It wasn’t way back that the Ravens had been swimming in pass-rush potentialities.
When free company opened in mid-March, their want for an impactful edge rusher was as apparent because the array of promising paths to getting one. The Ravens may signal their man in free company. They may take him at No. 14 general within the NFL draft. They may perhaps even commerce down and get him later within the first spherical.
Then common supervisor Eric DeCosta’s deal for free-agent exterior linebacker Za’Darius Smith fell via. Then Michigan exterior linebacker David Ojabo, a first-round prospect who’d blossomed below new Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald in Ann Arbor, tore his Achilles tendon. Then Georgia defensive lineman Travon Walker turned not only a sure-thing top-15 decide but in addition a attainable top-two decide, with Florida State defensive finish Jermaine Johnson II’s regular rise maybe taking him out of the Ravens’ vary as nicely.
As group officers put together for Thursday’s first spherical, they need to weigh their want to deal with the cross rush in opposition to the realities of their draft board. The Ravens completed twenty eighth in sack price and twenty fourth in strain price final season, in line with Pro Football Reference. Top exterior linebackers Tyus Bowser and Odafe Oweh are each getting back from offseason operations. The depth behind them is unremarkable. The inside cross rush stays a piece in progress.
But given the Ravens’ best-player-available method within the draft, their roster holes elsewhere and the caliber of edge rushers who may very well be obtainable at No. 14 general, DeCosta may have to carry off on including assist till a minimum of Friday.
“There are some good players,” he mentioned on the Ravens’ predraft information convention earlier this month. “Typically, those guys go fast. We think there will be a run of those guys, probably in the top 10. There might be a guy or two that falls down to us at 14, potentially.”
If a type of guys occurs to be Johnson, nonetheless, the Ravens determine to take a protracted look.
The case for Jermaine Johnson II
It’s straightforward to fall exhausting for Johnson.
Measurables? The 6-foot-5, 254-pound Johnson ran the 40-yard sprint in 4.58 seconds (92nd percentile amongst edge rushers), posted a broad soar of practically 10 1/2 ft (91st percentile) and has a 6-9 wingspan (seventieth percentile).
Run protection? Johnson is broadly thought of one of the best edge setter within the draft, ending with 23 run stops final season, in line with Pro Football Focus.
Pass rush? All Johnson did was lead the Atlantic Coast Conference with 12 sacks in 12 video games.
“I love him,” ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. mentioned in a convention name final month. “He’s strong and he’s got power. He’s got speed off the edge and he’s got bend off the corner.”
And but his stardom is tough to challenge. For as many packing containers as Johnson’s breakout 2021 season checked, for as splashy as a few of his highlight-reel sacks are, for as a lot as he seems to be like a prototypical NFL edge rusher, there are nonetheless questions on his pass-rush potential. In his lone season as a full-time starter, the Georgia switch had irritating lows (struggling to pierce a woeful North Carolina offensive line till late) and ecstatic highs (all however posterizing North Carolina State left sort out Ikem Ekwonu, a projected top-10 decide, with a spin transfer).
Like Walker, Johnson doesn’t profile analytically as a slam-dunk decide. His 18% pass-rush win price when ranging from an outside-the-tackle alignment, the place he’d seemingly function in Baltimore, ranked well behind most of his early-round peers final yr. His general win price, which is usually extra predictive than a participant’s sack price, was simply 14.1% in 2021, which ranked exterior the highest 50 nationally. (Ravens exterior linebacker Odafe Oweh’s win price, even in his abridged no-sack 2020 season at Penn State, was 18.4%.)
Maybe most worrisome, in a league the place the typical launch time for a quarterback is 2.7 seconds, Johnson racked up 84% of his pressures a minimum of 2.6 seconds after the snap, in line with PFF. None of his pressures got here in 2 seconds or faster, a rarity for high pass-rush prospects.
With his torrid offseason, nonetheless, Johnson has locked up a first-round choice and pushed his inventory into potential top-five territory. At the Senior Bowl, he dominated in the course of the week of practices. At the NFL scouting mix, he proved to be one of many draft’s most athletic defenders.
