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I'm still in shock that Beasley managed to fall to the Falcons at pick #8 (Thanks, Jaguars and Redskins!). So for that, we'll celebrate by bludgeoning you with more Beasley stuff.
Let's take a look at the basics: Beasley's combine numbers.
- Height: 6'3" (75") - Weight: 246
- Arm Length: 32.5" - Hand Size: 9 3/8"
- 40 Yard Dash: 4.53 sec - 10 Yard Split: 1.59 sec
- Bench Press: 35 reps
- 3-Cone: 6.91 sec
- Vertical Jump: 41"
- Broad Jump: 10'10"
Part of the content we want to provide you on this blog is that we want to give you as much information on our newest Falcons as we can. That includes reaching out to the collegiate blog that is representative of the pick taken. In this case, it's SB Nation's Clemson blog, Shakin' the Southland. Brian Lewis is the top cat on their blog and generously donated some of his time to give us a scouting report on our first round pick, defensive dynamo Vic Beasley.
First I'll put the concerns to rest. Vic Beasley is not a liability against the run. Is he great against the run, no, but he isn't as bad as some talking heads on ESPN would have you believe. For those watching the Draft Thursday night you didn't see a liability against the run or a guy who takes a large number of plays off. Instead you saw a player who plays his assignment in the run game. He isn't going to immediately swarm the ball, instead he's going to follow his assignment, set the edge, and then give the rest of his team the opportunity to do their jobs on the play. He can definitely get better against the run, but he should be serviceable if the Falcons want to use him as an every down player.Against the pass Beasley is definitely one of the better rushers around. He is an absolute freak of an athlete, his Combine numbers were frankly silly. He has a couple of moves as well which should translate well to the NFL, even with his speed off the edge. Obviously he isn't going to be a traditional DE given his size, but should do well in a role as an OLB in some system, maybe even a hybrid DE/OLB depending on how the Falcons use him.
For me the biggest area of concern for Beasley is dropping into coverage. He was asked to do it a few times at Clemson and looked decent, but it is a very different thing when he is going to asked to do it with regularity at the NFL level. Through Training Camp and his rookie year this is where fans should focus their attention to see how Beasley is going to do.
As you can see, someone who actually had eyes on Beasley could tell he wasn't so weak in the run game. I saw a pretty strong guy on tape, myself.
A big thanks to Brian Lewis for providing some insight, and with that, here are some other links from our coverage of Vic Beasley from the moment he became a Falcon.