I recently wrote about wide receivers at the Senior Bowl that fit the Packers thresholds and narrowed it down to about three guys. It was requested that I also apply this to the Senior Bowl edge rushers to find which guys fit the Packers thresholds.
Most positions this would be somewhat difficult, but with cornerbacks, wide receivers and edge rushers the Packers are pretty specific in what they look for. Obviously we do not have athletic testing for these players yet, but we can still get it narrowed down and base some athletic factors on “film speed”. So lets talk about the edge rushers that were at the senior bowl.
Edge Rushers:
Mike Green
Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins
Jared Ivey
Sai’vion Jones
Jah Joyner
Kyle Kennard
R.J. Oben
Oluwafemi Oladejo
Collin Oliver
Barryn Sorrell
Josaiah Stewart
Shemar Stewart
Princely Umanmielen
Landon Jackson
David Walker
First lets eliminate guys who lack length. Brian Gutekunst has only drafted edge rushers that had a arm length of at least 33″. He likes guys who can use speed to power and bull rush; you usually need longer arms to do this. This eliminates Green, Oliver, Sorrell, Stewart and Walker.
This Leaves Us With:
Donovan Ezeiruaku
Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins
Sai’vion Jones
Kyle Kennard
R.J. Oben
Oluwafemi Oladejo
Shemar Stewart
Princely Umanmielen
Landon Jackson
Another of Gutey’s thresholds is weight. All the edge rushers he has drafted weighted between 258-277 at the combine. So just by those numbers you can tell he likes bigger edge rushers. I know someone people will comment that “well Hafley likes smaller edge rushers in his scheme” which may or may not be true, but That was also said about Joe Barry.
Gutey drafted Kingsley Enagbare and Lukas Van Ness while Barry was the coordinator and Kinsley was 258 and Van Ness was 272. So first lets remove the guys over 277. Ingram-Dawkins, Ivey, Jones and Stewart come off. Also note: it was unlikely Ingram-Dawkins, Ivey or Jones would test well enough anyway even if they met the weight threshold. All three are combo players anyway and Green Bay typically doesn’t draft those type.
Donovan Ezeiruaku
Jah Joyner
Kyle Kennard
R.J. Oben
Princely Umanmielen
Landon Jackson
Now lets remove the guys under the weight threshold of 258. This takes off Ezeiruaku, Oben and Kennard.
Our Final List
Jah Joyner
Oluwafemi Oladejo
Landon Jackson
One thing I will say is I do not expect Landon Jackson to test well enough, so really its a three man list. If I were to pick one or two from this list to be likely a Packer I would say Princely on day two and/or Joyner on day three. What did surprise me a bit is this listed ended up being a little smaller than I thought it would be. Also stay tuned because I will be doing the same thing with the cornerback group and I will bring you guys which corners best fit Green Bay’s thresholds from the Senior Bowl.
One Final Note
Now of course some of the guys that were too light or too heavy could add or drop weight by the combine and could end up as fits. The guys I think could still end up fitting all the thresholds are Shemar Stewart, RJ Oben, Kyle Kennard and Donovan Ezeiruaku. Also I will add on to that I wouldn’t be surprised if Gutekunst drafted at edge rusher that was 255-ish. I just honestly don’t think he goes much lower.
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