I want to give an honest assessment of Greg Rousseau. He has every single trait that an elite defensive end needs. Length, effort, flexibility, decent get off, and good pad level. Although he needs to be more consistent with the last two. He's a young player.
However, what I wanted to talk about was what my concerns are with him, and why I'm not quite sold on him as a top 10 pick. When I watch the tape, it just doesn't necessarily jive with the 15.5 sacks.
He got 7 of those sacks in 2 games back to back against Pittsburgh and Florida St.
Against Pittsburgh, he got one sack where he actually dropped into coverage, but Kenny Pickett left the pocket prematurely to scramble towards the sideline - Rousseau came up to meet him and Pickett just ran out of bounds short of the LOS instead of throwing the ball away like he was supposed to. He got credited with a sack. The two other sacks were just instances of the quarterback running himself into sacks rather than Rousseau actually beating an offensive lineman in a timely fashion.
Against Florida St., 3 sacks came against guards where they lined up him inside. These FSU guards are not good and embarrassingly off balance. Rousseau got a sack against Brady Scott, another against Cole Minshew, and another against freshman guard Derrick McLendon.
Against UNC, again he was working against freshman guard Ed Montilus where he was credited with a sack.
Against C. Michigan, he got a sack against freshman guard Danny Motowski.
Got a sack against Virginia Tech working against TE James Mitchell.
You just see fairly mediocre college quarterbacks running themselves into sacks with Greg Rousseau over and over again.
My point is, not all sacks are the same. I think people are under the impression that Rousseau was just terrorizing offensive tackles around the edge as a freshman and beating their brains in on his way to 15.5 sacks - and would've had 30 sacks this year as a sophomore. Not the case.
He doesn't beat tackles around the edge, and hasn't developed any pass rush moves yet. All he does is a two handed bull rush, and it's what prevents him from being able to disengage from blocks in a timely fashion. I'd like to see him learn how to long arm and keep one arm free instead of engaging with both hands every time.
Secondly, he has to develop a dip-and-rip and learn the push/pull technique.
In reality, I think he's a pure strongside DE in an even front, or even a 4i technique. He may even have to add 15 pounds or so and play as a 5T.
It really would've provided a clearer picture in terms of his development had he played this season. We've seen pass rushers like Aaron Maybin and others have one big season early in their college careers and ride that hype into being overdrafted. The experts will even try to tell you Raekwon Davis was going to be a top 10 pick after his sophomore season. All he did was get worse as his career went on.
You just have to be mindful and really do your tape study to find where the truth really lies. If all Greg Rousseau is going to have on film is his freshman tape to evaluate, I don't grade him as a top 10 pick. But he has enough tools to be the top underclassman DE in my rankings to start out. But I'm here to tell you this kid isn't Nick Bosa or Myles Garrett. He doesn't move like them. He's not wound as tightly as they were. It's a no from me. No sir. No way.