This kid is hitting the radar as a 4-3 prospect due to great Senior Bowl practices. Post your videos, thoughts and notes about him here. Here's a NY Times note on him from today's Senior Bowl practice http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/senior-bowls-surprises-polarizing-prospects-and-small-school-standouts/ I look forward to watching him. I didn't pay him much mind as I watched Barr's film.
What you like about him is that he's a big, strong guy that has unusual explosion in a straight line sense off the ball. But I'm not sure all the hype he's getting in the wake of the Senior Bowl is warranted. It's kind of built on the hype surrounding another Senior Bowl player, Eric Fisher, whom Datone Jones is credited for "holding his own" against. But then, Alex Okafor is also credited with holding his own against Fisher and at that point you start to wonder is that Okafor and Jones being awesome while Fisher is also awesome or is that Fisher being kinda good while Datone Jones and Okafor are also kinda good, whereas Michael Buchanon and Margus Hunt are really NOT good...at all. Put yourself in my shoes. Which means you headed into Senior Bowl week thinking that Alex Okafor is genuinely good for an outside spot, Datone Jones is a genuinely good prospect for a three-down player that might move inside in pass rush, that Michael Buchanon and Margus Hunt were serially overrated, and that Eric Fisher, while pretty good and most likely a genuine 1st round talent, is a little bit overrated himself and probably more or less on par with a Datone Jones. Then you start getting the reports in from the week of practice and you start seeing the practices on television and you see Eric Fisher dominating the likes of Hunt and Buchanon, and exchanging wins with the likes of Jones and Okafor. Ask yourself, are you surprised?
No, I'm not. But then, the excvitement over Datone Jones isn't that we may have unearthed a surprise top ten pick. That just doesn't happen this late in a college career. However, you have a guy who may project far better to 4-3 DE than anyone thought... in fact, perhaps a lot of people were not even imagining projecting him there before now. So now you have a guy who was not all that desirable becoming worthy of a closer look. That's the sort of buzz, I think. It's a "Who high could he go? What's his ceiling?" buzz. And I think people are not overly in the clouds about it. The sense I get is people are thinking he could be a second round talent, maybe creep into the late first if he impresses through the whole pre-draft process. Here's my question to you: would you want him with a second round pick?
I think that you're first sentence basically highlighted the issue at hand. I haven't seen the tape, but from what I heard Okafor held his own against Fisher and Datone, maybe a little bit more, described as giving him fits iirc. Big dude- fast, powerful and explosive. That's what caught my eye. We need an explosive, fast, play making, pass rushing DE- or OLB pass rusher, take your pick, just someone opposite Wake who can get some heat on the QB. For a guy of Jones' size to be that quick and explosive- and to referred to as maybe the fastest DL at the Senior Bowl- that's pretty good stuff.
I have always looked at Jones as a mid to late second round prospect and I think after the Senior Bowl he has moved up to an early second but I still don't see him as a first round prospect. I think he could be a real steal if he goes in the early to mid 2nd, but based on what I have seen of him on tape, he was misused at UCLA but that leaves a few questions that need to be answered and not worth a first round risk.
More catching up.....big, physical, heavy hands, understands leverage but does everything in a straight line. He's your solid run end in a 4-3. He can show off a swim move every now and again and though he lacks the athletic ability of Ansah, his understanding of technique is far greater. I'm not sure that he's ever going to be any sort of edge rush threat. Would suspect a solid, if unspectacular NFL career awaits. And of course, every snap he plays you can't help but jaw drop at Anthony Barr. What a draft 2014 will be and he looks like a top five pick at worst at this stage.
To me, Datone runs hot and cold, mainly b/c he looks to be an inconsistent effort guy, at least from what I've seen anyway.
I came away not liking Barr. Some days I don't know if I'm not watching the same things as other people, have very different views on what constitutes a player I like, or if I just don't know a flying duck about football.
I just watched some more film of Jones and Odrick to see how they compare/contrast. I was struck by the comment I read I think on GBN that Jones might be the fastest DL at the Senior Bowl- the tape that I watched doesn't show that. He looks like a darned good player to me, but I have to agree that he doesn't look like the best of edge rushers- he sure is a beefy looking 6-4 280 and he seems awfully quick off of the snap. with excellent hand use at the LOS and very good at using leverage. I looked at a USC game film clip and Jones seems like a very good DE prospect imo, good pass rusher/run defender, but I think that I overestimated him as an edge rusher. With all of these DE's I ask myself the same thing- what are they going to add to the game in conjunction with Jared Odrick, as opposed to a replacement for Odrick? If Odrick moves to DT- which I doubt- Jones is a very good DE prospect for us. But I'm looking at this in terms of the Seattle template, Red Bryant combined with Bruce Irvin. The question is, who is our Bruce Irvin? I keep going back to Corey Lemonier, Dion Jordan and Damontre Moore as answers to that question. Mingo concerns me and there is just something about Jarvis Jones, in addition to the stenosis, that gives me pause for concern. Excellent pass rusher, but a liability against the run and he looks kind of lackadaisical to me. Personally I like Odrick, and I see quite a bit of value in him in his DE/DT role- dude holds down the fort big time in the run game and this guy cam move for a 300 pounder. He plays his role, and he plays it well imo. There's a little too much overlap in Datone Jones/Odrick, bottom line- I still like him quite a bit, though. Devin Taylor, Mallicah Goodman and Cornelius Washington are interesting 2nd tier prospects- Washington caught my eye in the Senior Bowl game, very dynamic off the edge, looks like a good fit as a compliment to Odrick imo, great writeup by CK. Goodman is an interesting pass/run DE with good size, good off the line but far from elite imo. Mid round guy who could surprise, my best guess 5th rd player. Taylor- my limited impression is that I like him better than Goodman, more dynamic off the edge, and I just went over CKs Cornelius Washington clips and he looks like the most dynamic and talented of the three, and a very good fit for what we need- not quite Corey Lemonier off the edge, but impressive, 4th rd guy my best guess, 5th rd if we're lucky. As to QB containment issues- Lemonier, Corny Washington, Jordan, a healthy Carradine- and dare I say Alec Ogletree and Sean Porter from the OLB position? Here's a clip of Ogletree, take a look at :35 at how quickly he gets to the QB who's rolling out to the right side. Ogletree slides up to him like a black mamba and just lays him out- doing all of this coming from ILB, imagine that play happening even quicker if he was closer to the QB coming from OLB. For the Russell Wilsons of the world this kind of active, dynamic, fast, quick LB could be just the ticket- best played at OLB imo. This dude makes plays all over the field, heck of a range. Porter I like, but this kid Ogletree is special. If you're looking to contain the more mobile new breed of QBs with a penchant for rolling out and causing havoc, this kid is a great place to start as an OLB who can not only rush the passer effectively, but has elite contain ability. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7ZOXZcRZNM We could do far worse that Ogletree at #12 and Washington in the 4th or 5th rds imo (if he's there), pick up a couple of WRs and DBs with those 2nd and 3rd rd picks. Everyone seems to be all about offensive and defensive playmakers for us, and for excellent reason. Very curious imo that Ogletree isn't mentioned more- my best guess is that the reason is that he's listed at ILB- not only should he be on our radar as a OLB imo, I'm not so sure that he'll be available by the time we pick #12. Is there a better defensive playmaker in the draft than this kid, and isn't that exactly what we need? Maybe you could make a case for Jonthan Banks, but I'd still go with this kid Ogletree. He can get to QBs and RBs and get there in a hurry, playmaker extraordinaire.
