I finally watched some tape on him. In my opinion, he’s the most refined pass rusher that’s come out in a long time.
This may be far fetched but, he appears to really play ‘heads up’. It seems to boost his awareness…makes sense. He does a really good job of avoiding helmet to helmet contact which obviously protects his neck from further injury.
There are some negatives to this as well…lots of arm tackling. I’m not so sure he’ll get away with that at the next level. I’m not saying he NEVER lowers his shoulder but it is noticeable. No one can blame him for that…he came back from a nasty injury ofc.
He puts A LOT of pressure on the ball. Which is beyond valuable in itself.
If I were picking Edge…I’d really be torn if Latu and Verse were both available. While Verse doesn’t have Latu’s wide array of moves, he is the strongest edge coming out and can ‘bully’ his way past 300+ pound blockers. Verse can develop the additional techniques/moves as he gains more experience. Latu is also strong…and will certainly get stronger.
At the NFL level, there’s a lot of contact on the edge. I’d have to give Verse the nod here.
I think a lot of teams may wipe Latu off the board. He was barred by U of Wash from playing. There will likely be NFL team docs that concur with that decision.
If it comes down to picking an Edge and they’re both available….thats a pick I wouldn’t want to make.
I think both, assuming staying healthy, are going to have good to great careers.