Saturday afternoon's game with Pittsburgh in Iowa City will have many scouts eyes on the match up between Brandon Lindsey and the Iowa Offensive tackles. You rarely get to see top prospects matched up against one another and these are the kinds of games NFL teams will go back and watch when they are making their draft day plans.
Who They are:
#7 Brandon Lindsey 6'2 250
Brandon Lindsey is a hybrid DE/OLB prospect and a good one. He spent 2010 playing in mostly a 4 man front and excelled as a pash rusher. He wracked up 10 sacks,18 TFL, 3FF and 6 QB hurries in 2010. He wasn't a a very effective run defender as a 4-3 end but this isn't much of a concern as he projects very well as a rush LB in a 3-4. Pittsburgh's new coaching staff has implemented a 3-4 this year for Pitt and that's great news for Lindsey as he'll be auditioning at his projected position. He's already picked up 2 Sacks and 10 Total tackles in 2011 and should continue to be very productive. He's got a very quick initial burst off the line and has been very effective at threatening the edge. He shows effective counter moves as a pass rusher and rarely gets tied up with his blocker. Very good combination of speed and power. Shows a good motor and will use both power to speed and speed to power rush variations. Haven't seen him in pass drops much yet but he's a pretty good athlete for his size and should be able to at least be serviceable there. Looks to be a solid 2nd round grade at this point to me.
#77 Riley Reiff 6'6 300 & #56 Marcus Zusevics 6'5 300
Reiff is a well known commodity as an OT prospect and has a solid 1st round grade from virtually every scout and evaluation service out there. Zusevics hasn't gotten as much press at this point but many scouts, myself included, think highly of him and he carries a mid-round grade from most at this point. Both guys started all 13 games in 2010 at the OT positions for the Hawkeyes. Reiff is an excellent athlete and is a natural knee bender. As a result he's an excellent pass blocker. Zusevics is no slouch either and shown solid improvement in his technique already this year. Both guys are excellent dealing with speed off the edge with Reiff being the better of the two against power moves. Reiff is an excellent run blocker in Iowa's zone heavy schema and is very consistent at getting to second level defenders. Zusevics also is a quality run blocker and has improved at getting to second level target in the run game.
What to watch for:
The most interesting thing to watch will be when you see either Reiff or Zusevics matched up with one on one in pass protection with Lindsey. It's a strength vs strength match-up and it should be a great one to watch. I don't expect Iowa's tackles to struggle with the initial speed moves from Lindsey but he's very deadly with his counters and that will be the focal point in this one. Lindsey will be coming as a stand up rusher rather than with his hand on the ground as he did last year and this will be the first high level opponent he faces this year. Lindsey also can cause a mismatch by hitting inside gaps on stunts and blitz packages. I'd expect Lindsey to challenge the edge strongly and show effective counter moves. Both Iowa's OT's will need to be very crisp and clean with their technique to keep Lindsey away from James Vandenburg. If either guy makes a mistake Lindsey is going to capitalize and cause havoc. I'd be surprised if Lindsey doesn't get a sack or at least tally a few QB pressures in this one. If Iowa's guy's keep'm away from JVB all day I'll be pretty impressed. This will be a very interesting match-up to keep an eye on Saturday.
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