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#Falcons Fan Poll: Grade Atlanta’s third-round selection of Ohio State EDGE Zach Harrison
The Atlanta Falcons selected Ohio State defensive end Zach Harrison in the third round of the 2023 NFL draft. Grade the team’s latest pick in our Falcons fan poll below!
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The #Falcons have finally addressed their defense, taking Ohio State EDGE Zach Harrison in the 3rd round of the 2023 NFL draft
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The Atlanta Falcons have finally addressed their defense, selecting Ohio State edge rusher Zach Harrison in the third round of the 2023 NFL draft.
Harrison is a lengthy defensive end (6-foot-5, 275 pounds), who should provide value as a situational pass-rusher for the Falcons this season. In 2022, he racked up 24 hurries, three QB hits and six sacks for the Buckeyes.
The Ohio State standout finished his third consecutive season with a Pro Football Focus grade over 80 (86.1 in 2022). Harrison is ranked No. 116 on PFF’s big board:
O-H!
A-T-L!
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) April 29, 2023
Atlanta passed on defensive lineman Adetomiwa Adebawore, linebacker Trent Simpson and cornerback Kelee Ringo to take Harrison with pick No. 75 overall.
The Falcons have no more picks on Day 2, unless they trade back up into the third round. Otherwise, the team’s next selection is No. 113, followed by pick Nos. 224 and 225.
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Zach Harrison has his NFL home! #GoBucks
Another Ohio State player is off the board in the 2023 NFL draft. Defensive end Zach Harrison was selected in the third round by the Atlanta Falcons with the 75th pick.
Harrison was a highly coveted prospect coming from suburban Columbus high school, Olentangy Orange, as a five-star prospect. It was a well-publicized recruiting battle between Ohio State and Michigan that the Buckeyes won. Though he had a very productive career in Columbus, he never quite lived up to all the potential of the measurables and skills he has.
The 6-foot, 6-inch, 227-pounder played four seasons for OSU, starting 27 games and appearing in 46. He earned first-team all-Big Ten Conference honors as a senior last season after recording 34 tackles, 8.0 TFLs, 3.5 sacks, four PBUs and six QB hurries.
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The Falcons are hoping the bright light will go on once he gets coached up in the NFL.
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Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion. Follow Phil Harrison on Twitter.
Our Day 2 mock draft for the New Orleans Saints includes a trade proposal to make an on-brand move (or two) up the draft order, targeting prospects who fit their prototypes:
The New Orleans Saints addressed their most important need in the first round of the 2023 NFL draft, so where do they go from here? The truth is that they could move in almost any direction and come away feeling great about the decision.
After picking Clemson Tigers defensive tackle Bryan Bresee at No. 29, the Saints could be justified in turning their attention to offense, either along the line (prioritizing a guard like Florida’s O’Cyrus Torrence or TCU’s Steve Avila) or at the skills positions (in targeting a pass-catcher such as Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer, wide receiver Cedric Tillman, or UCLA running back Zach Charbonnet).
There also a couple of talented defensive backs available in Penn State cornerback Joey Porter Jr. and Alabama safety Brian Branch. New Orleans could double down on their defensive front by prioritizing edge rushers Keion White (Georgia Tech) or Isaiah Foskey (Notre Dame), too. And let’s not overlook some long-term developmental quarterbacks like Will Levis (Kentucky) and Hendon Hooker (Tennessee), either.
The point is that it’s really tough to predict what the Saints will do on the second day of the draft. But we’ll try anyway. Here’s a quick mock draft for their picks in Rounds 2 and 3:
The Browns have options.
With the 2023 NFL draft set to kick off in just a few days, the Cleveland Browns could use more depth at edge rusher opposite Myles Garrett. The team got very little production from any other edge players. This year’s class has some intriguing pass rushers that could improve the overall talent in the edge room.
Based on the free agency period the team had, pass rusher and defensive tackle will likely be the focus early in this draft. The team also needs help at linebacker but the linebacker class isn’t good outside of a few players. Let’s take a look at one edge player in each round for Cleveland.
