2016 NFL Draft Interior DL Top Fifteen

On the defensive side of the ball I’m going to take an approach somewhere between my skill position reviews and my linemen overviews. So without further ado, your very deep 2016 interior defensive linemen class.

Overall	Player	Team	Ht	Wt	Role	Grade
4	Rankins, Sheldon	Louisville	73.125	299	Starter	7.7
8	Billings, Andrew	Baylor	72.625	311	Starter	7.6
13	Buckner, DeForest	Oregon	79	291	Starter	7.5
14	Jones, Chris	Mississippi State	78	310	Starter	7.5
19	Nkemdiche, Robert	Mississippi	75.5	294	Starter	7.4
22	Butler, Vernon	Louisiana Tech	76	323	Starter	7.3
23	Hargrave, Javon	South Carolina St	73	309	Starter	7.3
30	Reed, Jarran	Alabama	74.875	307	Starter	7.2
39	Robinson, A'Shawn	Alabama	75.625	307	Starter	7.1
45	Clark, Kenny	UCLA	75	314	Eventual Starter	7.0
57	Bullard, Jonathan	Florida	75	285	Eventual Starter	6.8
64	Day, Sheldon	Notre Dame	73	293	Eventual Starter	6.7
76	Collins, Maliek	Nebraska	74	311	Eventual Starter	6.5
92	Henry, Willie	Michigan	75	303	Eventual Starter	6.3
105	Ioannidis, Matt	Temple	75	299	Eventual Starter	6.1

I’ve heard people lament the talent in this year’s class but here’s is one of those places the talent runs deep. We’ll start with the fact I have 9 players who I think will be starters right away, and/or have the talent. At the top is Sheldon Rankins, an explosive athlete with good production and the ability to disrupt the pocket from the inside. He needs to work on consistency but his flashes are too much to overlook. Behind Rankins, I have Andrew Billings, a big bodied tackle from Baylor whose light on his feet, moves laterally well, and production to match what the testing tells us. Billings does need to become more consistent with his pass rush, but his lateral agility at his size is a major plus. Behind them are DeForest Buckner & Chris Jones. Both are tall athlete, 6’7” & 6’6” respectively, but Jones is 20 lbs bigger. That 20 lbs is probably why he was played over center instead of 3 tech where he would have been more disruptive and better utilized. With a move to a position where he can penetrate more, and with his athleticism Jones should be an impact player on the interior year one. Buckner is a player who should move about, he should be able to play anywhere from a 1 (he’d be a bit undersized) to a wide 9 (which wouldn’t utilize him quite right). I think he slots in very well at the 5 in a 3-4 or a 3 in 4-3. He’s strong with a great bull rush and a willingness to try multiple different rush attacks means with a little polish you’re looking at a 6’7” wrecking ball with enough finesse to keep you on your toes. The biggest value of the draft’s first two days will probably be Robert Nkemdiche. Nkemdiche had an incident this off-season that may sour some teams and mean he’s a late first, early second round pick but he has all the tools to be a force of nature. Like Buckner he’s a long lanky player, but he’s built like a brick shit house and shows those flashes that will make any DL coach drool. Much like other number one prospects he’s been able to coast a bit in college because of his physical tools, but he has an awareness of that and I think he’s worth the risk to see if that light turns on. #6 on my list will probably be a new name for most of you. Javan Hargrave is a DT from South Carolina State and boy has he been a revelation. Hargrave played in the FCS, but his testing traits were great, his numbers showed what you’d want, a player dominating a level below is talent. Hargrave had 13.5 sacks last year and another 8.5 TFLs he may surprise some people with how early he goes but don’t let it surprise you. Vernon Butler on the other hand had a coming out party at the Senior Bowl. Butler played at La Tech where he was a force, and a focus for other offenses. Butler showed what he’s capable against good talent at the Senior Bowl and I came away impressed. The last two I have categorized as Starters are the pair of Alabama defensive tackles. I want to start out by saying that there is a theory about their production as to why their production was lower than it should have been. That theory being that they were asked to clog space so that the linebackers and edge players could be more disruptive and clean up. And they may be right, I may be looking too much at their production, but there are other worrisome numbers. Especially for Mr. Robinson. His athletic numbers just weren’t that impressive. His numbers were fine, they weren’t red flags, these are more orange flags. Even for being a bigger guy his numbers suggest more of a run stopper than a penetrating force in the passing game. That’s his M.O. and it isn’t a bad thing, but it does mean that the pass rushing is something that needs to grow and it hurts hampers we’re sure he’ll be. The other Alabama player is Jarran Reed who tested better than Robinson which is good to see, but his production, especially his disruption numbers which show little penetration. Reed plays hard, is athletic, and can anchor at the point of attack extremely well. All the positive outweigh the negatives but they knock him down the ladder. They’re still very good prospects. The last 6 players in my top fifteen feature a favorite of mine, the athletic, the inconsistent, the stout, and the overlooked. The favorite is Kenny Clark at UCLA, he’s missing the disruption, but his TFL to tackle ratio is impressive and his athletic testing was superb for a 314 pound man. Clark just put together consistent tape at UCLA and a team that utilizes him correctly will get a very nice pick day two. Jonathan Bullard is a freaky lean interior player, much like Nkemdiche. At 6’3”, 285 Bullard can shift along the line as a disruptive one tech in passing situations, a penetrating one gap 3 tech on all three downs or as an edge player in certain sub-packages. Bullard hopefully gets stuck with a staff that experiments and doesn’t pigeon hole their players. Shledon Day from Notre Dame is also a sub 300 lbs tackle but his probles are more of the consistency variety. His numbers are fine but they could, and probably, should be much better. But when he’s on he is a disruptive force for any offense that went against Notre Dame. You just need to find the right landing space. The last three players in my fine, forceful, fifteen are three guys who may not get the most pub but I think have all the tools to be special, slightly different ways. Let’s start with Collins who certainly fell off at Nebraska this year after a promising 2014 (14 TFL, 4.5 sacks). That being said all the tools are there for a return to that form that caught so many eyes in 2014. Collins tested out really well comparing very favorably to Clark, but the production concerns were just too much for me to completely disregard heading into the draft. Staying in the B1G Willie Henry from Michigan has a chance to be the many regret overlooking. He was disruptive at Michigan, with a violent bull rush, and a healthy amount of athleticism he should most likely got left out because of the atrociousness of the last couple Michigan defenses. Lastly is a player from a defense that was so much fun to watch last year, Temple. Matt Ioannidis left Mobile this year after the Senior Bowl with praise from Rod Marinelli, and a fantastic last season at Temple. Ioannidis isn’t the most athletic guy, which isn’t to say he un-athletic, he’s just not what you’d call a freak. He is however a tactician and a player who is going to set the interior for your defense extremely well. He’ll get upfield from the 3 tech, and he’s going to free up your linebackers well.

If you can’t tell I really like this DT class and I’m excited as a Packers fan because there is impact to be had even late in the first round.