Analysis: Rashan Gary is the Ereck Flowers of Defensive Ends

There has been a lot of speculation that he is in play for the Giants at #6. According to some asshats he's a top 6 player for the Giants. He certainly checks all of the measurable boxes. 6'4" plus, check. 4.58 forty, check. 277 lbs, check. And he checks other boxes too. Splash plays in college? Check. Does he get you drooling about what he could be? Check.

In short, if you just look at paper and remember the big plays then he is a sure thing.

But what about the rest of the tape? Well, that's where we start to run into problems. So let's do that below.

And to put a disclaimer out there, no, I'm not saying Gary is a bad prospect. I'm saying he's overrated. And more specifically, I'm saying he should not be our draft pick at #6. Don't forget, Flowers would have been a great 3rd round pick. He was dripping with potential. Being drafted later could have made him realize he needed to accept coaching. He would have felt less pressure. He would not have had to come in the first year and he could have learned.

Here is a highlight reel of Gary. I repeat, this is a highlight reel for Gary. What do you see:

"The Most Dynamic Defensive End in the COUNTRY"

I'll tell you what I see, and I suspect you see the same thing. That's a horrible highlight reel. I see a player capitalizing on great coverage from his secondary, cleaning up after pressure from other teammates, and making obvious plays when he's not blocked where his HWS look good. And again, I stress these are his highlights.

So what do you see when you watch the tape? A lot worse. Let's look:

Gary vs. ND

I see an athlete without football technique. I see someone who thinks their strength and athleticism are enough to be great. He gets stuck on defenders. Rarely disrupts the line of scrimmage. Get's lost taking too long to process the play and finds himself out of position. And most importantly, someone who struggling to get to the quarterback. In short, I see the Ereck Flowers of defensive ends.

Watch the play at 1:58. He has outside contain responsibility on an option play and not only does not process the option in time to crash the play, totally freezes and instead find himself out of position to make a play, and the quarterback beats him to the edge.

Now watch the play at 3:54. Another run play. Line crashes toward left and execute a quasi-trap of him with a tight end. Instead of doing any stack and shed of the tight end he drops his head, losing sight of the RB who runs right by him for a first down. This is not what a top 10 player does when being blocked by a TE. This is not a playmaker.

Regarding pass rush, there's no need for me to spend time curating your viewing experience on this tape - watch 5 plays anywhere in there and tell me you see anything resembling something besides lame attempts at bullrushes or running fully around someone without any hint of a move, dip, or bend. I will give you one play though. This is what solidifies the Ereck Flowers comparison. See here: 6:33 One, it is such a typical example what to expect from him when rushing the passer; and two, it shows him rushing from a 2-point stance which is where he could at least occasionally be in a Bettcher defense.

Now let's look at another tape. Let's look at his Rutgers tape. ND has fantastic tackles so it would be a fair to raise that the above tape is cherry picking an example when he was going up against great competition. That would be wrong, but it would be fair. Unless you think NFL tackles are worse than ND's.

So here's the tape: Gary vs. Rutgers

The results speak for themselves:

0:01 First play of game. Puts head down, doesn't see fake, goes in opposite direction of the play.

0:23 Blocked easily by TE. This is a match-up he needs to dominate.

0:41 Gives up half way through his rush. He got confused if he was bull-rushing or making a move.

0:47 Dominated at POA by the LT and washed out.

1:28 Last man to fire out of stance. Handled at POA easily. Play is to other side but he creates no disruption regardless.

1:37 Next play. Last man out of stance again. And again handled easily at POA without creating any disruption.

1:45 Next play. Last man out of stance again. Defeats the whiffed block by OL but immediately freezes and running back goes by for nice gain.

So when considering Gary let's just remember this - he had 3.5 sacks all of last year. And in the last two years he had less than 10 sacks combined. In what world should we select a pass rusher in the top 10 who isn't good at rushing the passer? Players in the top 10 should be making an immediate impact. Gary has potential with his unique HWS, but he doesn't have production and his tape, as we just saw, is bad.

Being a bad top 10 prospect does not itself lend itself to a comparison to Flowers. Being a bust in the top 10 does not either make an automatic Flowers comparison. Rashan Gary is the Ereck Flowers of defensive ends because he has no technique, is sloppy, and relies on his perceived strengths to get by. I won't say he rejects coaching because I have no idea, maybe they're just not teaching anything at Michigan! I mean, I doubt that, but who knows! What we do know is what we see on the tape. And Rashan Gary is not worthy of our #6 pick.