BPF

It's early for 2012 Draft but I like the way #99 plays. Finished 3rd in nation with 12 sacks, had 94 tackles, 2 FF and 1 FR. 94 tackles were #1 for DL. Has a good combo of size, strength and agility.

Breaking down the 2012 DL class | National Football Post

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."
Aristotle

"I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance."
Socrates

STH since 1994....sec 236

Sciz

Can he set the edge? That's the problem with 80% of these college DEs.

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convertedpatsfan

Just watched two videos of his on YouTube against WVU and Ohio State. Yeah, the YouTube videos suck, but considering I'm not a pro scout or anything remotely close, it was fine

The clips I saw didn't show a lot of runs at all, but the few times the opposition did run, he generally didn't look out of place. He got knocked back a bit at times, but looked pretty decent. Teams didn't run in his direction often though.

He has some pretty impressive closing speed, and he never gives up on a play. On several runs that went away from him, he still ended up making the tackle across the field, or way down the field on another play when his teammates missed a few tackles.

He absolutely owned Mike Adams in the OSU clip. I think Adams was projected as a potential 1st round tackle until the suspension, so it was against a pretty good level of competition.

Might have to tune into some Marshall games this season.

reamer

Box and I have had our eye on this guy for a while now. I noticed him play during a few of the Marshall games I watched last year, and Box had an awesome breakdown of players who were in the top of the stats rankings in total tackles, forced fumbles, pass deflected, sacks, tackles for a loss, etc. Curry was, I believe, the only player to show up in the top five of each list, showing that he's always around the ball and makes a significant number of plays, regardless of run or pass.

And yes, Sciz, he can set the edge pretty well against the run.

Metaphors

In the far too early mocks for 2012, I think some people are already onto the guy for the Pats in 2012:

DE/OLB Andre Branch, Clemson (6'4", 260)
More than any other player I've seen recently, he has displayed all the skills needed to make the transition to 3-4 OLB. Hopefully he doesn't blow up at the combine and price himself out of the Pats range. Not sure how he will do with his 40 time, but he has excellent closing speed and arrives with malice. Also has played on his feet with some success. More of a zone blitz than a LB drop, but that is better than most DEs.

convertedpatsfan

Didn't know much about him until you posted this, so I looked him up, and he was involved in an eye-gouging incident like Spikes so maybe he'll be a Patriot

I kid. But seriously, couldn't find video of him until I looked for videos of Bowers, then watched #40 on the other side. He looked pretty good. Seems Bowers was just unleashed to rush the passer, but Branch was given multiple responsibilities. Hard to see much from the online videos, but I wonder how he'll handle playing without Bowers on the other side.

reamer

Wow. Posters are good this year. Curry & Branch are my top two targets for us next year at the position. I've been discussing this with our old friend Mayo on another board, and we've zeroed in on a few guys already as potential fits.

Branch was a linebacker originally, and he still plays linebacker for Clemson in some subpackages (at least once in this last year he played there the entire game). He's their number one "bandit end" which means he's got primary responsibility for dropping into coverage on zone blitzes, and he's pretty good at it. He also knows how to play in a read & react scheme, so that would accelerate his transition in NE. He's an excellent run defender (something I liked about Bowers as well), and he can get to the passer when called upon. He's not a classic speed rusher, but he's got a good mix of power and wiggle, and collapses the pocket well.

Either Branch or Curry would improve our linebacker corp. Drafting an outside player next year seems smart to me given the age and contracts of TBC and Moore. Let the young guns get a few years of on the job training before they take over full time, and the linebacker rebuild will be complete.

Defsoul

Well, let's see if Branch can stay healthy over the course of the season and post-season. He would be the first defensive end prospect from Clemson to do so since Gaines Adams.

Bertil

OMG...it's too soon!

Two more guys to get my hopes up for...only to be dashed when BB drafts a fullback in their stead.

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dryheat44

The obvious answer is to start drooling over which fullbacks will be available.

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