I'll admit I was wrong. I wanted Kayvon. Hitch was the more complete player, But I never thought he would be an elite pass rusher, and in the NFL, I questioned how valuable run stopping would be. But he's still solid against the run, and he has already surpassed what I thought he could be as a pass rusher. I just don't get how it took the Lions half a season to figure out how he liked to line up
saw it at Michigan after only 2 years starting- knew he was going to be at the very least a dude in the NFL and his combine is what made me think he would be
elite- he's a better pure athlete than either of the Bosa's- and his NFL combine showed that.
His Amazon NextGen Stats Combine overall athleticism score was a 93, which was highest of any EDGE prospect in the 2022 draft. His RAS (raw athletic score) is one of the
top 20 highest ever for a DE in combine history from 1987 to 2022 (out of a possible 14,113 DE's). Pretty much the only test he wasn't
elite at and the only physical trait of his that wasn't elite: arm length and his 40 time- and his 40 time was still a 4.74- which is
still among the very highest percentile for DE's (slight tick behind TJ Watt, better than JJ Watt and both Bosa bros) but not
freakish like Montez Sweat, Trayvon Walker, or Rashan Gary. Literally every other one of his testing # of his though- freakish- and among the very best of DE prospects ever. His 6.73 second 3-cone time was the fastest time for a guy over 6'4 at an NFL combine in over 20 years- and it was the 3rd fastest time at the entire 2022 combine (behind a pair of WRs) and his 20-yard shuttle time of 4.15 seconds was 2nd fastest at the entire 2022 combine- the only guy who beat it was a 5'9 WR who and weighed almost 90 pounds less. He was a WAY better athlete than people were giving him credit for....and oh yeah he's 6'6+, 270 and put up 28 reps of 225- he's got elite size and strength for the position. If only his arms were an inch longer and he ran 4.54- he'd have been the #1 pick. Lol. Thank GOD Trent Baalke is an idiot.
They lined him up all over the field yesterday, Rush LB, hand in the dirt DE, DT, ILB....and he was looking great everywhere. STUD.