Pass Rushing
Given Gary’s size and quickness, some have suggested his potential to play as a 4-3 DE, even on passing downs, as something akin to a Julius Peppers type edge rusher. However, Julius Peppers is going to go to the Hall of Fame for a reason, as while Gary is certainly very athletic, it was pretty clear even on the collegiate level that he just didn’t have the burst to threaten the edge as a pass rusher:
This isn’t a problem as such – not many 290 pound men have the speed to play on the edge on a consistent basis, but rather that if the Panthers, or anybody else for that matter, does draft Gary, it should be in the knowledge that he should spend passing downs lined up inside the offensive tackle – not outside.
As with his run defense, Gary was able to make an impact with just his speed and power:
But, again as with his run defense, his occasionally high pad level meant that sometimes his momentum advantage was able to be negated by far less powerful blockers:
This high pad level also created other issues, as even when he was able to get outside leverage coming around the edge, his high center of mass forced him to take wide lines to the quarterback while he was unable to bend around the tackle to take a more direct path:
This will also be a problem if repeated inside at the NFL level, as other than snaps where he is able to completely flatten his blocker, he will always be asked to work around blocks. There should be some hope that this can be worked on, as Gary did show good pad level at times, but if he is unable to be more consistently effective in this regard, there will be snaps where he gets in a good position only to be unable to finish the play as the blocker pushes him wide of the pocket.
Gary also does some nice things from a hand usage point of view, starting from simple things like on the following plays, where he uses his arms well to keep the blocker away from his frame during the initial contact before working his inside arm back outside the blocker to get outside leverage:
On the next play, he does a similar action – only here, he drives the blocker outside and looks to disengage inside, forcing the double team:
Here, he works his hands nicely to prevent the blocker getting hold of him while working around the edge:
He even flashes some nice inside moves for when the tackle sets himself up too far outside:
And, finally, there was even a hint of a swim move on one play:
From a hand usage point of view, there should be little concern about what Gary is able to do, as you can probably find an example on tape of him exhibiting most of the skills teams look for in a defensive lineman, the issue is the consistency with which he does these things and the approach he takes as a pass rusher.
There are frankly too many plays where this technique just isn’t present, and others still where he simply looks like he has no plan of how to generate a pass rush and just falls back on his superior athleticism in an attempt to simply wrecking-ball his way to the quarterback. I’m not going to show every play where this happened, but while every player has plays where what they try doesn’t work, for Gary, there were just more than usual for a player with his athletic traits:
There is no doubting Gary’s potential, and his draft value is very much about what he can become rather than what he is right now, but there should be concerns that he hasn’t developed more than he has to this point. If a team thinks that he is somebody that they can work with and there is real hope for him making significant early progress, then he may well justify some of the draft hype he has received, especially in a poor draft class – but there is simply too big a gap between where he is and where he needs to be for me to be happy giving him as high a draft grade as some may think suits a player of his athletic talents.
For the Panthers, unless they are convinced of his development and have a clear idea of how to use him, Gary is probably not somebody they should have in their sights in the first round.
Grade: Late Second Round
Best Case NFL Comparison: Calais Campbell
