PFF and Football Outsiders were high on Curtis Weaver. Here is the Football Outsiders summary from a week ago:
No surprise here: Ohio State's Chase Young is the top edge rusher prospect in this year's draft class. Are there any pass-rushers teams can target if they're not lucky enough to be drafting at the top of the first round? And who is the prospect teams should avoid?
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Curtis Weaver, Boise State
SackSEER Projection: 17.9 sacks through fifth season
SackSEER Rating: 91.8%
Similar Historical Prospects: Robert Mathis, Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila
Curtis Weaver is SackSEER's pick for the most underrated edge rusher in this year's draft. Indeed, even taking into account -- as SackSEER does -- that K'Lavon Chaisson will likely be a first-round pick and that Weaver will likely only be a third-round pick, SackSEER still thinks the two have very similar chances of NFL success.
SackSEER likes Weaver's production. Weaver recorded an eye-popping 34.0 sacks in just three seasons with the Broncos. Weaver also intercepted two passes and knocked down six others, giving him an above-average passes defensed rate.
Weaver's weakness is his combine performance. Weaver did not run the 40-yard dash, but he did perform the jumps, recording a 32.5-inch vertical leap and a 9-foot-8 broad jump. Those are slightly below average "explosion" numbers for a drafted edge rusher. However, Weaver did make up for his mediocre explosion by recording a 7.00-second three-cone time, which is better than average.
Certainly, a player who puts up big numbers at a Division II FCS school should not be taken as seriously as a player who puts up the same numbers at Florida State, but the difference between a program like Boise State and a program like Clemson has not been significant historically. NFL decision-makers have generally not spent high picks on edge rushers from smaller programs unless they have outstanding workouts. This is often a mistake, because there are plenty of examples of highly productive players from small programs who excelled in the NFL despite average workouts, such as Robert Mathis and Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila.
Aside from Weaver, there are not many other intriguing edge rusher prospects in the third round or later. Accordingly, if Weaver is on the board in the third round, a smart team in need of a stronger pass rush should strongly consider him.