Brian Orakpo
 

Sounds like a freak, but does being so strong and not really all that tall and long make him a LE instead of the elite pass rushing RE we are looking for?

He's also very quick off the snap and has good moves, so no.

Brian Orakpo-

Overall Football Traits
-Production 2 Orakpo has played in 35 career games (10 starts) and has notched 90 tackles, 19 TFL, 10.5 sacks, 32 pressures, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery during his three seasons of playing time thus far. He redshirted in 2004 before playing in all 13 games (one start) at defensive end in 2005. He played in all 13 games as a sophomore in 2006, finishing with 26 tackles, including 4.5 sacks. Orakpo then started eight of the nine games he played as a junior in 2007, finishing with 37 tackles, nine TFL, 5.5 sacks, 12 pressures and a forced fumble
-Height-Weight-Speed 2 Possesses adequate height and bulk. Still has some room left on his frame to get bigger. Speed is adequate-to-good but not at elite level
-Durability 3 Sprained right knee during 2007 opener (Arkansas State) was an early setback. He missed the next four games as a result but did finish the season strong, including two sacks vs. ASU in Holiday Bowl.
-Character 0 N/A

Defensive End specific Traits
-Agility/Quickness 2 Very fluid athlete. Can change directions smoothly for a taller end and shows good closing quickness in pursuit. But he lacks ideal initial burst and seems to take too long to reach full speed.
-Strength/Toughness 3 Stronger in the upper body than he is in the lower body. Does not have the base to win many phone booth battles and he doesn't do himself any favors by playing too high at times
-Instincts 3 Snap anticipation is inconsistent. Seems to find the ball quickly in the backfield. Also does a good job of getting his arms up as a pass rusher in order to bat passes down when he doesn't get to the QB in time
-Pass Rusher 2 He's a fluid athlete with some good double moves as a pass rusher. He has solid instincts and closing burst to the QB. However, his initial burst was not that of an elite edge rusher in 2007, which is partially attributed to his sprained knee in the season opener. Most of his sack production comes from him stunting/angling/twisting to the inside. Needs to prove in 2008 he has to burst to consistently turn the corner as an edge rusher in the NFL.
-Run Stopper 3 Much improved in this area but still a work in progress. Does a good job of using his long arms and quick hands to keep blockers off his pads temporarily. Plays with discipline and will fight to finish. However, he lacks ideal size, he plays with a narrow base and he struggles to hold ground when teams run at him. Also does not protect his legs well enough.

Trait Scale
1 = Exceptional 2 = Above average 3 = Average 4 = Below average 5 = Marginal

I just want a RDE with an amazing 1st step and some good pass rush moves. I don't know enough about Orakpo to say if he has that or if he doesn't.

I don't care about what he looks like or what kind of weight he can push (somebody posted a youtube vid on Orakpo basically talking about his amazing weight lifting) because remember last year how everybody was blowing their wad in how Vernon Gholston looked? He's not even starting according to NFL.com. 7 total tackles and 0 sacks so far this year.

If the weight room and combine decided how good a player was, Vernon Davis is the greatest TE to ever see the field.

Yeah, measurables are good, and all, but shouldn't production be the end all. Freeney isn't tall, or have a big wingspan, neither did DT. I just want some one who can rush the **** out of the QB. That's why I don't really like MJ out of GT. He looks like beast, but it doesn't translate to much on the field. I'm thinking Selvie would be a great snag in the 2nd, but Mcbride would probably have to rotate in on 1st down. I don't think Selvie is gonna be that great against the run.

Over-rated. You gotta factor in the type of offenses he's playing against on a weekly basis. It's a lot easier to get sacks in the big 12 when every team runs the spread and tries to throw for 500 yards a game then it is a conference like the SEC where defensive lineman have to honor the running game. This guy didn't get any pressure at all against a Texas Tech team that threw the ball 50 times what's he gonna look like going against NFL left tackles?

I don't think playing against the spread really heps you out in the sack department. I mean look at how much better our line looks now. The QB always in SG, and getting rid of the ball quick does not make getting to the QB easy.
I know people will disagree, but I've actually been paying attention to this, because a couple of us had this discussion about a month ago, and it seems like the teams running spread, and a lot of SG, aren't giving up a lot of sacks, but this is just the games I've watched, I would like to see some actual stats to go along with the argument.

You do realize he was hurt against Tech.

Didn't he get hurt fairly early in the TT game?

What he said.

I was also stating in general, because he was saying that he plays against a lot spread teams, and that, that would inflate his stats.

We have a 300 post thread about this guy, already.

This is outdated. He's almost doubled his sack total this year.

I dunno. If we're talking about a top 5 pick, you don't want to hear doubts about speed off the edges or incapability to stop the run. You better be a complete player OR be really outstanding at one of those two things.