The Big Board
| Ranking | Name | College | Height | Weight | Athleticism | Run Defense | Pass Rushing | Biggest Concern | Summary | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jerry Tillery | Notre Dame | 6'6 | 304 | Good quickness, decent strength and plays with a generally good pad level. | Uses hands well to keep blockers away from his frame and works into gaps effectively with enough strength to anchor if needs be. | Has the quickness to create leverage advantages and bends well through gaps while also using his hands effectively to work through blocks consistently. Even flashes some pass rushing moves. | Is his length going to make it hard to for him to play inside in the NFL, or will he have to move to a 3-tech in a 3-4? | Good athlete with well developed technique, especially as a pass rusher, who should be an immediate impact player in the NFL. | Late 1st Round |
| 2 | Christian Wilkins | Clemson | 6'3 | 313 | Good strength and decent burst with generally decent pad level. | Uses hands very well to avoid blocks and works into gaps nicely whilst also have the strength to anchor. | Flashes some nice hands and has enough quickness to be a threat but lacks consistent impact. | Can he develop enough as a pass rusher to develop in a complete player? | Very good run defender who flashes as a pass rusher but who will need to work on this as a pro. | Early 2nd Round |
| 3 | Dre'Mont Jones | Ohio State | 6'3 | 272 | Very good quickness and agility but strength is merely OK and pad level gets too high at times. | Uses hands well to penetrate gaps and generally does a decent job of keeping blockers off his frame but struggles to anchor when asked to do so. | Uses fast hands and feet to work around blocks and even flashes some fairly promising pass rushing moves. | Is he going to be able to hold up physically in the run game? | Very good pass rusher who's relatively slight frame raises concerns in the run game. | Late 2nd Round |
| 4 | Jeffery Simmons | Mississippi State | 6'4 | 301 | Decent strength and good burst but pad level is consistently quite high and balance appears to be a concern. | Uses his hands effectively to keep blockers at bay but pad level and balance see him out of the play too often. | Quickness allows him to penetrate and flashes the hand usage to be a good pass rusher but pad level is once again an issue. | Can his pad level improve and will that lead to a better sense of balance? | Flashes a number of nice things, but balance and pad level mean he is a non-factor on too many plays. | Mid 3rd Round |
| 5 | Kingsley Keke | Texas A&M | 6'4 | 305 | Good power with decent pad level and quickness. | Doesn't consistently use hands effectively to keep blockers away from his frame but has the strength to anchor. | Flashes hand usage as a pass rusher but need to be more consistent and lacks pass rushing moves. | Can he improve his hands to allow him to make the most of his athleticism? | Promising athlete in need of technical development. | Mid 4th Round |
| 6 | Ricky Walker | Virginia Tech | 6'1 | 310 | Good quickness and decent power but pad level needs improvement. | Doesn't use hands effectively but has some strength to anchor. | Flashes of decent hand usage to avoid blockers but lacks distinct pass rushing moves. | Can he develop his technique in order to make the most of his athletic potential? | Good athlete with flashes of technique but in need of development. | Mid 4th Round |
| 7 | Cortez Broughton | Cincinnati | 6'2 | 291 | Good quickness, decent power and generally decent pad level but struggles to bend. | Generally decent hand usage and can anchor when necessary. | Hand usage is poor and lacks distinct pass rushing moves. | Can he develop as a pass rusher? | Decent run defender with some potential to develop as a pass rusher with time. | Mid 4th Round |
| 8 | Trysten Hill | UCF | 6'1 | 315 | Good quickness, some ability to bend and decent power but pad level is poor. | Flashes good hand usage but struggled far too often and pad level makes it hard to anchor. | Some hints at hand usage but is negated far too often and lacks pass rushing moves. | Is he going to be able to improve his pad level? | Does some nice things, but pad level is limiting at this point. | Mid 5th Round |
| 9 | Terry Beckner | Missouri | 6'3 | 286 | Good if inconsistent burst, unremarkable strength and poor pad level. | Flashes decent hand usage but needs to be more consistent and struggles to anchor. | Hand usage occasionally good but lacks pass rushing moves and is too often ineffective. | Is there enough athletic talent to make development worthwhile? | There's some athletic promise but in need of significant technical development. | Early 6th Round |
| 10 | Daniel Wise | Kansas | 6'2 | 290 | Flashes quickness but pad level is poor and power is unremarkable. | Flashes decent hand usage but not with much consistency and really struggles to anchor. | Flashes of hand usage but generally ineffective and lacks pass rushing moves. | Is there enough potential to merit time investment as a development project? | Does some nice things, but in need of significant development. | Mid 6th Round |
Yes, you read that right.
Jerry Tillery is my first First Round grade of the 2019 Scout Camp series. He is a good athlete with well-developed technique and, while he isn’t perfect, he is a very well-rounded player, especially as a pass rusher. The biggest concern with Tillery is where to play him – at 6-6, he is taller than most 4-3 DTs, but I think this is where his game would be most suited. For the Panthers, the question might be whether he is able to play outside in a 4-3 on rushing downs while moving inside on passing downs, similar to what some suggested might make sense should they have drafted Solomon Thomas in 2017. This isn’t something I feel comfortable suggesting at this stage, but if the Panthers believe they can find a way to get Tillery on the field, he shouldn’t be dismissed as an option on the first day.
Wilkins is much more of a traditional 4-3 DT – an excellent run defender who flashes potential as a pass rusher but who is not technically developed enough in this regard to make me feel happy giving him a first round grade. Given the quality of this draft class, however, it would be far from surprising to see him taken in the first, but he is probably not a good fit with the Panthers. The other second round grade I have is for Dre’Mont Jones; as with Tillery, the biggest concern is where he will actually play in the NFL. His play style is best suited to a 4-3 DT, and he shows excellent potential as a pass rusher, but at the weight he is currently listed, he is likely to struggle to hold up against the run – something that was the case even in college; he will likely need to add bulk in order to stay inside at the NFL level.
To me, Jeffery Simmons is a good athlete, and flashes really nice hand usage to penetrate as a run blocker and work around blocks as a pass rusher, but his pad level is quite concerning – he is too easy to move in the run game and simply be negated as a pass rusher at times. If this one issue can be fixed, his value would increase significantly, and if a team thinks this is something that can happen in the near future, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to have a grade as much as a round higher than the one here for Simmons, but as I can’t rule out the possibility that this won’t go away, I can’t rank him any higher than the mid-third – although, keep in mind, it’s only February.
All of these grades are living documents and will change throughout the draft season, certainly after the Combine.
The other strength of this DT class is its depth, with all the players below Simmons showing some degree of potential. Even the likes of Wise flash the athleticism that teams will see as an indicator of potential, but all are likely to need some significant development upon entering the NFL. Some, such as Keke and Broughton might be able to make an immediate impact as specialists against the pass and the run respectively, but for all of these day 3 graded players, the key will be the degree to which they are going to be able to continue to develop, something that teams will likely want to probe in interviews.
From a Panthers perspective, Tillery is likely the only highly-rated guy of interest, and then only because of his positional uncertainty, but should the Panthers look to move on from Love, the likes of Keke, Walker and Broughton would be players to look for on the final day of the draft.
