Cleveland Browns: Comprehensive 2018 NFL Draft review

Genard Avery, LB/Edge – Memphis

With the 150th pick of the draft, the Browns selected Genard Avery out of Memphis. Though listed as a linebacker, he did a little of everything, playing inside, outside and on the edge. The Browns have said he’ll start out as a middle linebacker but acknowledge his ability to play multiple positions.

Athletic Profile

Age: 23 (Born April 26, 1995)

Height: 6-0.5
Weight: 248 lbs
40 Yard Dash: 4.59s
Broad Jump: 10’4″
Vertical: 36″
3-Cone: 6.9s
Shuttle: 4.36s
Bench: 26 reps

Avery is a stud athlete for his size and weight. Speed, power, agility, balance, Avery’s got everything a team could want from a linebacker prospect.

If they do view him as a edge rusher as well as a linebacker, he is shorter and lighter than ideal, but his athleticism to do that job is also more than sufficient. Of course he’d be playing on his feet and may not be up on the line of scrimmage but he’s got the athletic ability to contribute.

Production

Career Starts: 37

Solo Tackles: 157 (7.9 percent)
Tackles for Loss: 39.5 (16.6 percent)
Sacks: 16.5 (22 percent)

As a pure linebacker, Avery’s production is low, but not disqualifying. Combined with his athleticism, he could be a long-term starter in that role. From a production point of view, Avery likely has a better projection as an edge player.

Again, with some size limitations, he might be a little bit of a tweener, but could do a little bit of both based on his production profile.

Game Tape

Avery is a bowling ball of a linebacker. He’s powerful with an often jolting punch against blockers. He was utilized as an inside as well as outside linebacker, both at the line of scrimmage and as an overhang player.

As an outside linebacker, Avery was often playing forward either rushing the passer or containing the run. At times, he’ll also jam and carry tight ends or if he’s the lone outside player, he’ll attack forward and if a back releases into a route, he becomes responsible for him.

Most of the time, Avery tends to bet on his own strength and play everything square, putting himself in a position to try to absorb contact and sometimes overpower the blocker. Every so often, he will dip his shoulder and run the arc which he does pretty well.

Avery likes to use a swim move to try to get past blocks quickly, but needs to keep working on how he disengages from blocks once engaged. To his credit, he does take on blocks from offensive linemen pretty well in terms of holding his ground.

As an inside linebacker, Avery’s speed is impressive when he has a straight line path to the ball carrier. Kept clean, he can chase down plays all over the field. Again, he will take on blocks often square, but has to improve in how he sheds as he too often gets stuck on the block.

Avery’s coverage responsibility has almost exclusively been limited to zone. He gets to his spot, but gets caught up staring at the quarterback and doesn’t have a great feel for where receivers are. And all too often, he’s wasting a lot of motion that doesn’t really produce any meaningful benefit. He’s better at dropping to the flat from an outside spot than he is playing the middle of the field. Avery should be great at disrupting crossers but he’s often too caught up watching the quarterback to do it.

Avery’s short area quickness is impressive and despite having such a blocky build, he’s really agile. Teams that try to fool him running outside often regret it as that even when he’s caught going one direction, he’s athletic enough to correct and make a tackle. Avery has gotten quite good at diving at an opposing ball carrier’s feet when they are behind him and being able to trip them.

While not being the most fundamental tackler teams are going to find, he does get there with bad intentions and can deliver a good hit, able to jar the ball loose. Little about Avery’s game is truly polished but there’s so much to like about what he’s able to do now and what he could be able do with continued development.

Fit, Usage and Projection with the Browns

The Browns seem to want Avery to play middle linebacker and he could do that, learning behind Joe Schobert. But it seems far more prudent to have him learn behind SAM linebacker Jamie Collins and have him occasionally operate as a standup edge rusher.

One of the areas where the Browns have tried to use Jamie Collins and he is quite bad at is an extra edge rusher. Despite playing defensive end in college at Southern Miss, almost all of his success in the NFL as a pass rusher has come blitzing the A and B gaps.

Avery had a good amount of success in that area for Memphis and it’s at least worth looking into what he can do there, especially as the Browns seem pretty limited when it comes to their pass rush from the edge outside of Myles Garrett and Emmanuel Ogbah.

The calculus may be that Avery doesn’t have the size to play outside and he’s better suited to play in the middle. He is a load coming forward and with his pad level and power, he can be a battering ram on the blitz. And he’s certainly shown the ability to be successful blitzing the A gap.

It will be interesting to see if they give Avery the opportunity to move around and see where he fits best. He needs a lot of work in pass coverage and improving how he sheds blocks in the running game, but he is a great player to stash for a year or few, having people largely forget him, only to find a role and be successful at it down the road. He could end up the heir to take over the SAM spot from Jamie Collins, but should at least be quality depth in a position where the Browns could use it.