“Jermaine is a great example of a guy taking advantage of an opportunity,” Ravens director of participant personnel Joe Hortiz mentioned. “He was at Georgia as a backup. He goes down to Florida State and really put together an outstanding year. He really created an opportunity for himself and really took advantage of it and performed well through this season and obviously in the offseason.”
Even if the Ravens see Johnson as their subsequent nice cross rusher, they’d need to place themselves to take him, whether or not that’s at No. 14 general or earlier. Here are another edge defenders the Ravens would possibly contemplate later within the draft:
First spherical
Purdue’s George Karlaftis: The 6-4, 266-pound Karlaftis needs to be obtainable at No. 14 general, and there’s lots to love. His 23.6% pass-rush win price final season was equal to Aidan Hutchinson’s and higher than Kayvon Thibodeaux (23.5%), David Ojabo (19%) and Johnson’s (14.2%), in line with PFF. A 3-year starter for the Boilermakers who simply turned 21, Karlaftis completed with 117 profession pressures regardless of a three-game 2020 season. Last yr, he had 5 sacks, 11 1/2 tackles for loss, three compelled fumbles and 54 pressures.
Karlaftis, a former youth water polo star in his native Greece, makes probably the most of his sturdy base. He can convert his fast get-off into brute-force energy, strolling 300-plus-pound offensive tackles again into the pocket. With his energetic fingers and spectacular steadiness, he may additionally line up over guards on passing downs, simply because the equally constructed Za’Darius Smith did with the Ravens.
Because of his comparatively quick arms and inconsistent bend, nonetheless, Karlaftis’s vary of pass-rush strikes may very well be restricted on the subsequent degree. He not often flew by tackles on velocity rushes and struggled to translate his pass-rush wins into sacks. There’s additionally room for development as a run defender, the place his fixed motion can depart him outleveraged.
“There’s teams that think he’s one of the top 15 players,” NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah mentioned in a convention name final week, “and then there’s teams that think he’s not worth a first- or second-round pick.”
Second spherical
Penn State’s Arnold Ebiketie: The 6-2, 250-pound Ebiketie, who moved from Cameroon to Silver Spring as a young person, is without doubt one of the draft’s most electrical cross rushers. According to PFF, 55% of his 52 quarterback pressures final season got here inside 2.5 seconds of the snap. Hutchinson, the presumptive No. 1 general decide, was the one different high prospect to report a minimum of 50% of his pressures that rapidly. Ebiketie completed second within the Big Ten Conference final season in tackles for loss (18) and third in sacks (9 1/2), blocked two kicks and compelled two fumbles.
Despite his spectacular size — he ranks within the 71st percentile amongst edge rushers in wingspan — Ebiketie may battle to set the sting early in his profession in opposition to highly effective run blockers. His middling power additionally exhibits up in his cross rushes, the place he struggled at instances to shed tackles who locked him up early.
Third spherical
Kentucky’s Josh Paschal: The 6-3, 268-pound Paschal, a Prince George’s County native and three-time group captain, was the Southeastern Conference’s highest-graded edge rusher final season, in line with PFF. An elite run defender, he additionally had 5 1/2 sacks and 38 pressures in 12 begins. Unlike most edge rushers, Paschal typically lined up over offensive tackles within the Wildcats’ scheme, and he may kick inside on passing downs within the NFL. He had 13 pressures, 10 hurries and a sack on inside alignments final season, in line with Sports Info Solutions.
Fourth spherical
Cincinnati’s Myjai Sanders: The 6-5 Sanders had simply 2 1/2 sacks and 6 1/2 tackles for loss in 14 begins final season, his fewest in three years, partly due to a extra conservative alignment alongside the Bearcats’ defensive entrance. But he nonetheless completed with 54 hurries, in line with PFF, and had 10 pressures in opposition to Alabama of their College Football Playoff semifinal. A abdomen bug knocked Sanders’ weigh-in on the NFL scouting mix all the way down to 228 kilos, however he was again as much as 247 kilos for Cincinnati’s professional day final month. More troubling is his penalty downside; Sanders was penalized 24 instances over the previous three years, together with 9 offside infractions final yr.
NFL DRAFT
Thursday, 8 p.m.
Friday, 7 p.m.
Saturday, midday
TV: ESPN, NFL Network, Chs. 2, 7
Las Vegas, Nevada
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Source: www.bostonherald.com