DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2015 NFL Season The NFL Draft 2015 DE/OLB Eli Harold, Virginia

Watched the cutup vs Louisville after reading his Ansah comp on cbs' report. He's not close to Ansah though, but there's a lot I like, but still fail to see a 1st rounder

Positives:

- non stop motor, plays to the whistle
- good athleticism, probably the best mix of quickness, motor and college production
- not afraid to throw his body around, physical, but lacks tackling fundamentals
- versatile, lines up all over the front 7

Negatives:

- too raw for a player that has started 2 seasons in College. Ansah was raw too, but he barely played a season in College...and still looked much better
- he reminds me of Odie, the dog from Garfield. Misses a tackle here and there, but makes up for it with good plays. In this game he first cost his team the lead late in the 4th with a stupid rouhing the passer penalty on 3rd down, then closed the win with a sack on the next possession.
- lacks pass rush moves. He does it all with power, will and athleticism. His game is still raw, but he uses his hands better than some of the others I saw


My best comp for him right now is Mingo with better upside vs the run. He has natural talent to work with, but still needs development. Good not great upside, with a good floor. Late 2nd/3rd round talent, but probably will go higher in this class

Love all this scouting you're doing DJ but why only OLB's? I'm of the opinion we need a hammer at ILB even worse.

Bump. Interesting player, has a big upside. May be an interesting player to look at for 43. Agree with Django's original assessment. He's entirely an effort player at this point, but with our coaching staff...I may be inclined to take the chance on Harold.

If one team believes he can play, there aren't a lot of these players at this position to go around, he'll probably be drafted before 43. Easy to like.

I'm with 10yr here. If inability to stop the run is the Browns' 2nd biggest issue (behind QB), then the addition of both DL and ILB seems more important to me. Dansby is good, but he's 33.

j/c
Random thoughts...

I think the comparison to Mingo is pretty accurate. That is no criticism coming from me. The body type is similar and as of now he's taken many more reps at DE than OLB.

One of my favorite players in this entire draft is ILB Paul Dawson. The Browns have shown no interest in him and given his draft projection and our other priorities sadly, I don't see how we could get him. My assessment of ILBs is that McKinney is not as skilled as Dawson; Perryman's 40 may have been worse than Dawson's and he is a liability in pass coverage; Anthony is a good overall player but Dawson's instincts are off the chart; after these guys pickings get slim.

Looking at Steve's draft I'm intrigued by the idea of taking Malcom Brown and Carl Davis. To me this would afford the team the luxury of looking at a lower tier pass rusher that we could draft anywhere from round 4 onward. That includes the likes of Davis Tull, Kyle Emanuel, Zach Wagemmann, Obumm Gwacham, or Shaq Riddick, among others.

Going back to the ILB issue for a moment, I've seen one or two prospect rankings that list Alabama's Xzavier Dickson at ILB. That might offer some possibilities.

Please excuse my rambling.

I have been beating that drum for weeks... if we want to improve our run D then we have to get better at ILB.