What’s not to like about this kid?
He's got a football body, thick and muscular, with
powerful legs and it's easy to gush about Hawk's
football skills. He's got sideline to sideline
speed, is an absolute tackling monster, and is just
as comfortable taking on blockers, and blowing up
run plays as he is blitzing a quarterback, and
punishing all of them for daring to be on the field
with him. One thing that really stands out for Hawk
is his ability to completely disrupt a team's
offensive game plan, even with such great players
around him. He's very smart and heady, and can read
and diagnose plays very quickly, which makes him
appear to be even faster. He's a leader on the
field, and plays with an intensity that you can see
rubs off on his teammates.
Negatives:
He's not 6'3" and he can't cover like
a cornerback. But who can play like Hawk and be
that player as well? The kid's a beast. I actually
heard someone say his potential in the NFL could be
limited because his arms aren't long enough. When
you drive your helmet through a running backs chest,
I see no benefit of longer arms. Yeah, he's not a
great coverage linebacker, and he does at times play
a little over the top, and he misses some plays, but
he's an elite LB prospect for the NFL, so there's
nothing that can't be taught.
Overall:
There's a pretty good chance that
Hawk will be the first defensive player off the
board next April. Every NFL team covets a player
like Hawk who can step in, play any LB spot on the
field, and give a defense a physical presence. He
plays with a "suddenness" that cannot be denied, and
is really amazing to watch. One thing that stood
out for me this year was in the Ohio State/Texas
game, when he was asked to "spy" Texas quarterback
Vince Young. For a player like Hawk, you know he
wants to be making hits, making plays, and wreaking
havoc on the offense, but he simply did his job. He
dropped and spied, and forced Young to throw. He
didn’t freelance, he didn't bite on the run fakes,
he did his job and did it well against an incredible
talent on the other side of the ball in a big game.
Final Word:
HISTORY
―
In the past decade or so, there have
only been a handful of linebackers taken in the top
ten of the first round, but Hawk promises to join
that group. In a draft that is going to have some
sick depth at the linebacker position, I don't see
11 teams passing on a guy like him. He's going to
hit the league in a big big way, making his share of
ESPN highlight reel plays, and a kid like Hawk can
just make too big of an impact too early for him to
be passed on by more than a handful of teams.
