In a draft class that does not have too many eye-popping edge rushers in the first round, there are many hidden gems in the mid-rounds to late-rounds. Here is one of my favorite edge rushers in this year’s NFL Draft, Quincy Roche out of Miami.
Roche stands at 6’3 and weighs 245 pounds. He appeared in 35 games for Temple along with 10 for the Hurricanes and logged 182 tackles (54 for loss), 30.5 sacks, and 8 forced fumbles. His career high in sacks came in 2018 when he had 13. He’s also a force on the line with batting down footballs, with 8 passes defended in his college career.
Roche posses quickness to be able to shoot the gap and appear in the back field to turn the play into a loss or sack. He also uses his quickness on the edge to get around the tackles to collapse the pocket or force the quarterback to retreat. He is able to set his hands quickly to swat down the blocker’s hands to give himself the edge on the outside.
The only concerns with Roche are his motor and length. His wing span isn’t the biggest like we see with some of the elite edge rushers in the NFL, but he makes up for that with his hand placement and quickness off the ball. His jump off the ball isn’t always consistent, that is where his motor comes into play. That is something that can be worked on through conditioning and more drills with your position coach.
Overall, Roche’s numbers are some great numbers, and it has been surprising he has been falling into the 4th round many times in some online mock draft simulators. I think Roche has all the talent, smarts, and drive to become a very good edge rusher in the NFL. Set him up on a team with good leadership, a talented position coach and defensive coordinator that will know how to use him to his strengths.
Photo credit: “NCAA Football: Miami at Clemson” by ClemsonTigerNet is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
About Dylan Davis
Dylan Davis is a graduate of the State University of New York at Canton, where he obtained a B.A.A in Sport Management. He is a former athlete of football and baseball and sports fan for much of his life. Dylan creates content for 366 Sports and New York Giants 366, and is also a host on his own show, “The J&D Sports Show”.
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