Player: Drew Sanders
School: Arkansas
Measurables:
- Height: 6’4” (NFL Combine)
- Weight: 235 (NFL Combine)
- 40: DNP
- 10 Yard Split: DNP
- Bench: DNP
- Vertical Jump: DNP
- Broad Jump: DNP
- 3 Cone: DNP
- 20 Yard Shuttle: DNP
- Other Notes: Sanders didn’t do the athletic testing due to a sore hamstring. In the positional drills he looked as good as I thought he would.
Graded Position Specific Traits:
- Run Support: 8/10
- Tackling- 7.5/10
- Field Vision: 7.5/10
- Man Coverage: 6/10
- Zone Coverage: 7.5/10
- Blitzing: 8/10
- Block Shedding: 6.75/10
- Range: 8.5/10
Prospect Grade: 59.75/80; 74.7%- Multiple pro bowl selections with potential to be perennial pro bowler
Projected Draft Day: Early Round 1
Player Comparison: Fred Warner
Player Summary:
Drew Sanders is LEGIT! How he is not in everyone’s top three linebackers is baffling to me. Look, no disrespect to Simpson or Sewell, but I’ve seen both of them in first round mocks more than I’ve seen Drew Sanders, and I like Simpson and Sewell, but they are not the same level of prospect as Sanders.
I wrote a Heisman Snubs article a few weeks ago based on players who statistically could’ve been in the conversation for the Heisman, and I wanted to include at least one defensive player and to me Sanders was statistically the only defensive player worth noting. When I wrote that article though I hadn’t actually watched any tape on Sanders. After watching his tape, I’m actually really surprised his name wasn’t even mentioned. Am I going to sit here and argue that he should’ve won the Heiman? Absolutely not, but his name should’ve at least been in the conversation. Sanders was everywhere, and extremely disruptive.
The first thing I noticed about Sanders was his motor and effort. It did not matter where Sanders was or where the play was, Sanders was going to run you down like his life depended on it. Sanders looks fast! I don’t think there was one play where I saw him give up or be out of the play. If you want a reliable linebacker who is going to play a full 60 min game for you, Sanders is your guy.
Sanders is extremely active in the run game and overall just a menace in the box. He can line up inside or outside and make your life miserable. Sanders is the only linebacker I’ve watched so far that has been doubled when he blitzes. In my opinion, that says a lot about the player he is and what opposing offenses think about him. He is, as I noted while watching film, a “disruptive playmaker”. Sanders reads the field really well and looks comfortable in coverage despite not playing off ball since high school. There wasn’t a ton of man coverage to breakdown, but I liked what I saw in the small sample size.
Finding a comp for Sanders took me a while. I finally settled on Fred Warner, but I feel like that doesn’t even do Sanders justice because of his versatility. For those who don’t know Sanders played ILB in HS, Alabama turned him into an OLB/EDGE player, Arkansas played him as a hybrid. He’s like Fred Warner with Baron Browning’s inside/outside versatility. When Sanders is lined up on the edge as an OLB, he knows how to use his hands. He definitely doesn’t have a full set of pass rushing moves, but it’s enough for now that a team should be comfortable lining him up to rush the passer here and there. I thought about a Micah Parsons comp, and it may end up being Parsons when it’s all said and done, but I just think Sanders is going to play more off-ball than Parsons and won’t be the pass rusher Parsons is.