Re: Defensive ends

quozzel

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Jul 18, 2021, 12:41 PM

Murphy on the strongside and Justin Foster on the weakside would be my guess. Foster's always been our best pure pass rusher if he's truly back healthy from long-haul COVID. You go back and watch the film, the dude's not a classic NFL prototype but the dude's a handful and very, very difficult to control. Murphy tapered off a bit down the stretch as true freshmen tend to but he looked good. Amazing tools. Competitor. Sees it. Gets after it. And you can tell he had a solid high school base.

XT, Mascoll, KJ Henry probably rotate among the backup spots...to be honest, I'm middlin' "meh" on all of them...they've all got gobs of physical ability, they've none of them really ever truly delivered on it. They flash in spots, that's about it...and then vanish for long stretches. XT's stiff as a board, plays way too high for a shorter end...he's got heavy hands and that rattlesnake first step, but he gets uprooted too easily because he desperately needs better flexibility, especially in his hips. He gets a good line the QB is dead; he doesn't redirect well. At all. Henry's plenty flexible and also has a cobra-like first step, he's just...casual. It's like...man, where'd you go? You just see him fade out of the game for long, long stretches. Mascoll looks like what you'd send out to Central Casting for but his film has been is shockingly average, he's thus far played like Just a Guy and he just didn't get any better last year, seemingly, at all. Which is weird given that he looks like arguably our best specimen aside from maybe Murphy, and you see...flashes. Not sure what the deal is there.

I think we roll 5-6 ends this year but Murphy and Foster will almost certainly be our starters, IMHO. The coaches did seem pretty high on Greg Williams' upside and he does look the part, physically. Might be the year he starts contributing.

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My first guess is Murphy and KJ start on the outside. I like how KJ improved last year as the season progressed. Between Foster, XT, Mascoll and even Swint, I have no guess who gets the most playing time after the two starters.

My wild card at DE is Bresee. If Capehart goes next-level this year at DT, I believe he will force the coaches to move Bresee to the outside on a part-time basis at the expense of all DEs except Murphy. Our best D-line may end up being Murphy & Bresee on the outside with Tyler and Capehart at tackle.

People here don't realize how athletic Bresee is and how elite his pass-rush skills are. At some point during the year, don't be surprised if DE becomes his starting position. Regardless, he will rotate between inside and outside.

Defensive ends