A last look at where College Sports Wire has Ohio State players going in the first two rounds of the 2023 NFL draft. #GoBucks
We are officially just a week away from all the fun and drama of the 2023 NFL draft. This year it is taking place in Kansas City, Missouri, and you can bet that there will be plenty of Ohio State players walking across the stage and getting phone calls to start their professional careers.
Throughout this draft speculation season, we’ve been following along with College Sports Wire’s Patrick Conn as he dissects what he believes we’ll see unfold during the draft. He has published several first-round mock projections and just dropped his last one — this time through two rounds — prior to all the festivities we’ll begin to see next Thursday night.
Here is the last iteration of where Conn projects five Ohio State players to go during the first two rounds of the 2023 NFL draft.
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Would you put money on C.J. Stroud going No. 1 overall at this point, or would you take Bryce Young? #GoBucks
We’re inching ever so closer to the 2023 NFL draft, and with it, there continues to be some movement of players based on what the word on the street is. Two guys that are more plugged in than almost anyone out there are ESPN’s Todd McShay and Mel Kiper Jr.
And while the two of them normally compose their own separate mock drafts, they recently teamed up to compile a three-round version just over a week out from what we’ll see in Kansas City.
It wasn’t that long ago that Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud was the odds-on favorite to be selected No. 1 overall by the Carolina Panthers, but that seems to have changed now with Alabama’s Bryce Young now being the betting man’s pick.
That’s reflected in the McShay/Kiper mock as well with Stroud dropping a wee bit, but he’s not the only Ohio State player included in the three-round projection. Here’s what the dynamic NFL draft duo says about Stroud and each OSU player they think will go in the first three rounds.
There are five pass rushers who check every analytical box. But does the tape add up?
The 2023 NFL draft is now less than two weeks away, and the Cleveland Browns still have a few holes to fill on the defensive side of the football. One of those holes is at the defensive end position. While the Browns boast perhaps the best defensive end in the league in Myles Garrett and just signed Ogbo Okoronkwo in free agency, behind them are just two second-year players in Alex Wright and Isaiah Thomas.
Thanks to ClevAnalytics, the list of edge rushers who check every box for the Browns that are realistic targets has been cut to five. Here, we take a look at these five pass rushers to see if the tape matches their athletic testing and production profiles.
I will be using analysis from my draft guide on each player as the form of film evaluation.
Identifying 6 early-round, mid-round, and dark-horse New Orleans Saints draft prospects at defensive end:
The New Orleans Saints are feeling some serious pressure to address their defensive tackles depth chart after most of the players from last year’s team left in free agency, but they need help at defensive end, too. They haven’t gotten anything out of their 2021 first-round pick Payton Turner and, right now, it looks like the starting ends will be a 34-year-old Cameron Jordan on one side and career backup Carl Granderson on the other — and both players are entering the final year of their contracts.
Turner and Tanoh Kpassagnon round out the depth chart, which doesn’t inspire great confidence after a couple of blitzing linebackers outproduced them as pass rushers last year. The Saints didn’t lose much in Marcus Davenport but they still need a big boost at defensive end.
It’ll be tough for the Saints to address all of their priorities in the opening rounds, though, so it’s worth taking a look at the 2023 draft through a wider lens. We’re going to spend the next few days highlighting prospects who fit New Orleans’ prototypes at positions of need in the early rounds, the middle of the draft, and the dark horses expected to be available later on. Let’s start at defensive end:
Both players have tremendous upside.
We are now just three weeks from the 2023 NFL Draft kicking off and PFF has released their latest three-round mock draft. In this, they addressed two of the biggest needs remaining on the Cleveland Browns by drafting Zach Harrison the edge rusher from Ohio State at pick 74, and Michigan State wideout Jayden Reed with the 98th overall pick.
Zach Harrison is a ridiculous athlete with spurts of dominance shown on his Ohio State tape. However he never really produced in college so drafting him brings a massive risk that I do not think is worth it. He has all the tools but the play on the field doesn’t warrant a third round pick.
Wide receiver Jayden Reed is a fun player on tape who would also give you a returner option, boosting his value. Though he lacks elite straight-line space he is a dynamic playmaker in open space creating yards after the catch. Reed could provide valuable depth and be a special teams contributor right away with impressive upside.
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