FAB 4. Vea Is A Once In A Generation Player

There were a lot of Buccaneers fans that applauded PewterReport.com’s selection of Notre Dame guard Quenton Nelson to Tampa Bay with the seventh overall pick in our first Bucs’ seven-round mock draft. It was more mixed reviews with our second mock when we had Washington defensive tackle Vita Vea in there.

The temptation to put UTSA defensive end Marcus Davenport in there at No. 7 actually occurred twice for the PewterReport.com staff in both mock drafts, and that’s not us potentially following the lead of NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah, who did just that in his first mock draft prior to the Senior Bowl. We actually thought about putting Davenport to Tampa Bay in our initial Bucs’ seven-round mock draft, which came out two weeks before Jeremiah’s mock did.

UTSA DE Marcus Davenport – Photo: Butch Dill/Associated Press

Davenport is a pretty good player right now with plenty of upside. In a year that doesn’t have very many pass rushing defensive ends, I could see why the Bucs met with Davenport twice at the Senior Bowl, including a face-to-face meeting with general manager Jason Licht, and want to like him. I just hope the team doesn’t talk itself into thinking Davenport, who had half a sack and a fumble recovery for a touchdown at the Senior Bowl, is worth a Top 10 pick – because he’s not right now.

Drafting Davenport at No. 7 is like the Bucs drafting Gaines Adams at No. 4 in 2007 just because Tampa Bay needed a defensive end, rather than drafting a surefire Pro Bowler in running back Adrian Peterson, who was selected by Minnesota at No. 7, or linebacker Patrick Willis, who was drafted by San Francisco at No. 11, or running back Marshawn Lynch, who was selected by Buffalo at No. 12, or Darrelle Revis, who was chosen by the New York Jets at No. 14. That’s what happens when a team drafts for need rather than selecting the best player available.

Granted, guard is a legitimate position of need in Tampa Bay, but if the Bucs were to take Nelson I would be perfectly fine with that as would most fans I think due to the fact that the dominant Notre Dame guard is widely regarded as a top 10 pick and one of the safest players in the draft. But don’t the Bucs have a more pressing need on the defensive line?

Yes, and that’s why Vea was PewterReport.com’s latest first-round pick for Tampa Bay, which had the fewest sacks in the league last year with 22.

Like Nelson, Vea is a special player and a physical freak at 6-foot-4, 340 pounds with tremendous movement ability and strength. No, he’s not an edge rusher, but he has the skill set to make a huge impact on the Bucs’ pass rusher despite only having 9.5 sacks in his three years with the Huskies.

That’s because Vea is a hulk that tosses aside guards like rag dolls to rush the passer, which sends quarterbacks running for their lives and often into the waiting arms of defensive ends and blitzing linebackers. I spoke to one of the quarterbacks Vea terrorized for years in college, Washington State’s Luke Falk.

Washington DT Vita Vea – Photo courtesy of Univ. of Washington

“That guy – you watch him on film and you understand how good he is, and then you play him and you realize he’s even better than you thought,” Falk said. “Their game plan was really, rush three and drop eight into coverage. Vita made it feel like we were getting rushed by six guys. He’s an incredible player and I have nothing but respect for him. I think he’s going to be great in the NFL. He’s special. You don’t find guys like him that can move like he does. It’s only once in a long while that you see guys like him.”

Cole Madison, one of the Cougars linemen charged with the responsibility of protecting Falk, talked about the challenge he faced going against Vea in Washington’s 42-14 rout of Washington State. Falk threw three interceptions, fumbled once and was sacked five times. Vea had half a sack.

“He’s a force,” said Madison. “He’s a big guy that can move really well. He’s unbelievably strong. Whenever you went against him you had to really man up. He’s a really good player. I respect him a lot.

“The first play of our game he lined up as a five technique, so I had to block him right away. Throughout the game he moved around all over the place. That’s how good he is and how versatile of a player he is.”

Vea is not just a space-eating nose tackle. He’s not Vince Wilfork, or Danny Shelton, a former Washington nose tackle that was drafted 12th overall by Cleveland. He’s much more than that, and I called Huskies defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake, who was a former defensive backs coach in Tampa Bay under Jon Gruden and Raheem Morris, for some insight.

“Vita is a freak athlete,” Lake said. “6-foot-4 and change, and 340 pounds does not grow on trees, and with how athletic he is, I think he’s a top 5 player due to the way he plays and how fast he plays. He’s so big. He’s hard to move. He plays with his hands. He’s physical and he’s fast, too.

“We clocked him at running 20 miles per hour chasing down a screen against USC. We had him in one of those Catapult vests you put on the players, and he was running 20 miles per hour chasing down a screen. That’s 340 pounds really moving. On top of all that he is an unbelievable person. He’s a great teammate. There are no red flags with this guy at all. I was here with Danny Shelton, who ended up going top 12 overall to the Cleveland Browns, and this is a bigger and more athletic version than him. If Danny was No. 12, this guy should be No. 5 in my opinion.”

Washington DT Vita Vea – Photo courtesy of Univ. of Washington

I told Lake that PewterReport.com had Vea going to the Bucs with the seventh overall pick and lining up next to six-time Pro Bowl three technique defensive tackle Gerald McCoy.

“Having Vita and Gerald push the pocket from the inside would allow your rushers from the outside to get home because the offensive tackles are going to have to come down and help out on those inside guys,” Lake said. “That’s what happened with us. Our two big defensive tackles helped our outside rush a ton. In the run game alone, you can’t move that object very well. He is a big, big man. I would actually be surprised if he was there at No. 7 for Tampa. This type of player doesn’t come around every two decades with his size and how he can move.”

