Jake Long:
Long’s biggest detractors consist of a lack of ideal strength / build and questionable lateral movement skills. These are somewhat significant detractors because they negatively impact all aspects of his game. First, Long tends to get bull rushed right into the quarterback more frequently that he should with his length and skill set. To counterbalance this, he tends to bend at the waist early and often in an attempt to really anchor in against the incoming barrage. This technique leaves him susceptible to balance and technique issues which tend to limit his effectiveness. If left un-remedied, this lack of ideal strength coupled with his questionable lateral movement skills could make him a liability in the running game because of a lack of consistent drive and in the passing game because of an inability to anchor against the stronger defensive linemen and kick out against faster defensive linemen.
Darren McFadden:
First, McFadden has highly questionable vision. In essence, it is as if he has very little running back instincts at all. He often looks like a sprint champion wide receiver trying to run as fast as he can to the hole the play is intended to go through, regardless of whether he might run right into a defender or right up the back of his blocker. Second, McFadden lacks traditional running back body lean and strength. He always tends to go down on the first contact and shows minimal if any ability to push the pile or make plays in the short yardage. Thirdly, McFadden is rail thin. He is built a little top heavy and looks a lot like a wide receiver at first glance. This leads to an inability to really absorb the bigger shots from the more talented college players. As a result, he tends to have to leave the game occasionally because of some sort of ailment. McFadden will also be a liability as a blocker in the passing game. Most of the time Arkansas would insert Jones in passing situations, however, McFadden tended to really struggle when left in the game to take on even the smallest of blitzers. I also don’t see great toughness and ball security out of McFadden. He often fumbles the ball and tends to have no problem coming out of the game in pressure situations. McFadden also does not appear to posses real natural hands. He tends to really fight the ball on occasion.
Sedrick Ellis:
Ellis has two prime weaknesses which should really impact his ceiling at the next level. First, he is a shorter defensive tackle prospect. This is not a huge issue, but it will limit his ability to get stronger at the next level since his frame is somewhat maxed out already. Second, and possibly more important, is Ellis’s lack of ideal power. He is often a non-factor against the run. He often finds himself getting single blocked five yards downfield. In essence, Ellis only tends to make a play in the running game when the runner runs the same direction he was already planning to slant. In essence, I think this lack of power limits him to offenses where he is simply asked to attack the quarterback. That said, he does not always do a good job of that because he consistently fails to explode out of his stance with proper leverage. Rather, he appears quite content with standing up and trying to run around most linemen. Lastly, Ellis does not possess great read and recognition skills. He tends to fail to react to a run or a pass and simply stays on the course he started at the snap, often getting washed down the line by the lineman blocking him and completely out of the play.
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