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OVERVIEW

The former national top-five defensive tackle high school recruit reached his potential in 2016, earning second-team all-conference honors (8.5 TFL, 4.5 sacks). Adams was a three-year starter after contributing as a true freshman (20 tackles, sack), lining up with the ones in 2014 (8.0 TFL, three sacks, INT) and earning third-team All-SEC honors as a junior (three TFL, 2.5 sacks).

ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS

Low out of his stance and with good explosiveness. Springs into gaps to stress guards and split double teams. Usually first into neutral zone. Disruptive when working the gaps. Burly lower half with good thickness through his hips and thighs. Powerful leg drive pushes him through blocker's shoulder and into the backfield. Motor seemed to be revved more consistently in 2016 than in 2015. Pursues from backside with hustle. Has some bull rush potential if he keeps pads low.

WEAKNESSES

Strikes head first with eyes down losing sight of the play. Doesn't utilize hands well enough to keep himself clean. Needs to improve punch and extension to add value as a two-gap tackle. Sticks on blocks and labors to disengage. Short stepper with limited lateral effectiveness as pass rusher. Active as rusher but fails to stress the edge often enough. Has carried label as underachiever at times. Has talent but needs to more consistently play to it.

DRAFT PROJECTION

Rounds 2-3

NFL COMPARISON

Jay Bromley

BOTTOM LINE

Adams disappointed the scouting community with a pedestrian junior season that lacked passion and production. This season, he played with greater consistency of effort and found his way into the backfield far more often. Can be disruptive off the snap but is not the type of player to recover quickly if beaten early in the rep. He is a rotational defensive tackle for gap-attack defenses, but is unlikely to offer much as a pass rusher.

PLAYER OVERVIEW

One of the top defensive line recruits a few years ago, Adams started 10 games as a sophomore in 2014 and led the team in quarterback hurries (17), adding 8.0 tackles for loss, 3.0 sacks and 43 total tackles.

With the Tigers' crowded defensive tackle depth chart in 2014, Adams split snaps on the edge and inside, but with Gabe Wright, Angelo Blackson, Jeffrey Whitaker and Ben Bradley no longer on the roster, Adams is now a veteran on the line and a player the Auburn coaches have high expectations for in 2015.

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

He carries his 296-pound frame very well with the initial quickness and lateral agility to attack gaps and penetrate the backfield. Adams has been dinged for his lack of consistency in the past, but new defensive coordinator Will Muschamp should be able to get the best out of the gifted lineman.

Great ideas rooted in love.(R)

Last edited by Rusty
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The Packers inside linebacking corps just got better with this pick.  Adams and Clark are going to force double teams and push the center of the OL helping to keep Ryan and Martinez clean.  Hell, AJ Hawk might be able to play behind those two DT's.

Teams can never have enough big uglies up front, especially the first quarter of the season (warm weather games) and the last quarter (depth and rotation).
His perceived weaknesses should be easily corrected with good coaching and learning. He will have good guys to go against in practices.

Not seeing a lot of downside with this pick.

Justin Harrell & Khyri Thornton 

God I hope not.

Looked back at 2014 1st round, entire league drafted pretty well. Not as many busts as previous years.

Hopefully this guy is more Mike Daniels than Khyri Thornton 

 I get it, athletic big men are hard to find and it's up to Trgo now, but meh. Historically underachieving guys are for pointless middle management jobs in daddy's company, but rather risky in the NFL. There's no doubt the raw skills are there.

We haven't had a whole lot of luck with underachieving DL over the years.  If work ethic is a concern in college it might be worse in the pros given they are getting paid and there are far more distractions. 

Hope the kid can overcome that stigma but I'm not going to hold my breath.  Seems like a strange TT pick.  

His son was born hours before he was drafted. He was at the hospital with his fiance from about 3:30 AM and the baby was born about 2:30 PM as I recall from reading about this pick. He was still at the hospital when drafted which is where he received the call from TT. He kinda cut short the media conference call saying something like "getting too many calls, phones beeping, and cant hear what your saying". But said family comes first, football second or something like that.

Anyway, I suspect he will be WAY more motivated now that he has a son and future wife to feed. Becoming a father has a way of changing priorities for the better. 

From FoxSports:  15 steals in the 2017 NFL Draft

Link

 

Here comes a little wild ass unsubstantiated speculation. 

I think highly graded DLineman have the toughest transition to the NFL outside of QB. I think any DL kid that has a 1-3 draft grade has made a living in college feasting on average D1 offensive lineman. If you go first three rounds it's probable you are the best DL on your college team. They've probably spent three years getting by on pure talent that is simply better than they are facing. 

Then they get to the NFL and all of a sudden they are facing real talent. And that means they suddenly have to put in some real work. Which a lot of them really didn't have to do in college. And it's a huge shock to the system. Some put in the work. But I think the majority just get frustrated. 

The interesting thing about Adams production is that the majority of it came against either SEC competition or good Non-Conference opponents. His total career stat line:

147 Tackles, 19.5 TFL, 10.5 Sacks, 2 INTs

Against opponents that you would consider the "easy" non-conference teams his production was:

24 Tackles, 4 TFL, 3 Sacks, 2 INTs

I don't know if that's a positive stat or a negative. Certainly it's a positive that his most productive games were usually against better SEC competition, but you'd like to see him feast more on average competition from the C-USA, FCS, etc. 

Last edited by Grave Digger

SEC had six defensive lineman selected in the first three rounds of this draft compared to only two offensive lineman. Cam Robinson and Ethan Pocic. Both round two selections. 

Im assuming Adams spent most of his game locked up with Pocic. Which could be good news. 3 tackles. 2 for loss. .5 sack. 

In what has to be an anomaly. Pocic was the only true interior lineman from the SEC drafted in 2017. Every other selection was an OT. 

Grave Digger posted:

Certainly it's a positive that his most productive games were usually against better SEC competition, but you'd like to see him feast more on average competition from the C-USA, FCS, etc. 

Were snap counts comparable?

The other thought is... did those non-conference opponents just say screw it, we're going to double team Adams and take our chances 1 on 1 with the other guys?  Not saying that's what happened, but it's possible.  Maybe the conference opponents were more likely to test him man on man. 

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