Edge Rusher Preview and Observations from Fall Camp

A group that I feel like could be puzzle piecing around one central figure. I think that could be the case for the edge room. I think if Darius Smith is maybe your son and you've got other edge rusher planets orbiting him that could be something that we see throughout the season. I think Smith kind of far and away has the best prior production as it relates to last season and is probably the most likely breakout candidate in my eyes for a guy that can take on and breakout and have a Zion or a Damon Wilson-esque season statistically. So I think there's been a lot of guys who I've seen in camp rotate in and take reps at the edge spot. It's been Darius and then Langdon Kitchen and then you've seen Jaden Jones filter in there. You've seen Jaden Hopkins filter in there. Recently, actually, a little injury update for you guys, Malik Bryant, the edge transfer from Miami was wearing the green non-contact jersey for the first week of practice. On Monday, he was not and he was participating in contact drills and he even got a shout out from Drinkwits for making a good play. So positive sign from Malik Bryant as well. And he's another guy that you got to watch in the edge room. But I think the edge room as a whole, and we talked about this, I know originally we maybe it's one of the battles to watch who's going to step up and who's going to take it. I think it could be a position that we just see a lot of guys filter in and out of four or five guys maybe throughout the season and it's more of a quantity, we're going to keep fresh legs. We got a lot of guys who do a lot of different things. Let's just rotate them out every few snaps. Yeah, I think it is something where we could see a lot of filtering. I think it's important to remember Brian Eardley talked about how I believe he said Darius Smith, Dayton Hopkins, and Langdon Kitchen could all have these breakout seasons this year. And I think that is a very significant thing to think about if you're thinking about guys that are going to get a lot of snaps. These are all returners. Obviously Hopkins, I think he had around 50 or 60 snaps last season, but we saw it ramp up towards the end of the year. Mississippi State had six tackles against them, and also he only played in four games because you were trying to preserve the red shirt. Obviously, you don't need to do that anymore, but it doesn't matter. He's still got four more years ahead of him. So I think I think that is is very significant to think about those three guys. Kitchen's a guy that had 171 snaps last year. Great build 66 to 64, 13 tackles. He's definitely stepped up. And then you talk about everything possibly revolving around Darius Smith. I think there are a lot of great pieces that are going to go in, but I expect Smith to be a guy that is going to get a lot of these snaps. He played in 13 games last year. He made one start, 16 tackles, four sacks, five and a half TFLs, obviously bulked up like 25 pounds. So this is a guy that it really does seem like a breakout season is coming up for him. But there are so many pieces. Even when we started talking about this address or room maybe two months ago when we had said, hey, there's like eight guys that we could see get snaps. There's still a lot of guys that are going to probably trickle in and see some see some significant time on the field. It's also another it's a fun room. It's definitely less compact than the last room that we just talked about with the safeties. But it's still it's still fun with a lot of a little bit more age, I would say, for the most part, you have Smith and Kitchen, who are pretty, pretty much veterans. And then Hopkins is a lot younger. But then guys like Jayden Jones. So it's got it's got more of a mix between the age as well. But fun group for sure. And I expect a lot of guys to trickle through. Yeah, I didn't get the chance to ask early on, like, maybe how long he envisions the rotation taking. But if I had to guess, which this is purely out of building, yes, I would imagine we see a lot of rotation, at least through the first few weeks through that Troy, maybe even Mississippi State contest. And then if guys start to separate themselves, then maybe you see a more traditional, OK, top two and then two more after that, and then we're done like it kind of was last year with Zion and Wilson is the one and two Smith and Kitchen is the three and four. And then like Hopkins played a little bit and then like the occasional Nate Johnson snap, it could it could flush itself out more that way, or it could just be more balanced throughout the year. So that's something to keep an eye on. Obviously, the edge room or the defensive line as a whole, it will probably just feature a lot more rotating than it did last year, including the interior, if I had to imagine. But we won't know until week one.