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As the 2020 college football season winds down, 2021 NFL Draft talk will heat up. Here are the top five edge rushers in college football, a group of future NFL Draft prospects.
Just missed the cut: Quincy Roche (Miami), Carlos Basham Jr. (Wake Forest) & Chris Rumph II (Duke)
1. Kwity Paye (Michigan)
First up here, I put the guy Bruce Feldman had as his number one list of the Athletic’s Freak List. The at 6’4”, 275 pounder is a former high school running, who came in as more of a raw piece of clay with his ridiculous athletic ability, but he took on a more prominent role his junior year, when he recorded 12.5 TFLs and 6.5 sacks, but he took another major step forward in 2020 and it was evident right away in the season-opener against Minnesota, where he made three TFLs and was in Tanner Morgan’s grill all game long, including back-to-back sacks in the fourth quarter. Paye is strong at the point of attack, with some shock in his hands and he can yank the blocker to the side in order to make the tackle. As a pass-rusher he shows impressive burst off the edge to go with a strong rip to knock away the hands of the blocker, to go with a highly effective up-and-under, and the Wolverines have put him over guards much more often this season. You still see him work too far upfield in the run game at times and he gets a little too hung up with the hands of tackles as a rusher. Those two Alabama OTs held him to one tackle on the stat sheet in this most recent Citrus Bowl.
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2. Joseph Ossai (Texas)
After very limited playing time as a freshman, this 6’4”, 255-pound Nigerian emerged as a key piece to that Longhorn defense in 2019, with a combined 90 tackles, 13.5 of them for loss, five sacks and two interceptions. This season he has transitioned from WILL to more of a hybrid outside backer role, which that move certainly paid off. Barely anybody in college football flashes off the edge with speed quite like Ossai, which he routinely forces tackle out of their chair with and he frees himself from the hands by swims and chops. He is very unique in the way he deals with blocks as a run-defender, not really leaning his weight forward, but rather knocking the way the hands of his man and trying to get around him. When you talk about all-out hustle for 60 minutes, there may be nobody who brings it quite like Ossai and he has the speed to chase ball-carriers down from behind time and time again. This guy was all over the field in the 2019 Alamo Bowl versus Utah, collecting double-digit tackles, three sacks and six TFLs. And this season he already came up with the game-sealing sack in overtime against Oklahoma State. Ossai still has to learn how to take on pulling linemen and deconstructing blocks in general as an on-ball defender however.
3. Jaelan Phillips (Miami, Fla.)
One of the top overall recruits in the country, it took some time for Phillips to jump onto the national scene, as he started his career at UCLA had to sit out all of last season, but coming into this 2020 season, with the U having two projected first-round edge defenders, he has been the star of this unit. I mean all you have to do is put on the tape and watch like ten snaps to understand the natural ability – the quickness off the ball, the length, the flexibility – it’s all there. He shows busy hands and his outside contain upright, while not allowing blockers to widen gaps inside. As a pass-rusher, his best move is the high swim, which he also uses against guards and wins with at a high rate. Through the first nine games of 2020, he already has 14 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks, three passes broken up and a pick in the Florida State game. And when you watch their Virginia Tech game, he completely wrecked their right tackle and was a huge reason they won that game. While there are still things he needs to refine, he went from rather unknown commodity to one of the most intriguing draft prospects out there already.
4. Azeez Ojulari (Georgia)
This guy has been ready to step onto an NFL field ever since he came to Athens it feels like, becoming the first freshman to gain captain status on Kirby Smart’s Bulldog defense, but he has only gotten better since then. Ojulari excels at squeezing things down in the run game and when he has a puller coming his way, despite giving up some mass at 240 pounds, he routinely knocks those guys backwards. You see him routinely win hand-fights and he can put some tackles on skates, when he catches them off balance. Ojulari is a team-first pass-rusher, who knows how to set up different games up front and free up his teammates. While he might not quite be as flashy in terms of some of those bendy speed rushers out there, he is a really assignment-proof player, who helps blow up run plays, he constantly puts in work a rusher and excels at identifying blitzes, in order to shut them down. Ojulari just wrecked Tennessee’s freshman left tackle earlier this year, but he shows up in every game.
5. Patrick Jones II (Pittsburgh)
If there’s one thing that really stands out about it’s that mind-blowing get-off he shows. He gets a great jump off the snap and is a very twitchy pass-rusher. You routinely see him force tackles out of their stance and at times open up their hips instantly. However, he doesn’t overshoot the arc very open and then has an up-and-under to take advantage of guys who can’t deal with his speed around the edge. He also surprisingly holds his ground well in the run game and has great short-area burst to shut down plays towards the sideline. When he has a puller coming towards him, he uses a wrong-shoulder technique with a low-pad level to not open up an extra gap. Through these last 22 games, he has recorded 22 tackles for loss and 17.5 sacks. With that being said, he still needs to learn how to play with better extension when engaging with blockers and I’d like to see more of him in terms of converting speed to power and use the long-arm more routinely.
If you enjoyed this content, I would really appreciate if you could check out the original full piece - https://halilsrealfootballtalk.com/2020/12/12/top-five-college-players-at-every-position-defense-edition/
