2010 Spotlight: OLB Ricky Sapp - Clemson | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

2010 Spotlight: OLB Ricky Sapp - Clemson

Conuficus

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http://www.universaldraft.com/2010/02/20/2010-spotlight-olb-ricky-sapp-clemson/

In 2008, the Clemson defense as a whole registered only 14 sacks for the season. Sapp only had 2 in a shortened year as he tore his ACL in the second half of the season against Virginia. In 2009, Sapp faced questions regarding his health and his ability to make the switch to more of a linebacker role under new Defensive Coordinator Kevin Steele. Sapp responded with one of his best season at Clemson, registering 56 tackles 5 sacks and 16 total tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles and 7 quarterback hurries.

Enjoy.
 
Lot of positives with Sapp....mainly his natural agility and speed....looks like a potential sub 4.6 guy in the 40....lot of negatives and questions also...

He's basically a "chaser" if you ask me....he's not going to force much action by himself, but he can be "around" the ball a lot due to his speed and hell on wheels in pursuit...

Not one of the top 4-6 pass rushers in this draft IMO....but agree with Con about his potential to execute coverage responsibilities as a weakside OLB....and echo the fact that we just didn't see enough of him in college...

I remember seeing him get hurt in first quarter against Bama in 2008 and thinking to myself..."I've seen this before"....

Not as good of a prospect as Merling was in my opinion...(or Adams)....but it really wouldn't surprise me if he turns out to be a better pro than both of them...particularly down the road....and could be a 3 down player eventually...

I think he's a safer pick than Pierre-Paul....and appears to have taken positive steps under Steele's tutelage.....still think he'll be drafted a little higher than he should be based on potential and workout numbers...I have him as a 55-70 range player on my board......and I don't know what it is...but something tells me he has a good chance to end up a Phin....no doubt he'll be on these guys draft board...

BTW...how about that DeAndre McDaniel? Easily my favorite guy off Clemson's defense...along with Jarvis Jenkins...
 
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It's funny but in light of juniorseau55's thread where he says that Miami and Detroit are in talks about some mystery player, I warmed up the ole NFL Rewind machine to watch some Cliff Avril, and it was like watching Ricky Sapp in blue and grey.

So why take Ricky Sapp with a high pick when you could potentially pry Avril out of Detroit for a low pick and see how he handles a 3-4 OLB position where he's not as miscast as in their 4-3 alignments?
 
the thing about griffin as ck mentioned he's not quick off the snap...there seems to be a delay from him getting off the ball and as an upfield rusher he's not sudden or explosive...

also when he bends the arc and gains the edge on a tackle even though he seems to have the advantage he doesn't seem to be able to disengage from the tackle and gets washed out a lot...

definitely doesn't have a say cameron wake ability to turn the corner and maintain leverage and most importantly explode away from the tackle...

i also see what ck says about he doesn't make much effort to chip a te at the line or shock a te before rushing upfield but i just think that's a coaching thing...just needs someone to coach him up on it...

he definitely has the best awareness when he drops imo of any of these big de's and a pretty good feel for coverage...i saw one instance on those clips where he was stride for stride with kyle rudolph (future 1st round pick te and maybe top 10 pick) in coverage crossing the field for a a good 3 count...

more a power player imo...with excellent feet...not as polished as a derrick morgan but much more fluid looking in space...

as a pass rusher i think brandon graham brings a bit more to the table...
 
I like this guy better.....but again....another one we just didn't see enough of in college, for completely different reasons...up until the foot injury at least...

That's true, but what was interesting was in going through his tape which I only had about 4.1 games (he only played like a tenth of the Boston College game)...I was able to fill out plenty of snaps of just about any category of skill that I could think up a section for. I mean, I've got 10 solid skills up there for an OLB and the smallest section has only 3 instances of really getting after a Tight End before engaging his rush...everything else has at least 5.

So in his short amount of time playing he put together as many quality snaps as other guys put together in a longer space of time I think.
 
Not to hijack this away from Ricky Sapp, when thinking about him though we should definitely keep in mind that he says he was something like 65% this year because of the ACL. I'm not sure I believe that but it's something to consider.
 
Everything I've read about Sapp is that while he is athletic, he is just not strong enough at the POA. Is this right?
 
I go to all the Clemson games and I think the biggest problem is we had him as a down lineman in a 4 3 D. I think he would have been a lot better if used at linebacker. As someone else said he might be one of those guys that is a better pro than college player.
 
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