Adetomiwa Adebawore 2023 NFL Draft profile: Scout report for the Northwestern IDL

Adetomiwa Adebawore, Northwestern; 6’2”, 280 pounds; SR.

Slightly outside the top-1000 overall recruits in 2019, Adetomiwa Adebawore’s playing time and statistics increased slightly every year. He recorded 17.5 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks, an interception, four passes batted down and fumbles forced each across the past two seasons.

Interestingly, this was only good enough for an honorable mention and third-team All-Big Ten respectively.

Adetomiwa Adebawore scout report: Strengths

Defensive lineman Adetomiwa Adebawore of Northwestern participates in a drill during the NFL Combine

+ Adetomiwa Adebawore played as a big defensive end on the strong-side mostly (alternating between over and under fronts) before transitioning more inside this past season.

+ While he may be on the short end for the position, he does have above-average 34-inch arms.

+ Offers plus explosion off the ball and it went up a notch in 2022, when he didn’t operate from a four-point stance anymore (consistently first out of his stance on the D-line). You really see it when left unblocked initially and he can create traffic in the backfield, wrong-shoulder guys coming his way, etc.

+ Consistently plays with extension through blocks, regularly creates knock-backs at initial contact and is able to stand his ground routinely. You rarely see the back being able to press the front-side hard because of the way this guy holds up combos between the tackle and tight-end.

+ Rides tight-ends into the pile when they’re assigned with sealing him away from the action and gets his hands on the ball-carrier when that guy tries to bounce to the C-gap.

+ The lateral agility and strength to press off blockers as he’s flowing with zone concepts, makes him excellent at countering those.

+ You see Ade bounce off contact with pullers banging into him and somehow stay on his feet typically.

+ Frequently forces the ball-carrier to bounce wide, when he’s the designated kick-out target.

+ Had a tremendous showcase versus Ohio State last season, where he forced a hold on the very first play, shut down cutbacks his way and just created general disruption to hold the Buckeyes to their worst performance of the year.

+ Beats the guy across from him off the snap in passing situations more often than not. I thought his first step last season reached a different level, where you see his entire body tilted forward almost like somebody coming out of a sprinter’s stance

+ Combines the ankle flexibility, hip flexion, and power to corner his rushes through contact.

+ Transitions well from the long-arms to the rip move, knocking away and getting underneath the reach of blockers.

+ When rushing from interior alignments, you see the brute force to bend the pads of big linemen backwards and drive them into the depth of the pocket.

+ The quick-twitch and flexibility makes this guy a nightmare to take over on stunts, because of how he can slither around blockers.

+ If you set him up on loops, that burst and ability to bend his path can allow him to get home or force quarterbacks to escape the pocket due to the spiking lineman inside.

+ Has some impressive moments on tape, where he changes direction and shows that closing burst to run down scrambling quarterbacks.

+ Despite being the only guy in the entire Northwestern front-seven basically to worry about for offenses, Adebawore ended up with a 14.3% pass-rush win grade last season.

+ Adetomiwa Adebawore had an absolutely insane combine performance, when he ran a 4.49 in the 40, with a 1.61 split, a 37.5-inch vert & a 10’5” broad jump. Those were all better than last year’s first overall pick Travon Walker, despite weighing 10 pounds more (at 282). He was gliding through all the on-field drills, with no issues of changing directions and showed great snap in his hips and burst.

Adetomiwa Adebawore scout report: Weaknesses

– Presents that tweener body-type, where he may not be a fit for every team and you’ll need to figure where he’s best deployed.

– Shows a bad tendency of lifting his inside foot whilst being engaged with blockers in the run game, instead of using it to anchor down and make himself more effective when playing out on the edge. Inside he was too worried about shooting through the crease and allowing double-teams on zone concepts to move him off his landmarks.

– I would like to see Adetomiwa Adebawore disengage from blocks and create angles towards the ball more regularly in general.

– Could do a better job of better pro-active with defeating the hands of blockers before they even put them on him in passing situations.

– His pass-rush arsenal is fairly limited at this point and you rarely see him get to much less land counter moves.

Adetomiwa Adebawore scout report: Grade

For Adetomiwa Adebawore to play with the type of motor every week for a 1-11 team is something that can’t be overstated. He has the mindset to play hard all the time, while literally being a one-on-one athlete, when you look at the absurd testing numbers he put up at the combine.

The timing and aiming points on his hand swipes to beat the hand of blockers in the pass game are still a work in progress and I’d like to see him discard linemen in the run game in according to how strong he is. With that being said, you just don’t find guys with the athleticism to play on the edge, that can also place an offensive guard in the lap of the quarterback.

Adetomiwa Adebawore’s first step is marvelous and he has the arm length to defeat blockers cleanly. If he can learn to use those tools accordingly combined with everything I just described, he could terrorize offensive lines as a three-technique. I don’t think the NFL will let him slip out of the first round.

Grade: Top-50 overall

You might like other 2023 NFL Draft Scouting Reports: Tyree Wilson (EDGE), Texas Tech; Will Anderson Jr. (EDGE), Alabama; Jaxon Smith-Njigba (WR), Ohio; Zay Flowers (WR), Boston; Jordan Addison (WR), USC; Jordan Addison (WR), USC; Quentin Johnston (WR), TCU; Zach Charbonnet (RB), UCLA; Bijan Robinson (RB), Texas.

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