Originally Posted by Chief Northman:
He had a shitty Combine, so there’s that....
Just reading up. Sounds like he was slow/sluggish, but not disastrous. I'm not sure how an edge talent (on film) like that drops to the bottom of the 1st though. [Reply]
Originally Posted by staylor26:
Epenesa makes 40 wasn’t ideal, but his 10 was more on par with the other big edge rushers and his vertical and broad jump were solid.
I think the athleticism angle is overblown with him.
This!!! Iowa players never put up good bench press numbers because they don't do that lift in college. His level of performance has been top 15 and I would be floored if he drops below 20. I think he has 10-15 pick talent. Seems like teams are spreading false negatives hoping he will fall to them. [Reply]
Originally Posted by staylor26:
Epenesa makes 40 wasn’t ideal, but his 10 was more on par with the other big edge rushers and his vertical and broad jump were solid.
I think the athleticism angle is overblown with him.
I think it's bend that gets him knocked a bit.
He can show a little stiff at times. Sort of a rich man's Eric Hicks in a way - Hicks could be damn productive at times but if you could force him out wide, he wasn't gonna bend the edge and dip a shoulder to cut around you.
I think Epenesa is better at EVERYTHING than Hicks, but ol' Hicks gets a bit of a bad rap as a pass rusher because how often that bootleg ate his ass alive. He was a quality player for most of his career.
Make that 2002 version of Hicks a premier run defender as well and you have something similar to what Epenesa will be. Take the average of that 5 year run from 99 through 2003, add another 25% to it and I think you get something really similar to Epenesa. [Reply]