Troy Andersen Profile: Why the Atlanta Falcons drafted the linebacker in the 2022 NFL Draft

The Atlanta Falcons picked Troy Andersen with the 58th pick in the 2022 NFL draft.

Troy Andersen’s collegiate career may be the most diverse of any collegiate prospect in this class. He kicked it off in impressive fashion, as he was named the Big Sky Freshman of the Year, starting games at both running back and linebacker. The following year he became the program’s only first-team all-conference quarterback, which he repeated in 2019, only, this time, on defense.

As a senior, having settled in at linebacker, he finally became a unanimous All-American and FCS Defensive Player of the Year, thanks to 147 tackles, 14 of those for loss, seven PBUs, and a couple of sacks and picks each.

Troy Andersen's strengths:

This young man gets around blockers working up to him in highly effective fashion, with incredible short-area explosiveness. He has just over 32-inch arms, and he uses them extremely well to keep blockers away from his frame. His reactive athleticism overall is something NFL coaches will be excited to work with. When Andersen has to take on a guard off a skip-pull, he doesn’t shy away from initiating contact in the hole. He has the ability to shuffle along from the backside of zone runs and be ready for cutbacks in a less aggressive approach. Even when he’s not working downhill, he can launch from the ball of his feet into tackles and put ball-carriers flat on their backs.

I know the level of talent in the Big Sky Conference isn’t quite up to par with the Power Five Conference, but seeing Andersen at his size run down 185-pound backs, who bounce out wide and seem to have an angle toward the sideline against him, is still highly impressive. He has the range and physicality and fights over the top of somebody trying to cut off his path, while also being able to redirect with very little wasted steps. You see him shoot through a crease between blockers in space and shut down tunnel screens. And this guy’s 4.42 in the 40 shows up on tape, when he has to redirect against a reverse or some other misdirection play and ends up as the only guy in the picture with the ball-carrier, before he shoves that guy out of bounds.

Andersen is such a loose, athletic mover in space, who can flip his hips from diagonally dropping one way to going to the opposite direction with no issues whatsoever. You see that when he widens from his initial alignment and then sticks with guys breaking inside deep out of the slot. And when he sees that he needs to attach to guys working vertically down the seams, he can really turn and run. He has the ability to go back and forward in coverage, to toggle through the pattern. Then, he looks like he’s shot out of a cannon when driving down on routes, to separate receivers from the ball or set the tackle. You see him in the hook zone a lot and somebody catch the ball out in the flats, but Andersen is wrapped around them before they can even turn upfield. Yet, when there’s room to operate, he does pace himself and forces the opponent to make an actual move on him.

The Montana State standout was heavily utilized as a blitzer from different alignments and on all three downs because of the momentum he can build up that way and create negative plays. When he gets a running start on a blitz up the A-gap, he can literally get to the quarterback in one second, as you look at the play clock. And even when the back steps up his way, he can slip past them, with great balance to bounce off cutting attempts into his quads. When he’s in coverage and sees the quarterback take off, he gets downhill in a HURRY.

Troy Andersen's weaknesses:

Because he did play a lot of positions and roles, Andersen will have to refine himself at one spot. You can tell there is a little bit of guessing at times with his decisions, and you can see him get caught on the wrong foot and knocked off balance on a couple of occasions every game. Andersen leaves his feet a little too much when getting to the ball-carrier on an angle and ends up on the turf with empty hands a few times. He’s a rather passive zone defender, who is more so dropping to the spot, rather than attaching to a target coming into his area, and he has very limited reps in actual man-coverage. Plus, when he gets to the edge of blockers trying to go after the quarterback, he needs to pair that with some kind of hand-swipe to actually clear the hips.

Conclusion on Troy Andersen:

I first laid my eyes on Andersen during Senior Bowl week, where he impressed me with his ability to move laterally as a run defender and stick with backs and tight-ends through multiple breaks in one-on-one coverage, before ripping the ball out late. So with the knowledge of the way he impressed against a much higher level of competition, I went to the game tape. The first two games I watched on Andersen, he had a fourth-down stop in each of them, getting an easy sack up the middle against Montana and tracking down South Dakota State’s running back bouncing out wide, who already had his sight on the end-zone. Then, he went on to run the fastest 40 of any linebacker at the combine (4.42) and received a nearly perfect RAS of 9.98. He’ll need to get together with a good linebacker coach, who can teach him to read his keys in run defense consistently, but the athletic profile is off the charts.

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