49ers Draft Pursuit: Penn State Edge Rusher Arnold Ebiketie
Meet The Player:
- Arnold Ebiketie, EDGE, 6 foot 3, 240 pounds, Redshirt Senior Penn State
2021 Key Stats:
9.5 Sacks, 2 Forced Fumbles, 62 Tackles (15 for loss)
Strengths:
Ebiketie has extremely good hands and shows very polished singular pass rush moves. He uses his arm length to his advantage to keep offensive linemen at bay and rarely gets caught chest to chest with the player in front of him. I think his biggest strength is his ability to rush standing up or with his hand in the dirt. One thing that is obvious is opposing teams are very aware of where Ebiketie is lined up and game plan for him. He is often double teamed or chipped to be taken out of a play.
Weaknesses:
For as dominant as Ebiketie can be, he will have long stretches when he disappears. Above I wrote that a strength of his is his pass rush moves, but I intentionally used the word "singular." Because if that first move doesn't get him home, he gets stuck more often than not and can't string together a second move. He struggles tracking down the line in the run game. Which means if the run game goes away from him, he rarely ends up near the ball. Although he can rush standing up or with his hand in the dirt, his first move out of a three point stance is much slower and certainly could use improvement.
Final Thoughts:
I was initially very impressed with Ebiketie. What's not to like at first glance? Explosive, polished and solid size. As the tape rolled however, I often found my eyes drifting to other players and this is directly because he disappeared at times. I certainly think he is a Round 2 pick and maybe doesn't slide to where the 49ers pick at No. 61, especially after a good Senior Bowl showing. If Ebiketie does slide and the 49ers are on the board I wouldn't be disappointed if that's the route they went. I would however prefer other options at that pick even if they stuck with the EDGE position.
