Draft Preview: Defensive Ends

February 19, 2021

By Alex Zeese

In my last column, I covered edge rushers that Washington could look to bring in via free agency.  Today, I will look at a few ends the team could target in the draft. You would probably agree that Washington does not need to spend premium draft capital on an edge rusher since they are set with 2 stars on the outside, Chase Young and Montez Sweat. However, they will need depth. With that in mind, I decided that I would take a look at some day three prospects. While I watched highlights and read up on about 10 players – here are the ones that stood out to me.

First, here’s a list of all the ends that may be available in the coming draft. I pulled this list off Walter Football‘s list of top 20 End Prospects for the 2021 draft.

Gregory Rousseau, Miami, 66″ 260
Jaelen Phillips, Miami, 6’5″ 266
Kwity Paye, Michigan 6’4″ 277
Carlos Basham, Wake Forest 6’5″ 275
Rashad Weaver, Pitt 6’5″ 270
Joe Tryon, Washington 6’5″ 262
Jayson Oweh, Penn St. 6’5″ 252
Dayo Odeyingbo 6’6″ 280
Patrick Jones, Pitt 6’4″ 264
Payton Turner, Houston 6’5″ 270
Quincy Roche, 6’2″ 243
Victor Dimukeje, Duke 6’2″ 265
Cameron Sample, Tulane 6’ 3″ 280
Janarius Robinson, Florida State 6’5″ 260
Malcolm Koonce, Buffalo 6’3″ 250
Elerson Smith, Northern Iowa 6’7″ 245
Ta’Quan Graham, Texas 6’4″ 294
Adetokunbo Ogundeji, Notre Dame 6’4″ 253
Daelin Hayes, Notre Dame 6’3″ 260
Michael Clemons, Texas A&M 6’5 270

After looking at these players and reading up on and studying the ones listed as day 3 prospects, here are the ones that stood out to me.

Janarius Robinson, Florida State, 6’2 265 lbs
A defensive end projected to go anywhere from around 3 to round 7. What I see here and really like is that Robinson is quite good at stuffing the running backs on short yardage situations. He’s not a quick-twitch type who will get a lot of sacks; he just had 8 sacks in his 34 games at Florida St. He will make for a solid sub in short yardage situations. Robinson also had some decent play on special teams blocking kicks.

Chauncey Golston, Iowa, 6’4, 268
Another big body run stuffer.  He doesn’t show the same penetrating ability as Robinson. Instead, he’s going to try and push opponents back. His pass rushing ability is a bit better than Robinson’s ability.  He has 12 sacks in 34 games, including 5.5 in 2020. Plays inside as well as outside.

Daelin Hayes, Notre Dame 6’3 270
He missed most of 2019 with a shoulder injury. He never got to any kind of star status at Notre Dame. Had just 3 sacks last year and is more of a run defender. Originally a linebacker but bulked up to play end. He looks more athletic than strong or explosive.

Victor Dimukeje, Duke 6’2 265
Extremely athletic edge rusher with decent speed. Didn’t look to have a lot of moves that he would bring to the table so that would have to be coached into him. In the NFL he would probably not be the 1st guy to the QB but could end up being a cleanup player. It may not be realistic for Washington as some sites have him going in the 3rd round.

Johnathon Cooper Ohio State, 6’4 275
Not surprisingly Cooper plays very similar to Chase Young in that he’s got a good ability to diagnose the play as it’s happening. He played in 37 games at Ohio State and had 10 sacks. Several articles I read about him mention that he’s a high character guy, so there are no concerns there. He looks smaller on tape than his listed size. While he doesn’t have anything on his resume that would blow you away, he is talented enough to be a good sub-player.