PFF draft profile - "Braswell is an impressive athlete on the edge. His first-step explosiveness, pursuit speed and natural strength are all starting-caliber"
He was part of the Alabama 'cheetah package" and that helped get him on the Freaks List
"The Crimson Tide’s biggest Freak — who vertical-jumped 38 1/2 inches at 243 pounds last year and squatted 705 — is now 13 pounds heavier, up to 256, but still has great burst, clocking 21.9 MPH on the GPS this year. Braswell, who had 4.5 TFLs, six QB hurries and three sacks in 2022, also bench-pressed 405 pounds and hang-cleans 405. Last season, he worked into the Tide’s rotation often in their “Cheetah” package, where he joined Will Anderson andDallas Turner on the field to harass opposing quarterbacks. Now, with Anderson off to the NFL, expect Braswell to have a much bigger role in 2023."
NONE OF THAT MEANS HE WILL SUCCEED IN THE NFL. He definitely LOOKS slow now on the field (thinking too much?) and certainly is NOT a hyper-bendy speed rusher from the edge.
Noah Spence v2.0
How ripped does he look with his shirt off? That's the true measurement for a great pass rusher.
true measurement for a great pass rusher.
To me -- and could definitely be wrong - he looks more like someone BOWLES drafted for JTS's role, which is not really that of a great edge rusher as much as it is sort of a joker
Isn's Braswell's MO that he is a great ATHLETE, as compared to a specialist rusher?
Going of draft profiles, Braswell is quicker (10 yd split) and faster (40 yd) then both Shaq Barrett and JPP and a little bit quicker/faster that JTS.
He needs more than that to be a consistent one on one rushing threat, but at least he's got some starting measurables.
The comment that he is playing slow because he is learning is probably spot on.
Braswell showed that initially in pre season where he was very slow to attack LoS and then against the Dolphins in pre season he looked very aggressive.
Major effort on run-stopping, wouldn’t surprise me if part of the development of an edge in Bowles system is to learn to set an edge…something Braswell hasn’t been great at.
Speculation.
This is no surprise. Before the season I said he’d be a special teams guy and get a few snaps at OLB a game. Again, it’s rare to draft an edge rusher outside of the top 15 (10 for that matter) who can step in and provide quality playing time. And I hear fans saying well we’ll have to draft an edge in the first round next year to fill this gap. Okay, keep wasting that pick. We either spend money to a good free agent Edge next year or deal with what we’ve dealt with for the last few years again.
Even with all of the injuries, this dude barely played a snap on defense before garbage time
He's clearly a project and clearly needs to add weight.
clearly needs to add weight.
I thought I read that he added a lot of weight near the end of his Bama days? is he undersized?
Not good. I was hoping he'd be a decent contributor seeing he came from Bama and showed he had a go-to-move in college. Nothing screamed 10 sack in his game as a pro but a solid Robin to someone. I don't even think he can be that, from what I've seen this year. Looks slow off the ball, stiff in space and shows no type of rush plan when he is out there.
I remember people on this board preferred Jonah Ellis(5 sacks with DEN) who we passed on for Braswell.
Looks slow off the ball, stiff in space and shows no type of rush plan when he is out there.
Dude has barely looked like an NFL defender.
I remember people on this board preferred Jonah Ellis(5 sacks with DEN) who we passed on for Braswell.
Yeah, Elliss has been what you're looking for in a 2nd rounder. Braswell has looked like a practice squad UDFA.
Braswell has not looked good and hardly playing yesterday is definitely concerning but Jonah Eliss is not only a very good football player in his own right, meaning no credit taken away (who was drafted in the 3rd round, I thought?), but the Broncos defense is heading toward 60-65 sacks? League leading.
The 2nd round pick, Bonitto, already has double digit sacks or close