Look for Vea to be a surprise standout at the NFL Scouting Combine. Vea was the No. 7 freak on Bruce Feldman’s 2017 Freaks list, which comes out annually in the college football world on SI.com.

“I heard some scouts, and was involved with some scouts here [at the East-West Shrine Game practices] talking about what the over/under for his 40-yard dash was going to be at the Combine,” NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock told me. “We were all talking about 4.9 and 4.95, which is crazy for 345 pounds.”

I told Lake about what Falk had said about Washington’s game plan of rushing only three defensive linemen, including Vea, and dropping eight and he agreed.

“We played that defense against them for sure versus their style of play,” Lake said. “That makes it a lot easier for us to drop eight and have a guy like Vita Vea just terrorize a center and a guard because they can’t block him. He’s that talented. You can ask Josh Rosen who he wants to get sacked by and he’ll say anybody but Vita Vea. His sack on Rosen sent him out of our UCLA game with a concussion. I mean 340 pounds on top of you isn’t going to feel good.”

In the Huskies’ 44-23 win over the Bruins, Rosen, who could be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, was sacked four times, including once by Vea, who also had two pass breakups. Rosen completed just 12-of-21 passes for 93 yards and a touchdown through three quarters before leaving the game. He would miss the following game against Utah due to his concussion.

“With Vita, we were able to use different coverages and deploy different defenders into the box or not have to leave them in the box because he took up so many gaps with his size and the way he played,” Lake said. “He made our run defense very, very stout and he made our pass defense even better because we didn’t have to donate so many guys to the box. He could handle a couple of guys by himself.”

Largely because of Vea’s presence, the Huskies finished fourth in FBS in run defense. Washington allowed just 100.8 yards per game and 2.86 yards per carry.

In order to get more opportunities to rush the passer and get more sacks next year, the Bucs need to get better at stopping the run. Tampa Bay ranked 23rd in rushing defense, allowing 117.5 yards per game. The Bucs allowed 4.3 yards per carry, which ranked fifth to last in the league in 2017.

“He’s a Day 1 starter in the NFL,” Lake said of Vea. “A double team is a double team. A back block is a back block. A down block is a down block. He knows how to play those blocks. He’s just going to have to do it against bigger, more physical guys at that level. In my opinion, he is already at that level. He’ll learn anybody’s playbook very quickly. He’s already played in an NFL scheme. We run an NFL scheme, so that’s not going to be a problem. I think this guy is a bona fide, surefire Day 1 starter.”

The Bucs ran a 4-3 base defense last year, but also sprinkled in a good deal of 3-4 defense and 3-3-5 defense in nickel situations. If Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Mike Smith is going towards more of a 3-4 front or at least continuing to be multiple with his defensive schemes, Vea would allow the Bucs to quite flexible with their alignments.

“We are a multiple front and he’ll play the three technique, which Gerald plays, he’ll play a straight up zero technique over the center in our 3-4,” Lake said. “Shoot, we’ve had him play our end, and rush a tackle and come inside. He’s very, very smart and he’s so athletic. It just depends on what the team is doing schematically. I think he can play in a 3-4 or a 4-3 front.”

Washington DT Vita Vea – Photo by: Getty Images

The amazing thing about Vea’s quick development and rapid ascent up NFL Draft boards is that he’s nowhere near being a finished product. He was a 280-pound running back in high school and didn’t play defensive line until he stepped foot on the Washington campus. As a senior, he was the change-of-pace running back and gained 578 yards on 47 carries (12.3 yards per carry) and scored 11 touchdowns.

“He was a running back, who was real athletic coming out of high school,” Lake said. “He is just learning how to play defensive line. He could have come out last year, but we talked to him and his family and said he still needed to hone his skills and he came back and sure did that. He’s gotten better with his hands. He sheds blocks and gets off blocks. He knows how to defeat double teams and back blocks. You name it. This guy is a freak.

“He’s made a ton of growth from his sophomore year where he could just take over a game if he wanted to. There were times when he wouldn’t really take it to that next step. Last year as a junior, he brought it every single game. To me, if there is one knock on him it’s that he could terrorize every single play if he wanted to and throw guards and throw centers all over the place, and he’s had to learn how to play with more of a mean streak. He got more of a mean streak during his junior season than he had as a sophomore.”

Lake said the shift in Vea’s aggression came last year in practice.

“He was still learning how to play defensive line,” Lake said. “He embraced the fact that you have to be down and dirty in there all the time. There used to be days where he would literally ruin a practice if he wanted to against our scout team. There were days were he wouldn’t, but I think he gravitated towards that this past year. If we needed a play in practice, sure enough he would grab the guard, throw him aside and go wrap up the quarterback. That play was over. Then he started to do that every single game.

Washington defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake – Photo courtesy of Univ. of Washington

“Honing his pass rush skills will make him a Pro Bowler. I do think he came a long way taking on double teams and playing with his hands. When he gets to that level they are going to see what type of disruptive force he is and how he is an unmovable object and he’ll free up linebackers to make a lot of plays. That’s one of the reasons why you don’t see a lot of stats from him. He’s freeing up everybody else. He’s taking on two linemen so linebackers can shoot gaps and get tackles for losses and sacks. People are going to recognize that.”

As I wrapped up my call I mentioned how good Vea would look next to McCoy in pewter and red, but Lake didn’t share my optimism that his mammoth defensive tackle would even be available for Tampa Bay to pick at No. 7.

“It’s early with all the mock drafts, but I look at it and we played a lot of the top teams in the country,” Lake said. “I don’t see anybody that looks like him and runs like him. He’s a once in a two-decade kind of player. I don’t see how he’s not off the board after the first five picks. If you look across the whole NFL landscape, I don’t know if there is anyone to compare him to. He’s a once-in-two-decades-type player.”