Player: Owen Pappoe
School: Auburn
Measurables:
- Height: 6’ (NFL Combine)
- Weight: 225 (NFL Combine)
- 40: 4.39 (NFL Combine)
- 10 Yard Split: 1.52 (NFL Combine)
- Bench: 29 (NFL Combine)
- Vertical Jump: 35.5” (NFL Combine)
- Broad Jump: 10’6” (NFL Combine)
- 3 Cone: DNP
- 20 Yard Shuttle: DNP
- Other Notes: Pappoe was one of if not the biggest winner from the LB group at the combine.
Graded Position Specific Traits:
- Run Support: 6.5/10
- Tackling: 7/10
- Field Vision: 7/10
- Man Coverage: 5.5/10
- Zone Coverage: 6.5/10
- Blitzing: 5.5/10
- Block Shedding: 5.5/10
- Range: 5.75/10
Prospect Grade: 49.25/80; 61.6%- Borderline starter who will start sooner than later. Potential to be a great starter.
Projected Draft Day: Mid Round 3- Round 4
Player Comparison: Malcolm Smith
Player Summary:
Pappoe is a linebacker prospect that’s been on my list to scout since the combine. I feel like Pappoe is a mid round gem. He doesn’t have ideal size, and yes it does affect different parts of his game, but he has the intangibles needed to play the position.
Pappoe is a really good player in space. His tape was semi-inconsistent, but he flashes the ability to do the things I have question marks around. His tape in the box against the run is my biggest concern for him. He definitely makes the effort in run support, but is limited due to his block shedding ability. As stated before, he flashes the ability to shed blocks and when he does he makes plays against the run, but it’s just not consistent enough. Even against TEs the tape is a mixed bag. Sometimes he’s fine and other times it looks like he can’t handle the TE. If pursuing a ball carrier from behind, he has a tendency to back door blockers. Back dooring means that instead of attacking and getting over the top of the blockers he will come off the backside of the blocker and run down the ball carrier from behind. Yes, Pappoe has speed for a linebacker, but typically that’s not something coaches want to see.
As a blitzer, Pappoe is much better off the edge than through one of the interior gaps. He uses his speed to his advantage when coming off the edge; however, from what I could tell he doesn’t really have any pass rush moves.
Based on the tape I watched, I feel like Pappoe reads the field really well. Now that being said, his reaction time isn’t great. His body doesn’t always react when he reads the field. If whatever team drafts Pappoe can train him to react as well as he reads he could be a very dangerous player. One of the things I noticed against Ole Miss was that Pappoe had difficulty reading and tracking the ball on read options. There were very few snaps where he read it right.
Overall, I think right now Pappoe is a borderline starter. I think he’s going to go into camp and compete, and is going to come up just shy, but could start depending on the team that drafts him. He could absolutely take over as a starter at any point in his rookie season though. He needs to work on shedding blocks more consistently and his reaction speed, and if he can do that I think he has the potential to be a great starter in this league.