Green Bay Packers: 3 Day Two Defensive Line Prospects
By Kenny Jilek
Green Bay Packers IDL Target: Jay Tufele – USC
Tufele shares the similarity with Togiai that they are both pretty much 2-down linemen that won’t rush the passer. Tufele does have a swim move that he uses occasionally, but his 6.5 sacks in two seasons aren’t extremely encouraging for his pass rush, and he was rarely even used on third downs.
What Tufele doesn’t share with Togiai is the ability to get off 1-on-1 blocks. When he’s playing in a gap and can try to knife through between offensive linemen, he has some success and ability, especially against zone blocking schemes. However, when an offensive lineman is coming straight at his face and trying to drive him, he has a lot of trouble holding his ground and getting off of the block. This makes it tough for him to play in the three-down linemen front that the Green Bay Packers employ. He’s much more suited to be playing in a four-down scheme and get to play a gap.
Another thing I saw from him that was discouraging was his lack of ability to find the ball when there was any misdirection. Multiple times, I saw him running the opposite way of where the ball was, and he can sometimes be caught turning in circles trying to figure out who the ballcarrier is on any given play.
Out of the three guys that I assessed, Tufele is the only one that I would absolutely not take with a day two pick. In some ways, he reminds me of Tyler Lancaster in the way he fails to shed blocks, and adding him to this front likely wouldn’t add anything that they don’t already have. With that being said, let’s move onto my favorite of the three.