Packers Positions of Need: Top 10 Defensive Linemen
With a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, the Green Bay Packers were run over by San Francisco. Kenny Clark is a stud but Dean Lowry was underwhelming with his new contract, former third-round pick Montravius Adams’ career has gone nowhere and former undrafted free agent Tyler Lancaster wasn’t up to the challenge of an oversized load. With that, here is our early look at the top 10 prospects at the position. (Underclassmen are noted with an asterisk.)
Derrick Brown, Auburn (6-5, 318): Brown dominated on and off the field as the Tigers. On the field, he was a unanimous All-American and SEC Defensive Player of the Year with four sacks, 12.5 tackles for losses and two forced fumbles. He had 3.5 TFLs in the big rivalry game vs. Alabama. In his final three seasons, he tallied 11.5 sacks and 31.5 TFLs.
Off the field, he won the prestigious Senior CLASS Award, which honors excellence in the community, classroom, character and competition. Brown graduated in December with a degree in business. “If I hadn't, I would have had to come back over the next three springs to finish school,” Brown told the Gwinett Daily Post. “I was able to knock out the 27 hours I had left and finish my minor as well. That was big for me.” His off-the-field resume is extensive. He went from vice president last year to president this year of Auburn’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and was Auburn’s representative on the SEC Community Service Team for his work with organizations including Toys for Tots, the Beat Bama food drive and Halloween Trunk or Treat. “The thing that’s so unique about Derrick is he has the ability to make others feel valued,” defensive line coach Rodney Garner told the Montgomery Advertiser. “I’m not talking about the superstars or the starters. It’s just like when you go in the dining hall, he’s sitting over there with the walk-ons. Guy that you never would think, those are his best friends. He just has a way of just meandering his way through and touching people in a positive way.”
He took a mission trip to the Dominican Republic with coach Gus Malzahn and some teammates. “It's something I've done growing up,” Brown said on the school athletics site. “My parents always kept me involved in a lot of things that gave me the opportunity to do things like that.” Staying in school for another year was a good message that he can eventually pass along to his son, Kai, who was born in December 2019. “I want to set a standard for him by getting my degree. I am going to play in the NFL so I can provide a better future for my son.” And it gave him a chance to play with his younger brother, Kameron Brown.
Javon Kinlaw, South Carolina (6-6, 310): Kinlaw earned some first-team All-American honors following a superb senior season. He finished eighth in the SEC with six sacks and added six tackles for losses. The team captain and December graduate earned a bunch of team awards, including the Unselfish Teammate Award, Tenacity Award and Outstanding Student-Athlete. In two seasons, the junior-college transfer tallied 10.5 sacks and 18 tackles for losses.
Kinlaw literally will be a rags-to-riches story, one that was told by the Greenville News. His mother came to the United States from Trinidad and Tobago in 1995. In 2008, she moved her family from Washington, D.C., to Hyattsville, Md., to pursue a business opportunity. The opportunity fell through, leaving her and her children homeless. “It was really difficult for me, but I knew at that time that I was going to try to do something better.” He spent one season in junior college before arriving at South Carolina tipping the scales at 350 pounds because of his fondness for the free food. His childhood drove him down the path to the NFL. “We were really homeless the whole time we was staying up there. We stayed with my mom’s friends,” Kinlaw told the Post and Courier. “Out of all those situations I’ve been in, I still dream of things like that. I don’t want to go back to situations like that, so I have to keep pushing.” In great shape and with his eye on the prize, he dominated. “Javon makes you smile as a coach. He’s physical. He’s a tough-minded guy,” defensive line coach John Scott Jr. told The Athletic. “There’s not many 6-6, 300-plus pound guys who have his athleticism. He’s strong, and he’s got something that only God can give you, extremely long arms. He can separate off blockers with quick twitch. If you had to draw up the body type for that league, that would be it.” He’s got a baby girl; at the Senior Bowl, he said 9-month-old Eden was 31 inches long with size-5 shoes.
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Ross Blacklock, TCU (6-4, 305)*: Blacklock was a first-team all-Big 12 and an honorable mention for Big 12 Defensive Lineman of the Year during his final season. He tied for the team lead with 3.5 sacks while tying for second with nine tackles for losses. He redshirted in 2016, started every game in 2017 and missed all of 2018 with a torn Achilles.
