The '06 Draft Pass Rushers:

Bobby Carpenter

January 2, 2006

By Fred Pasek

When the draft rolls around in April of 2006, there will be 32 teams lined up around the corner, hoping for a chance at a handful of players who will have proven themselves over the 2005 season to be pass rushers worthy of high draft picks.   Each of these players will have a “signature move”, a move they will rely on as their most effective at getting to the quarterback.   Invariably, this move has a direct correlation to the player’s physique and strengths.   DraftBoardInsider.com has taken a closer look at the best moves of some of the most likely players to fill the top of the 2006 NFL draft board.

Bobby Carpenter, OLB ― Ohio State, 6’3”/255 lbs.  [official bio]

On obvious passing downs, Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel likes to get his best pass rushers on the field and as close to the line as possible.  One of the shifts the defense makes is to take Bobby Carpenter, their outstanding outside linebacker, and bring him down to the line, putting him in a three point stance at the right defensive end spot.  The move makes sense – after all, why waste time hiding Carpenter in blitz schemes when he needs no such advantage to beat his man.  Leaving the defensive end on the field would only mean a player on the field without as much speed, where more speed is called for.

In the Buckeye’s big game against Penn State, having Carpenter on the line in passing downs afforded the Buckeyes the added bonus of having a swift player to keep containment on the outside against Michael Robinson, the elusive Penn State quarterback.  But Carpenter’s main purpose wasn’t to chase Robinson down, rather to pressure him and punish him every time he dropped back to throw the ball.

Early in the game, Carpenter set the tone.  He dropped down in a three point stance with his left shoulder on the left shoulder of Penn State’s massive left tackle Levi Brown.  At the snap, Carpenter charged up field to get himself as deep as the quarterback and used his superb lateral movement to do it while keeping his shoulders squared up to the inside in case Robinson had any notion to try to take off with the ball up field.  Carpenter has surprisingly long arms and he had Brown stalemated in the battle to gain hand position on the big lineman.  Once he was five yards up field, it was time to make his move.  The pocket for Robinson was spread wide, so there was room for Carpenter on the inside of Brown, and Robinson was far enough away from him that, even if Robinson decided to take off around the outside while Carpenter made his move, Carpenter had enough time to get by his man and still have an angle on him to make the play.

At 255 pounds, Carpenter is no small linebacker; he is a powerful man.  Once he was nicely squared up against Brown, he faked an outside move by pounding on Brown with his right arm.  This forced Brown to adjust and lean to his outside.  As soon as Carpenter felt Brown’s weight shift to the outside, he immediately used the momentum and his powerful torso to throw Brown aside to the outside with one vicious motion, then cut hard inside and used his linebacker speed to blow by the big man.

Once Carpenter has a line on a ball carrier, the deal is done.  He closed the gap on this play in three quick strides and buried his facemask into Robinson’s chest, forcing the throw to wobble errantly down field.

It is possible that someone will try to convert Carpenter to a down defensive end in the NFL, but it’s more likely that some team, perhaps one the growing number of teams that are converting to the 3-4 defense, will grab him and use him as a hybrid, asking him to play the run on run downs and sending him, whether from the 3-point stance or from the upright position, on passing downs.  Carpenter has the agility to add to his repertoire of moves and he’ll need to do that in order to continue to be successful.  But his combination of agility and power make him difficult to defend, as a back or tight end will most likely prove to be too small to deal with his power move and 300-pound tackles will find it hard to defend his speed and agility.