02-17-2024, 12:18 PM
Before these statements cause anyone to freak out I want to go on the record as saying that Newton is a very good football player. Now with that said I am starting to watch tape of full defensive outings for Illinois such as the one I just watched of their defense against Kansas. In the Kansas game I did notice that he seems to come off of the field for pretty decent amounts of time and I feel like his lack of length could be somewhat of an issue in the NFL as he seems to miss a fair amount of tackles due to this lack of length.
While he is certainly disruptive and plays with a great motor, I do not at all see an Aaron Donald type prospect from the tape I have seen to this point. I can also see why he has seemed to have slid down some boards over the past month or so. Just some observations that may or may not mean anything.
* Penn State - Newton was a bit more of a factor in this game but the biggest thing I took away from this tape is that I really like the LG for PSU - JB Nelson. Newton seemed to have a bit more success against the right side of the Penn State line than he did against the left side which did feature Nelson and Fashanu.
While he is certainly disruptive and plays with a great motor, I do not at all see an Aaron Donald type prospect from the tape I have seen to this point. I can also see why he has seemed to have slid down some boards over the past month or so. Just some observations that may or may not mean anything.
* Penn State - Newton was a bit more of a factor in this game but the biggest thing I took away from this tape is that I really like the LG for PSU - JB Nelson. Newton seemed to have a bit more success against the right side of the Penn State line than he did against the left side which did feature Nelson and Fashanu.