There are a lot of football players in every draft class who had dreams of being basketball stars. Same for Blacklock. His father, Jimmy Blacklock, was a former point guard for the Harlem Globetrotters and is in his fifth season as the full-time coach. He played in more than 2,500 games in 62 countries. “I never really pushed him into any sport, as much as I wanted him to play basketball,” Jimmy Blacklock told USA Today. “At one point, he told me, ‘Dad, I don’t like basketball. It’s too slow.’ When he told me that, I didn’t know where my head was, that basketball was too slow. He just gravitated to football. Football was his calling and he felt more comfortable.” Ross Blacklock can do all the tricks and can dunk, but eating “all the filet mignon,” as his dad put it, had him, well, beef up. “In the eighth grade, he was 190 pounds and a running back,” his dad told the Fort Worth Star-Telgram. “Ninth grade he pushes 200 pounds and played linebacker and then he got up to 220-230 and they put him at tight end. He just started to grow and, before you know it, he’s a defensive tackle. But he’s always had great speed and feet and hands. Those are the most instrumental tools you have as an athlete.”
Neville Gallimore, Oklahoma (6-2, 302): Gallimore was honorable-mention all-Big 12 as a junior and a first-team choice as a senior, when he had four sacks, 7.5 tackles for losses and two forced fumbles. His four-season total included nine sacks, 18 TFLs and five forced fumbles.
A native of Ottawa, Ontario, he was the first Canadian player selected to compete in U.S. Army All-American Bowl. He attended Canada Prep, a school centered on football. According to the Ottawa Citizen, there are only 42 students and tuition starts at $16,500, not including insurance and some travel expenses. The team plays many top U.S. high schools. “I wanted the chance to show how well I could stack up against American competition,” Gallimore told the Globe and Mail. “For me, it's been a confidence booster and the expectations are high. The coaches who see our film are a lot more respectful of it when they see us playing other American kids. A lot of people questioned my decision, but I'm glad I came here.” While Canadian, the family’s roots are in Jamaica. “As soon as you walk into my house, you’re walking into a Jamaican home,” Gallimore told The Oklahoman. “The smells, the food, the music, even the language that’s being spoken. It’s something that they can’t hide. … The culture is so rich, the atmosphere, the environment is so rich. I feel like it’s just something you want to be a part of. I’m happy that I was raised around that.” He earned a degree in cultural awareness and is pursuing a master’s in human relations.
James Lynch, Baylor (6-4, 295)*: Lynch had a prodigious final season with 13.5 sacks, 19.5 tackles for losses, five passes defensed, three forced fumbles and two blocked kicks to be a unanimous first-team All-American and the Big 12’s Defensive Player of the Year. His three-year totals were 22 sacks and 33.5 TFLs.
Lynch loves sacks. “You really can’t explain that feeling,” Lynch told the Waco Tribune. “That’s a feeling of a lifetime when you get the whole team cheering for you when you make a play and you’re celebrating with your teammates. You can’t really beat that at all.” If he could eat dinner with any four people in history, he would choose Ndamukong Suh, Abraham Lincoln, Genghis Kahn and Al Capone. Why Genghis Kahn? “He was the emperor of the Mongol Empire,” Lynch said in a Q&A with Statesman.com. “After he created the empire, he started the Mongol invasions and conquered most of Europe and Asia. They took over everything, dominated like savages. It’s just a topic I find interesting.” His dad, Tim, played football at Nebraska. That’s why Lynch’s middle name is “Husker.”
Justin Madubuike, Texas A&M (6-3, 300)*: Madubuike had three productive seasons. After posting 5.5 sacks and 10.5 tackles for losses as a sophomore, he had 5.5 sacks and 11.5 tackles for losses as a junior. He also forced five fumbles and blocked two kicks in his career.
As a first-time starter in 2018, he had a facemask problem. “It was, ‘Oh, I’m starting. I’m just so jittery. I’m trying to make this tackle any way I can,’” he told the Express News. “It was, ‘I don’t care how I’m going to get him down — I’m going to get him down.’ Obviously, it doesn’t work like that.” He was the biggest recruit ever from his high school and took note of the helicopter the Aggies used to recruit him. Coach Jimbo Fisher pushed the right buttons to get the best out of his talented big man. “Do you want to win the SEC, win the National Championship, or do you want to be in the Hall of Fame?” Fisher told Southern Pigskin. “There’s a mentality where certain guys can look past just making it. He’s learning how to drive and work and learn the off the field things. When he gets on the field, he plays his tail off, but he’s learning how everything you do has to have a championship mind-set to it. It sends a message, it creates a habit of who you are. Who we are is what our habits say we are, what we do daily -- myself included. I’m trying to get him to think like that. Not to think like a great player, to think like a champion.”
