperiness to elude or work off blocks, where regularly he gets to the hip of linemen and almost dips underneath them like an edge rusher, not allowing them to fit their hands into his frame. And when tight-ends work up to him, you see him make those guys miss in a phonebooth basically.

Yet, he also doesn’t mind launching his body into a blocker in order to squeeze down a lane, when the ball isn’t coming his way and with his 33-inch arms, he can press off guys late, in order to join the party.

He back-doors combo-blocks, going around the linemen about to take over the first-level defender and eliminating the possibility of the second blocker supposed to peel off towards him being able to put hands on him.

That certainly creates a risk to hit that lane toward the front side, but he can also create negative plays for the offense. According to PlayerProfiler.com, his number of stuffed runs (resulting in zero or negative yards) shot up from just three all the way to 16 this past season, which put him in the top ten among NFL off-ball linebackers, despite only playing in 11 games.

JOK provides tremendous range on the second level, where he can be stacked up over the guard, with a tight-end outside of him and the back flanked that way, yet he still is able to chase fly sweeps out of bounds for limited yardage if the edge isn’t set properly by the cornerback.

It regularly shows up when scraping from the backside of wide zone and beating even centers across their face, yet he can stop his momentum and fall back a gap exceptionally well as he sees the back cut it up behind him.

OK cut down his missed-tackle rate from 17.4 to 10.3% last season. What he can provide blitzing off the edge, whether it’s wrapping around a puller coming to his side or chasing down the ball from the backside, in order to create problems in the offensive backfield, can be a major plus thanks to his speed and ability to bend.

Looking at the raw coverage numbers provided by pro-football-reference.com, JOK was far less effective in year two than as a rookie, allowing double the yardage total (306 vs. 141) on basically the same number of targets (39 vs. 38), and so did the passer rating (132.1 vs. 70.2).

However, PFF would tell us his coverage grade actually improved (73.4 vs. 67.4). If you check the tape, there’s some context that needs to be taken into account, such as a touchdown to the fullback being put on him, where he was out-leveraged due to having to fill the run on third-and-inches against the Bucs.

You really like his ability to gain ground in his hook drops horizontally and/or vertically, yet then also explode forward and hit with his helmet through the ball as it arrives there for targets on shallow crossers.

The third-year linebacker is fully capable of carrying benders by the tight end on the opposite end of where he’s lined up. And there are some impressive moments where he has to step down against the run-fakes, fully flips his head and runs underneath deep crossers coming in behind him.

Yet if he’s just playing the hook area and the back curls up over the middle, this guy eliminates that distance in a hurry once he sees the quarterback initiate the release and takes away any yards after catch.

Thanks to his ability to cover ground, Cleveland has the ability to be creative in the looks they presented pre-snap, such as being mugged up in the B-gap and then bailing out towards the opposite hook zone. JOK is very patient in man-coverage against RBs, not leaning too much either way against option routes or overrunning stuff out to the flats, but rather using the sideline as a friend, in order to limit those completions to minimal yardage.

With all that being said, Owusu-Koramoah is still certainly undersized for playing on the second level and he has to compensate for it to some degree by “shooting his shot” and trying to meet the blocker before being able to climb up to him. Yet if there is more of an even collision, he typically takes the worst of it.

You see him overrun plays quite regularly, because he didn’t trust the defensive line to at least force a second man to put a hand on them momentarily, rather than directly climbing up to him, which was the case quite regularly and he found himself in about a 100-pound disadvantage.

However, I’d still say he back-doors or scrapes too hard in order for ball carriers with good vision to not spy and take advantage of him getting undisciplined in his run fits.

In terms of coverage, you love the movement skills and length, but JOK could certainly become a little more aggressive with the way he squeezes down routes and attacks the catch-point. Being able to make the tackle on a route short of the sticks on third down is a win for the defense, but letting a running back get a free six yards on first and ten doesn’t set your team up well for ultimately stopping the drive of your opponents.

Ten years ago, JOK wouldn’t have survived at the second level of a defense. Today, his profile makes him a highly intriguing player. Not only can he beat offensive linemen to the spot and has the suddenness to elude them, when they do try to aggressively cut him off, but he also has the length to gain vision on the ball as he’s engaged with tight-ends or a receiver when he’s pulled out to the slot.

With the additions of free agent Dalvin Tomlinson and third-round pick Siaki Ika (Baylor), they have a couple of true shade-nose tackles there now, who can keep JOK clean and decipher through information that split-second longer before coming downhill. Along with that, he can match up with different body types in man coverage and provides tremendous range in zone.

The old coaching staff didn’t tap too much into him as a blitzer in passing situations and Jim Schwartz has traditionally been very much focused on letting his four down-linemen just get up the field. However, I believe the flexibility and closing burst of his could be taken advantage of in that facet.

So far, he’s recorded 16 pressures across 86 pass-rush snaps. A couple of times last year, he would line up in the B-gap and loop all the way across toward the opposite edge, as they slanted the D-line toward his original alignment.

Even if they ultimately peel somebody off the edge and only bring four or allow him to come on delayed blitzes if the back is locked in protection, he has the tools to be a valuable contributor as part of their pressure packages.