The Seattle Seahawks, perhaps more than most teams, are good at mining the late rounds and the undrafted free agent pool for legitimate NFL talent.
Players like Doug Baldwin, Poona Ford and Jermaine Kearse all went undrafted, while Chris Carson, Byron Maxwell, David Moore and Malcolm Smith were all sixth or seventh round picks.
One area Seattle hasn’t dabbled in too much, outside of Moore, is small school studs.
The obvious knock on many of them is that the competition level they faced in college doesn’t even come close to the level they would face in the NFL, and the jump is predicted to be too much for them to handle.
In some cases that is true, but there are plenty of counter examples of guys who adjusted just fine to elite competition – and Seattle would be wise to take a closer look at some of those players.
One name to have on the radar is North Dakota State edge rusher Derrek Tuszka.
Tuszka put on an incredible performance for the Bison, racking up 29.5 sacks in his three years at North Dakota State, including a whopping 13.5 his final season. He earned a ridiculous 91.8 pass rush grade from Pro Football Focus last year, and generated pressure on 22% of his snaps – which would have been third among edge defenders in the FBS.
That’s all fine and good in the FCS, but what has really helped drive Tuszka’s stock was his performance at the combine. Tuszka posted top-five performances in the 40-yard dash, the vertical, the three-cone drill and the 20-yard shuttle. He also placed in the top 10 in the broad jump, and this three-cone time was actually the best out of all the edge defenders present – by a good margin.
So not only is Tuszka an elite pass rusher who dominated FCS competition, he’s an athletic specimen who compares favorably, at least physically, to the rest of his peers at the position.
So, what’s not to love? Well, for the Seahawks, it will be his length. Seattle always targets length in their edge defenders, and while Tuszka is six-foot-four he only has 31 3/8 inch arms, which could push him off their radar.
He also lacks the necessary burst to attack off the edge, and again, the level of competition could overwhelm him at the next level.
Still – if he goes undrafted Seattle would be wise to give him a shot in training camp. The combination of his performance in college, his testing at the combine and the fact that he played a true 4-3 defensive end could make him an appealing depth option for the Seahawks, and someone they could stash on the practice squad while he adjusts to the competition level in the NFL.
He may never develop into a star, but Tuszka has the athleticism and the tape to take a gamble on, and the Seahawks would be wise to bring him into camp or snatch him in the later rounds if possible.
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