Seahawks NFL Draft Profile: Anfernee Jennings
Over the course of the next several weeks, the Seahawks and 31 other teams will be evaluating the latest crop of incoming talent in preparation for the 2020 NFL Draft.
Continuing our prospect profiles series, the Seahawks will enter the draft still seeking additional reinforcements at defensive end with Jadeveon Clowney remaining unsigned. Though a bit undersized, Alabama's Anfernee Jennings provides plenty of intrigue as a 5-tech defensive end who could provide great value in the third round or later.
Strengths
Jennings’ most eye-popping skill is his long arm. The Redshirt-Senior has excellent aiming points for it, splitting his man right down the middle, while setting up the punch with a euro step or shimmy. His manipulative footwork gets tackles off-kilter. The long-arm batters opposing tackles back with force. This punch gets powered up and is stunning when it arrives. He possesses excellent hand heaviness and is able to work his off-arm and off–hand with the long arm engaged, tugging the arms of opponents down, smacking them off or pushing them up. He even could pull himself around the pocket while latched on. His long-arm can turn into a flipper as he corners. Jennings’ powerful length is subsequently a bully of bad pass sets plus a reliable pocket constrictor used to generate pressure.
A power counter to his long-arm is a push-pull. Active handwork is a common theme to Jennings’ game, with a rip through to disengage often present. When coming inside, Jennings is slippery, flashing a club-to-swim move that is often too quick for guards. He executes the swim well, getting his arms on the back of the lineman to increase separation. The violence and urgency attacking inside is complimented by savvy footwork. Jennings remains patient setting up games, hard stepping outside prior to dipping in. Inside moves feature a consistent fluidity.
Jennings’ showed all the traits to be a fearsome run defender in the NFL, versus inside and outside design from a variety of techniques and in plenty of assignments. His very good hand placement enabled him to set blockers up and resulted in comfortable reps when asked to play one and a half gaps - Jennings dipping his head into both gaps. He was able to use this movement to manipulate the runner to where he wanted and then make the tackle at that spot.
Faced with down-blocks away from him, Jennings tightened the edge well, moving along the line of scrimmage. Wrong-arming gap schemes, where he spilled pullers, was easy work for Jennings too (often the next stage after tightening with the down block). When asked to force pullers on stuff like guard-tackle counters, Jennings kept the edge tight and strong, occasionally taking out both pullers with his toughness. He butchered tight end DUO blocks, tossing them aside.
When setting the edge versus zone, Jennings was excellent too. He regularly stayed outside of the play, keeping his outside arm free while attacking with the near shoulder; staying square, and getting depth in-phase with the ball carrier. His power disrupted and tightened edges too. He has a disruptive forklift move which he featured most against inside zone.
Stacking blockers, Jennings was aware and skilled, able to disengage at the right moment to get to the ball carrier. He can use the momentum of blockers against them, sling-shotting his way through. Jennings was cognizant of cut block attempts, getting early hands down to swat and deal with it. He was always assignment-sound, clearing the right ranking of threats in the run game and honoring his fit before going to the play.
Stunting inside, Jennings was disruptive and kept balance through contact. His swim move was a problem for blockers, especially when they were slow off the ball or had eyes looking elsewhere.
Jennings’ football intelligence is clearly visible in his play. He understands offensive schemes and designs in the pass and run game, reacting accordingly. Rushing the passer, he is an intelligent snap-jumper who studies quarterback cadences. Versus jet, Jennings was able to get some of his best jumps because he knew the ball was getting snapped once the motion man reached the tight end landmark.
The results of his timing are obvious, with Jennings reacting first down the line of scrimmage and beating tackles snap-by-snap. He regularly got his hands up at the line of scrimmage, denying passing windows, timing his move right, and recognizing quick passing concepts like RPOs. He made plays on throwback bootleg screens due to his recognition to nestle with the suspicious action and keys. Jennings gets what offenses are trying to do.
Weaknesses
Jennings has enough ankle flexion and bend-through-contact to get around edges for sacks, with crafty lateral steps setting up his bend. His lower has good suppleness. His hips, though, are too rigid to properly shorten and reduce corners. Though he can turn his toes and churn his legs when cornering, there are times the tightness in Jennings’ hips causes his rush arcs to elongate. He is also unable to dip under blocks. Put it this way: often if drops were deeper, he’d have got home.
Such a lack of flexibility may also partially explain Jennings’ pad level, which rose too high on inside games and exposed his chest to damage, leaving him vulnerable to being knocked over. There were times that he struggled to sink into tackles too. His general flexibility looked better in 2019, an additional year after having his ankle operated on and suffering left PCL damage in the 2018 playoff semi-final. Perhaps another year of good health will result in further pliability?
Jennings has upper body power, but his overall game is lacking in athleticism. He is short of twitch and speed. Lacking explosion means that tackles can cheat towards the power game and don’t have to respect the back corner of the pocket. With the length of NFL tackles, his long-arm will not have quite the same effectiveness unless Jennings can establish some counters.
It therefore would have been nice to see Jennings deploy his counters more often. His pass rush plan after his favored long arm seemed more improvisational rather than determined pre-snap. When it was clarified, it was a lot better. If his counters were better thought out, with confidence in his plan B, Jennings would have been more effective as a pass rusher. His tape showed indecision on reps over what move he was working. Seeing him refine his swim or his hard-step-before-dip-inside moves into genuine secondary options would be exciting. It would combat tackles setting for the long arm power path.
Where He Fits in Seattle
Jennings’ traits scream Seahawks 5-technique. Seattle places this defensive end on the solid-side of the formation, to the ‘y’ tight end. They like to stunt this man a gap over, having him take on double teams but also set edges. They do almost everything asked of a NFL defensive lineman and Jennings showed he can do that versus the run. He was comfortable in all of the techniques and assignments the Crimson Tide asked of him. Furthermore, the Seahawks don’t place a priority on athleticism at this spot, instead wanting the powerful punching and determined defense that Jennings’ tape is full of. His improvement in 2019 was noteworthy, as he looked broken for long periods of 2018.
However, Jennings weighed only 256 pounds at the NFL Combine - Seattle likes players at the 5-tech weighing at least 275 pounds. Given Jennings lacks natural twitch and speed, putting on extra weight isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Alabama asked Jennings to drop back into coverage occasionally, mainly as a spy or hot technique player. In Seattle, Jennings would feel more comfortable putting weight on. If he could do that, he’d slot in as a rotational piece who can contribute on every down right away. He has an attractive floor albeit a ceiling limited by his lack of athletic ability.
Projected to go on late day two, early day three, Jennings represents an opportunity of serious value. He knows how to maximize his length into wins (32 7/8-inch arms) There are elements to his game, specifically the club-to-swim combo, that are reminiscent of an ultra-lite Jadeveon Clowney. With that player’s future uncertain, Seattle needs all the help it can get. After adding Bruce Irvin and losing Quinton Jefferson, it can be argued the need at 5-tech is as great as the LEO spot.
Games Watched
2019: at Auburn, vs. LSU, vs. Texas A&M
2018: vs. Auburn, at LSU
