Chiefs Film Room: Shaq Lawson would immediately contribute

Stout Against the Run

Arguably Lawson’s biggest strength is his play in the run game – in fact, ‘Bama only ran the ball at him a handful of times in the National Championship game. His proficiency in this area is in large part due to his strength and discipline in setting the edge.

Here is one of the few plays in which Alabama didn’t make a concerted effort to run away from Lawson. They leave Lawson unblocked, expecting him to get pulled away from the play by the TE/FB coming across the formation into a flat.

But Lawson reads it perfectly, lets the play come to him, and makes the tackle on Henry. This kind of discipline on the edge also made Lawson very formidable against read-options (huge asset in the college game). It’s not only his discipline that makes him a problem in the run game for offenses, however. As an OLB, he’ll have the benefit of getting blocked by TEs on quite a few running plays -that’s not something that works very well against Lawson.

Here, Notre Dame is running what looks to be an off-tackle to Lawson’s side. The tight end is responsible for clearing Lawson out, but as you can see, Lawson simply overpowers him. He does a great job driving him back and keeping the blocker away with his arms, allowing him to easily toss disengage and make the stuff behind the line of scrimmage.

There’s been a somewhat recent trend of rookie edge defenders being introduced as third-down specialists, and then slowly being phased into the earlier downs. Lawson will need no such treatment in his rookie year; his tape shows a player who has discipline beyond his year against the run.

Finds a Way to the QB

My favourite thing about Lawson’s pass rush is how he uses his hands. I find this is an area in which young pass rushers need time develop, but the tape demonstrated repeatedly that Lawson is ahead of the curve in this regard.

These are the kind of sacks/QB pressures Lawson’s tape is littered with. He gets upfield while ensuring the tackle isn’t able to get inside the frame of his body. Now initially the tackle has the upper-hand and looks to be in a position to run Lawson right by the QB. But Lawson rarely allows himself to get taken out of a play like that. When he realizes he’s not going to win around the edge, he plants, feints a move to the inside getting the tackle to transfer his weight to the inside foot, and then swats him away with his outside hand and gets the sack.

Hands, hustle, and strength are the keys to Lawson’s pass rush – similar to one Tamba Hali. While he, along with the vast majority of college edge defenders, will need time to work on his technique and add to his arsenal, Lawson shows a level of development that looks to translate well to the NFL right away.

Speaking of his pass rush arsenal, I would be remiss if I didn’t highlight Lawson’s go to move:

That’s right, Shaq Lawson loves him some Dwight Freeney spin move! And he’s actually very successful with it. Typically, two things happened when he busted it out: the guard had to come over to help the tackle otherwise the QB would be in trouble (don’t worry, the refs called a holding in the first GIF), or the tackle got beat and the QB was in trouble.

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