04-21-2023, 03:52 PM
Last week, Brett Kollman posted his evaluation of the defensive tackles in this draft class and I just got around to watching it today.
He ranks them into 5 tiers and his tiers are, roughly, outlined as Tier 1 = elite, top 10 talent, Tier 2 = mid 1st round talent, Tier 3 = late 1st to early day 2 talent, Tier 4 = Late day 2 to mid day 3 talent, Tier 5 = late day 3 talent / Wild cards (his big example of a wild card is Jalen Redmond, who was a 5 star edge prospect coming into college who gained 60 lbs during college and became a DT, but suffered from several injuries during this transition inside and is very raw, but has the upside of a Calijah Kancey level pass rusher).
He only tiered players who he had a draftable grade for, so if he didn't mention them, he believes they are undrafted free agent tier.
He didn't say who ranked higher within the tiers, so I assume he just has similar grades for them all within a given tier.
Tier 1: Jalen Carter
Tier 2: Calijah Kancey, Keeanu Benton, Mazi Smith
Tier 3: Adetomiwa Adeboware, Jerrod Clark, Kobie Turner, Byron Young (Alabama), Bryan Bresee, Gervon Dexter Jr
Tier 4: Jaquelin Roy, Nesta Jade Silvera, Moro Ojomo, Siaki Ika, Keondre Coburn
Tier 5: Jalen Redmond, Brodric Martin, Zacch Pickens, Cameron Young
https://youtu.be/8cvfA-ZXWRI?t=392
This is the timestamp for the Tier 2 discussion, which I find to be the most interesting because I think we're most likely to target someone in Tier 2 in round 1 if the draft board falls a certain way and guys like Mayer, Kincaid, Wright, Forbes aren't there.
He likes all three of these guys, but he basically puts them on a sliding scale from pass rusher to run stopper.
Kancey he calls a pure pass rusher who will get bullied in the run game and wouldn't stand up to double teams at DT in the run game. His suggestion is to not play him at 3T for run plays (which are 1st and 10, 2nd and short etc). He thinks Kancey is likely to kick out to DE during run plays and will move inside on passing downs. His comparison in role is a Michael Bennett or Justin Tuck. Base DE who moves inside to rush the passer.
Mazi Smith is the opposite. He thinks he will likely always be in on early downs, but will play very little 3rd down unless it's 3rd and short. He calls him the best run defender in thsi entire class other than Jalen Carter. His comparison is DJ Reader but without the pass rush (which he says Reader didn't have coming out of college either).
Then Keeanu Benton he says is right between the two. He isn't as good of a pass rusher as Kancey and he isn't as good of a run stopper as Mazi Smith, but he is much better than the two respective tackles in the other spectrum. He could play 3T, 5T, 2I or even nose in certain situations. His comparison is Cameron Heyward. A guy who can move along the line depending on down, distance, formation and expected play type. Brett says he thinks Benton, behind Carter, is probably the most likely DT in this class to play all 3 downs from day 1, making him arguably the "most valuable player in this tier." Teams love it when they don't have to take their first round picks off the field. He thinks Benton will go anywhere from Mid first to Mid second round, depending on how many DTs are taken early on.
With that kind of endorsement from one of the hardest working people in draft media (in my opinion), how would you feel if the Bengals drafted Benton at 28?
He ranks them into 5 tiers and his tiers are, roughly, outlined as Tier 1 = elite, top 10 talent, Tier 2 = mid 1st round talent, Tier 3 = late 1st to early day 2 talent, Tier 4 = Late day 2 to mid day 3 talent, Tier 5 = late day 3 talent / Wild cards (his big example of a wild card is Jalen Redmond, who was a 5 star edge prospect coming into college who gained 60 lbs during college and became a DT, but suffered from several injuries during this transition inside and is very raw, but has the upside of a Calijah Kancey level pass rusher).
He only tiered players who he had a draftable grade for, so if he didn't mention them, he believes they are undrafted free agent tier.
He didn't say who ranked higher within the tiers, so I assume he just has similar grades for them all within a given tier.
Tier 1: Jalen Carter
Tier 2: Calijah Kancey, Keeanu Benton, Mazi Smith
Tier 3: Adetomiwa Adeboware, Jerrod Clark, Kobie Turner, Byron Young (Alabama), Bryan Bresee, Gervon Dexter Jr
Tier 4: Jaquelin Roy, Nesta Jade Silvera, Moro Ojomo, Siaki Ika, Keondre Coburn
Tier 5: Jalen Redmond, Brodric Martin, Zacch Pickens, Cameron Young
https://youtu.be/8cvfA-ZXWRI?t=392
This is the timestamp for the Tier 2 discussion, which I find to be the most interesting because I think we're most likely to target someone in Tier 2 in round 1 if the draft board falls a certain way and guys like Mayer, Kincaid, Wright, Forbes aren't there.
He likes all three of these guys, but he basically puts them on a sliding scale from pass rusher to run stopper.
Kancey he calls a pure pass rusher who will get bullied in the run game and wouldn't stand up to double teams at DT in the run game. His suggestion is to not play him at 3T for run plays (which are 1st and 10, 2nd and short etc). He thinks Kancey is likely to kick out to DE during run plays and will move inside on passing downs. His comparison in role is a Michael Bennett or Justin Tuck. Base DE who moves inside to rush the passer.
Mazi Smith is the opposite. He thinks he will likely always be in on early downs, but will play very little 3rd down unless it's 3rd and short. He calls him the best run defender in thsi entire class other than Jalen Carter. His comparison is DJ Reader but without the pass rush (which he says Reader didn't have coming out of college either).
Then Keeanu Benton he says is right between the two. He isn't as good of a pass rusher as Kancey and he isn't as good of a run stopper as Mazi Smith, but he is much better than the two respective tackles in the other spectrum. He could play 3T, 5T, 2I or even nose in certain situations. His comparison is Cameron Heyward. A guy who can move along the line depending on down, distance, formation and expected play type. Brett says he thinks Benton, behind Carter, is probably the most likely DT in this class to play all 3 downs from day 1, making him arguably the "most valuable player in this tier." Teams love it when they don't have to take their first round picks off the field. He thinks Benton will go anywhere from Mid first to Mid second round, depending on how many DTs are taken early on.
With that kind of endorsement from one of the hardest working people in draft media (in my opinion), how would you feel if the Bengals drafted Benton at 28?
![[Image: oN5QAdY.png]](https://i.imgur.com/oN5QAdY.png)
