Uyeyama's Scouting Notebook | Power, Frame, and Projecting DTs
There are many reasons why it’s a big deal for Notre Dame to have Howard Cross III and Rylie Mills back at defensive tackle in 2024. Probably the biggest is that both were projected to be NFL Draft picks this past spring.
The Irish haven’t had two NFL Draft picks starting at defensive tackle since they had Louis Nix and Stephon Tuitt (Tuitt technically played as a 4i end in a three down front, but that’s essentially an interior lineman). They’ve only had two defensive tackles drafted after Nix and Tuitt.
The most recent one was Jerry Tillery in 2019. Tillery was one of 50 interior defensive linemen drafted in the first three rounds of the draft in the last six years. He was originally projected to play offensive tackle, but he had an athletic profile that fit defensive tackle as well.
25 of the 50 had available vertical jump numbers and the average was 27.4 inches. Tillery’s was 28. Only one had a vertical lower than 23 inches. Baylor’s Siaki Ika’s was 21.9 and he weighed 361 pounds when that was recorded.
The vertical measures explosiveness and that’s important for all defensive linemen, even the ones who weigh 300+ pounds.
Arm length matters when projecting body types
I don’t have measurements from when all of these players were in high school, but all 50 of them had their arm length measured when they were NFL Draft prospects.
46 of the 50 measured in at 32 ¼ inch arms or longer. The average for those 50 was 33 ¼ inches.
There’s obviously room for growth when players are 16 or 17 and having measurements taken at camps in high school compared to four or five years later, but that threshold is important when you know how rare it is for someone under that to develop into a high NFL Draft pick.
When we’re talking about frame, it’s more than just arm length and wingspan, but defensive lineman without long limbs are at a disadvantage on the field and when it comes to adding weight. Notre Dame has signed a lot of long projected defensive tackles in the last couple of recruiting classes and some might see freshman Sean Sevillano as an exception to that, but his arm length was measured at 32 ½ inches at a UC Report camp last spring. He’s above where he needs to be.
It was obvious that some of these players who were undersized as recruits had the frames to add a lot of weight in college. Michigan’s Kris Jenkins (34 inch arms), Clemson’s Ruke Orhorhorohad (34), Washington’s Levi Onwuzurike (33), UCLA Osa Odighizuwa (34 ¼ ), and Texas A&M’s Justin Madubuike (33 ½) were all 260 or under as recruits, but had freaky arm length.
A forgotten test could be significant when projecting DTs
The power ball throw sounds more like an event from American Gladiators than a test used to evaluate football players, but back when Student Sports was running all of the Nike camps in the 2010s, they used the power ball toss as part of their SPARQ (Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction and Quickness) testing.
It looked like this.
The name kind of says it all. It was about power and generating it from one’s hips while tossing a weighted ball forward. Only 20 of the 50 (40%) had recorded power ball throws at Nike camps, but it stood out to me because there was only one with a throw under 34.5 feet. The average throw for those 20 was 37.9.
They don’t use this test at the NFL Combine or at any camps for high school athletes that I know about right now and it’s probably because it’s not an important test for a lot of positions. For a position like defensive tackle, where power certainly matters, I do think it could be useful.
These kids don’t need to run 40s. Save that for the other positions. The power ball toss for defensive tackles and offensive linemen would be better for them.
Not all big men are specialists
33 of the 50 were multi-sport athletes. It could be understandable if more of them weren’t given that most don’t have body types that are ideal for most other sports, but 66% is pretty significant.
The most common sport was basketball (23 of 50). Basketball athleticism translates just about everywhere on the football field. There were three baseball players and four who had elite throws in track and field. There were also three big time wrestlers. It’s a good thing for Notre Dame that current defensive tackles like Jason Onye, Brenan Vernon, and Devan Houstan also competed in basketball in high school. Cole Mullins was a very good baseball player and Armel Mukam recorded elite shot put and discus throws.
It was probably a good sign for Tillery that he competed in triathlons. That's the kind of thing that made him a unicorn as a lineman on either side of the ball.
Unicorns at defensive tackle for Notre Dame have been difficult to land and some of that probably has to do with most of the 50 being from the south. It’s not easy to get those players to South Bend, but perhaps with a couple of draft picks at the position added after this season, selling the program to defensive tackles with elite traits can become a little bit easier.
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