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Guys like Leonard Taylor and Maason Smith are going to rise after the combine.
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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.