Greg Gaines DL Washington
by Drew Boylhart • January 10, 2019
STRENGTHS
Greg is an athletic big man who understands that his priority job is stopping the run. He has quick feet and good foot speed to pressure the quarterback. He has good lateral agility to stretch out plays allowing his teammates to make tackles. Greg understands gap control but because of his quick feet and foot speed you can run stunts with him forcing offensive lineman to double team him. He changes the line of scrimmage to his benefit on almost every snap and when he is double teamed his defensive teammates became dominating behind him. Greg shows leadership skills through his play on the field. Greg has the athletic talent and size to be used as a nose tackle in a 3/4 defense or either one on the DT’s in a 4/3 defense. On some downs he could even be used as a down DE in the 3/4 because he has good overall athleticism. The ability for Greg to play inside on the defensive line at different positions makes him a value selection for the team that drafts him.
CONCERNS
Greg has to get stronger in his upper body and use his hands better to stand up his opponent, take on double teams and shed blocks to improve his ability to make tackles at the line of scrimmage consistently. When he comes off with good leverage he is as good as any defensive tackle in this draft but he seems to lack confidence in his strength to raise his arms and block passes.
TALENT BOARD ROUND 2.22
A Defensive tackle can impact, coming off the line, getting into the backfield and raising their arms to knock down passes or tip passes. You have to have the strength to first engage and then use your arms to free yourself up, pushing forward consistently. Greg has good strength but needs to upgrade it to make this move, and once he gets that strength and learns those techniques, I believe he will become a more impacting defensive lineman then he has been at the college level. You can tell when a nose tackle/guard is an impact player. All you have to do is look at the amount of tackles the players behind him accumulate. In this case, I believe there is a linebacker and safety who led this conference in tackles at their prospective positions this year, as proof of Greg’s hard work. That only happens because of talent on the defensive line and Greg was that talent. He can pass rush and get into the back field to disrupt but Greg is a team player and knows that gap control and taking up double teams and pushing the pocket is where he can impact more for his teammates. Greg is the type of defensive lineman every team needs to have a dominating defense. He does the grunt work and he reminds me a lot of the Bills Kyle Williams. Let’s see if he has as impacting a career. I think he will
