FanPost

The player that will turn this defense around.

Going through and looking at the offensive linemen Oklahoma is sending to the draft I found a defensive tackle they are sending as well. His name is Jordan Phillips. The first thing that wowed me was his size standing at 6'6 and weighing in at 335lbs you could only make a better sized DT in madden. I came across him when watching the Tennessee, and TCU games vs the OU. He caught my eye more than the OT I wanted to watch. I found him collapsing the pocket, handling centers. Most of the time he is used as containment on passing downs, as the OU likes to let their pass rushers on the edge get wide. Yet when he was aloud to be set loose I saw quickness a person shouldn't have at 335LB and with a 6'6 size I saw a fluid motion that was unreal.

Now he had his problems I saw with sometimes reacting to the runner instead of just pushing the center back and letting his ILBs finish the job. This might be because the OU ILB weren't really doing their job so he overcompensated by trying to do it for them. I was enamored with his TCU game because TCU runs a spread offense and runs off tackle rather than up the gut. I expected after the Tennessee game to less of his ability, but he showed me otherwise. Know he a good chunk of 2013 with a back injury, but played all but one game in 2014. He is only a sophomore red shirt, and has a lot of skill things he needs to learn such as his hand placement, proper leg bend ect. Yet the athleticism he has, with the good bunch of skills he possess makes this guy have scary good potential. I personally cannot wait for his combine. If he shows up he will shoot up draft boards. Right now I saw on cbs sports he was set to be an estimated 1st to 2nd round pick (30th), and on drafttek was the 39th overall rated player. So very similar ratings on both. I know it is scary to take a guy that is raw early. Yet this is the type of player that raw makes a difference. CBS analyst Rob Rang compared him to Dontari Poe. Then he also pointed out how big NT/DT have a tendency to get lazy and said he could be the next Hanesworth. Yet I haven't seen anything about his work ethic being a problem. He did seem to take plays off when watching him. That could be a 330 LB man getting tired or lazy, and maybe even a bit of both. The combine, and interviews will tell us more. As of now I really like this kid. Also as much as I hate Stoops and the OU he usually does a good job of making sure everyone is trying.