2019 NFL Draft: April’s fools gold

Jaylon Ferguson, Edge, Louisiana Tech

Somewhere down the line, former Louisiana Tech defensive end Jaylon Ferguson will show his grandchildren clips when their grand-pappy was the all-time leading sacker in college football history. He may even show them a highlight tape or some former mock drafts that had him going somewhere in the first round.

Unfortunately for Ferguson, that might be where the highlights of his football career will end. Some box score scouts may choose to look past certain aspects of Ferguson’s game, pegging him as more of a “gamer” than a physical specimen, but eventually reality will settle in. That reality is, some team is going to draft Jaylon Ferguson for what the stats say he should be, setting themselves up for a major letdown.

The Frankenstein’s monster-esque edge rusher lacks the flexibility needed to consistently win around the arc with any type of regularity, instead being washed past the pocket at a far too high rate.

Lack of flexibility can be somewhat counteracted with a noticeable first step get-off to get offensive lineman in awkward positions. However, this is another area that Ferguson struggles with. Once or twice per game, Ferguson will flash an ability to jump the snap and dip his pads while cornering, seeming to reverse the 90 percent of the rest of the game we have just witnessed from him. So let’s hold out hope that all he needs is consistency…maybe?

But then, Ferguson’s pro day testing happened. All of his linear testing was okay enough, but then the 3-cone (8.08 seconds) and short shuttle (5.12 seconds) happened. Both numbers would have been poor times for an offensive linemen with 60 extra pounds. Yet, people are still mocking Ferguson at the end of the first round.