I want to see see him go somewhere where he can be a 5T.
DDS looked like a top 15 guy early in the year before he fell off along with the rest of the Nittany Lions. But that player is definitely still in there. Weāve been saying all offseason, OUR type of edge should be available later in this draft and heās definitely one of them.
That said I donāt think Ponds will make it to our 2nd round pick anymore. Too many people will fall in love with the way he plays, like they did Spoon. Yes, Ponds is smaller, but so was Mikey and he went what, top 40? And imo Ponds is a better player.
Give me Jacas over DDS.
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Right, and the sample size is really small as well. Probably hard to say much of anything, honestly.
That would be my guess as well.
Me too, but DDS isnāt a bad consolation.
Iām fine with DDS and then someone twitchy later or in FA.
I prefer Trey but Iām totally open minded about a platoon situation.
Nolan Rucci is probably starting the blast off stage of his OT rocket ship.
Relatively speaking, yeah? I guess I need to go back and watch, he got off to a rough start this year.
Gave up one sack all year supposedly. Many people are talking about how well he played in the 2024 playoff do I think there is enough tape out there for folks to believe. Donāt know that just going on what I read. #17 OA player in his HS class so there is some serious pedigree. In this group of tackles I fully expect him to keep on moving up. Day 2 somewhere is my guess. That would be a several (3-4) round move from what I was expecting.
Heās a former five star, so the athletic profile should be there.
I donāt know too much else about him other than his recruiting profile, because I followed that class a ton as it progressed through recruiting. I knew he transferred to PSU and hadnāt heard anything since then.
I watched him I think heading into the Oregon game. I donāt know how many sacks heād given up, but I know he and Shelton had given up a lot of pressures (10 maybe? Something like that), because one of the preview segments was focused on Matayo U and Tuioti potentially having a big game due to their struggles. Seems like he improved quite a bit over the rest of the season, Iāll have to go back to him. I know heās got the good pedigree.
Iām the opposite on this ,Jacas is the one guy I really donāt want, thatās it he feels like a Josh Pascal clone.
He has a very similar build, but so does Brandon Graham. Also Paschal never had more than 5 sacks in a season and only 13.5 total in his 5 seasons, whereas Jacas had an 8 and 12 sack season and had 27 total in four years. Heās a much better pass rusher.
Honestly to me Jacasās biggest issue is he isnāt as good against the run as he should be. Heās not bad, but heās not the dominant force most of the guys with his build have.
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In addition to what @Thats2 mentioned they also used him somewhat illogically IMO. Flexed him out as opposed to flex him inside. Theyād stand him up as a 3-4 OLB quite a bit which IMO was sort of silly.
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Right, and even more so in 2025.
I think youāre going to end up warming up to Rucci. Seems that when heās playing well he does some things that you typically prize out of OL.
He really reminds me of Decker tbh. Needs to add strength still but he seems like a uniquely coordinated and an easy mover for one of those power forward types of OTs.
I do love my OTs who can move for sure, but that comes with a strength caveat generally. Rucciās two years older than Lomu and Freeling, so the fact he is still somewhat lacking in that area gives me pause. But watching him move on all this Shrine Bowl footage is pretty enticing I have to admit. I need to do a deeper dive, I donāt really get an idea of the way their body torques or holds up mano e mano until I do. Not something I pay much attention to live.
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How he handles power will be the concern. But I donāt think youād view a guy like this as an immediate starter. Year 1 in pro S&C programs OG often leads to a stunning transformation. I think scouts understand better than average Joeās that develop isnāt linear especially on the OL. So the late breakout, if you can actually call it that, shouldnāt be of huge concern to the pros.
Itās kind of shocking how little heās writing about on OL. Seems to just be some aggregation/AI slop based off of some bad underlying analysis. There seems to be repeated mention of athleticism concerns but his athleticism, flexibility and movement skills relative to other towering tackles was a key reason why he was held in such high esteem coming into college.
https://x.com/hailmarysportss/status/2015453566509490407?s=46
Encouraging both due to the player and that it indicates we understand we need more juice inside.
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