Jordan Elliott, Missouri (6-4, 315)*: In two years at Mizzou, Elliott recorded 5.5 sacks and 16.5 tackles for losses. In 2019, he had 2.5 sacks and career highs of 44 tackles and 8.5 tackles for losses to earn second-team All-American. He started his career at Texas, recording eight tackles in six games in 2016. He had to sit out the 2017 season due to NCAA transfer rules.
Elliott learned a lesson about responsibility during that year in Texas. One night, he forgot to hang his parking pass on his car and it was towed away. Because he didn’t really need the car to get around campus, he didn’t act urgently to get it back. Eventually, it was auctioned off. “I didn’t know where they were towing it, and they would never answer the phone,” he told The Athletic. “Two weeks go by, and I’m still trying to find it, and I go to this lot where they towed my car. And the car’s gone.” The redshirt season of 2017 paid huge dividends. Because he couldn’t play on Saturdays, he was able to focus on his body. “Just finding myself and realizing that if you can persevere through this, you can persevere through anything,” he told the school newspaper. “I feel like that’s a part of my mentality now and part of my philosophy in life.”
Marlon Davidson, Auburn (6-3, 278): Davidson played a mean second fiddle to all-everything Derrick Brown. He was a second-team All-American and first-team all-SEC as a senior captain with seven sacks and 12.5 tackles for losses among his 48 stops. He started 51 games in his career and piled up 17 sacks and 29.5 TFLs.
Davidson is driven by his mother. When he was in seventh grade, he made a series of promises to his mom, including that he’d be such a success that she’d never have to work. However, in February 2015, she died unexpectedly. Davidson was only 17, and it turned his life upside down. She was only 47; Davidson wore No. 47 as a high school senior. “I grew up right under her,” Davidson told Dawg Nation. “Some guys my age can’t stand to be around their parents. Not me. I’d like nothing better than to be riding around in the car with her. I wish I could do that now, but she’s gone.” Davidson would have made his mom proud. “Marlon Davidson is one of the best football players, just all around, that I’ve had the chance to coach since I’ve been coaching college,” Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn said at the Senior Bowl. “He had a big-time year not just rushing the passer, but playing the run. He’s like a coach on the field. A chance to get out here and compete against these guys, just watching him today, he looks really good and really natural. I’m very excited about his future.” A brother, Ken Carter, was a defensive lineman for Auburn from 2010 through 2013 and is a member of the football team’s support staff.
Raekwon Davis, Alabama (6-7, 312): Davis was a three-year starter and three-year all-SEC performer for the Crimson Tide, though his production waned from 69 tackles (10 for losses) as a sophomore to 55 tackles (5.5 for losses) as a junior and 47 tackles (three for losses) as a senior. Of his 11.5 career sacks, 8.5 came as a sophomore.
While he wasn’t an All-American as a senior, he was proud of earning his diploma in exercise science. "Where I'm from, most people don't graduate or even see a Division I school," Davis said in a news conference. "The graduation part is a big accomplishment. I was excited. I worked hard for it, and it was the best experience of my life.” He added: “Nobody can take that away from me. Football can end at any time, but you’ll still have one thing you can fall back on. You spend three and a half years to get it, nobody can take it away, and you can do whatever you want with it.” While the numbers weren’t great, he was happy with his final season – especially when compared to his junior year, when he said he was too focused on the NFL. “I improved a lot,” he told the Tuscaloosa News. “On my double teams, how I pass rush, I feel like I improved. To other folks, they got they own opinions.” He was shot in the leg just before the 2017 season opener and recorded a sack a few days later.
Leki Fotu, Utah (6-5, 335): Foku was a two-year starter. As a junior, he was first-team all-Pac-12 with three sacks and 5.5 tackles for losses. As a senior, he earned some second-team All-American honors with one sacks and nine tackles for losses.
Fotu’s family is from Tonga. Football runs in the DNA with three brothers playing college football: David at Utah, Joe at Illinois and Anthony at Arizona. Rugby was his first love but it was his mother who pushed him to try football, according to 247 Sports. “When we moved out here to Utah I thought I was just going to play rugby, but then my senior year she wanted me to do football because rugby didn’t have any offers scholarship-wise for college. I went back to football and tried all of that and everything is going the way it is now.” He’s a big man with bad intentions but a huge soft spot in his heart for his sister, who horrifically died when she was 3. A few weeks later, his dad died from a stroke. “When I’m out there, working and sweating,” he told the Salt Lake Tribune, “I think of them. I know I’ve already been through hell, so I can handle it.” He puts on a show at any restaurant or with his choice of footwear.
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