HuskieBear Posted May 1, 2023 Share Posted May 1, 2023 5. GERVON DEXTER SR. | Florida 6055 | 310 lbs. | 3JR Lake Wales, Fla. (Lake Wales) 10/5/2001 (age 21.56) #9 BACKGROUND: Gervon (Jer-von) Dexter Sr., who is one of four children, grew up in Lake Wales (50 miles south of Orlando) and started playing sports at five-years old. Playing everywhere from running back to the offensive and defensive lines, he played football through elementary and middle school, but stopped playing in seventh-grade to focus on basketball full-time. Dexter enrolled at Lake Wales High School where he started on the varsity basketball team as a freshman. Going into his junior year, his father pushed him to return to football and he posted 18 tackles for loss, 9.0 sacks and 7 forced fumbles at defensive tackle in 2018. Dexter was unblockable as a senior and finished with 103 tackles, 35.0 tackles for loss, 18.0 sacks and 7 forced fumbles. He earned multiple All-American honors and led Lake Wales to a 12-1 record with the only loss coming in the regional finals of the 2019 playoffs. Dexter started on varsity all four seasons for the basketball team and also lettered in track, qualifying for the Class 2A state championships in the discus throw as a junior. A five-star recruit out of high school, Dexter was the No. 3 defensive tackle in the 2020 recruiting class (one spot ahead of Georgia’s Jalen Carter) and the No. 1 recruit in Florida. He was the No. 12 overall recruit nationally. Dexter was highly recruited in basketball and received offers from national powers like Syracuse and Virginia before his sophomore year. Despite not playing high school football until his junior year, his recruitment quickly took off, receiving offers before he even took the field. Midway through his junior year, Dexter held scholarship offers from Alabama, Florida, Georgia and two dozen others. Growing up a Gators’ fan, he committed to Florida and became the first consensus five-star recruit under former head coach Dan Mullen. Two months before he enrolled in Gainesville, his father (Gerald) passed away at 50 after a bacterial infection spread to his heart (required a valve replaced) and also led to brain surgery to address an aneurism. Two years later, Gervon welcomed his infant son (Gervon Lashawn Dexter Jr.) on May 9, 2022. Dexter elected to skip his senior season and enter the 2023 NFL Draft. YEAR (GP/GS) TKLS TFL SACK FF PD INT NOTES 2020: (12/2) 19 1.5 0.0 0 1 1 2021: (13/9) 51 4.0 2.5 0 1 0 2022: (13/13) 55 4.0 2.0 0 2 1 Total: (38/24) 125 9.5 4.5 0 4 2 STRENGTHS: Looks the part and is still filling out his enormous frame and wingspan … athletic for his size with basketball feet and body control … uses his flexibility to slither into gaps or flatten down the line … flashes a violent arm-over rip move to clear the center … able to uproot blockers when he attacks upward with leverage and drives his feet … strong, balanced base versus the run … extends his long arms to stand up and dispose blockers, making stops in the hole … holds up well versus double teams and keeps his shoulders square to the line … reads the backfield well, using different peek techniques once he engages blockers … plays with urgency in the run game … took on more of a leadership role in 2022 and is described as a “unifying presence” behind the scenes by his coaches (Dexter: “We learned to be great teammates.”) … durable and played in all 38 games the last three seasons. WEAKNESSES: Spotty snap anticipation and consistently the last to move out of his stance … undeveloped counters with only average twitch in his upper body when attempting to shed … too easily moved when he allows his pads to rise at contact … needs to improve his positioning in tackle situations to be a more reliable finisher in small spaces … flagged multiple times for roughing because of his tendency to put all his weight on the quarterback … With his height and length, I expected to see more batted balls on his tape … played a lot of snaps (averaged 52.5 defensive snaps per game in 2022) and would go half-speed at times … unimpressive backfield production and didn’t reach double-digit tackles for loss in his career. SUMMARY: A two-year starter at Florida, Dexter was primarily a three-technique defensive tackle in co-defensive coordinator Sean Spencer’s four-man front, lining up everywhere from nose tackle to head up over the tackle. After giving up football to focus on basketball in middle school, he returned to the sport as a junior in high school and has shown incremental improvements over the last five years. Dexter carries his weight well with impressive foot quickness and pass rush potential, although you wish he had more backfield production to show for it. His impact can be traced to his ability to leverage – he is a very different player when he utilizes his long levers to put blockers on skates as a pass rusher or anchor, stack and work the point in the run game. Dexter must develop a more disciplined approach to turn the flashes into more consistent play, but he is an agile, coordinated big man who has yet to play his best football. He is a traits-based projection who can play up and down the line, which will interest both even and odd fronts. GRADE: 2nd Round (No. 55 overall) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZBearsFan Posted May 1, 2023 Share Posted May 1, 2023 Traitsy 3T with a ton of upside is basically what we could’ve hoped for here with our 3T pick not being Carter. I’m good with it. His skill set should be a strong match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuskieBear Posted May 1, 2023 Share Posted May 1, 2023 i know poles said that part of GD's role was to mirror and match, but his get-off still really scares me. would love to be proven wrong, but even on his highlight tape i saw offensive lineman get into him before he's even fully out of his stance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malak1 Posted May 1, 2023 Share Posted May 1, 2023 He looks so slow off the line it almost looks intentional. Otherwise, he has a ton of work to day, but the guy is very strong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malak1 Posted May 1, 2023 Share Posted May 1, 2023 5 hours ago, HuskieBear said: i know poles said that part of GD's role was to mirror and match, but his get-off still really scares me. would love to be proven wrong, but even on his highlight tape i saw offensive lineman get into him before he's even fully out of his stance Just read this after I posted. That would make sense, but why would Florida play him like that? lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dll2000 Posted May 2, 2023 Share Posted May 2, 2023 (edited) 14 hours ago, malak1 said: Just read this after I posted. That would make sense, but why would Florida play him like that? lol If you watch the other interior DL on FL does it too. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. Even if you are tasked with eating blocks, or two gapping or read and react you still want to get into others guys chest before he is into yours. Otherwise you are at disadvantage. This guy is going to have to spend offseason like a 100 meter runner. Work on getting out of blocks and shooting his hands into other guys chest. These are things you work on in little league everyday. But Gervon was a basketball player. Both DL we drafted have poor fundamentals in different ways. They are upside projections. They are counting on coaching. Dexter I think has the greater potential of the two to be something. If either had to play a game tomorrow in NFL I think they get their butt kicked. They are lucky spring isn’t full go or Jenkins and Davis would be burying them. They have 5 months. A lot can happen in 5 months when this is your only job. Cool thing about D line is there isn’t a lot to know scheme wise. You learn the whole playbook in a day for your position. It is all technique. Edited May 2, 2023 by dll2000 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugashane Posted May 2, 2023 Share Posted May 2, 2023 13 hours ago, malak1 said: Just read this after I posted. That would make sense, but why would Florida play him like that? lol He basically two-gapped on run plays, then if he read pass would switch it on and rush the passer from what I have gathered. Idk if they wanted a 4-3/3-4 hybrid of not because they tried to disguise a single Blitzer a LOT. I think it was more just a way to get him to focus on run stopping first to try and allow rhem not to change up their scheme too much. Regardless it didn't work, their run defense (not Dexter specifically, primarily the LBs) sucked something fierce. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugashane Posted May 2, 2023 Share Posted May 2, 2023 15 minutes ago, dll2000 said: If you watch the other interior DL on FL does it too. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. Even if you are tasked with eating blocks, or two gapping or read and react you still want to get into others guys chest before he is into yours. Otherwise you are at disadvantage. This guy is going to have to spend offseason like a 100 meter runner. Work on getting out of blocks and shooting his hands into other guys chest. These are things you work on in little league everyday. But Gervon was a basketball player. Both DL we drafted have poor fundamentals in different ways. They are upside projections. They are counting on coaching. Dexter I think has the greater potential of the two to be something. If either had to play a game tomorrow in NFL I think they get their butt kicked. They are lucky spring isn’t full go or Jenkins and Davis would be burying them. They have 5 months. A lot can happen in 5 months when this is your only job. Cool thing about D line is there isn’t a lot to know scheme wise. You learn the whole playbook in a day for your position. It is all technique. Not hard to see why Toney was rumored to be getting fired before he "chose" to become a defensive assistant for an NFL team, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dll2000 Posted May 2, 2023 Share Posted May 2, 2023 2 minutes ago, Sugashane said: Not hard to see why Toney was rumored to be getting fired before he "chose" to become a defensive assistant for an NFL team, right? Toney the FL coach? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugashane Posted May 2, 2023 Share Posted May 2, 2023 6 minutes ago, dll2000 said: Toney the FL coach? Yeah, he was a co-DC but they constantly had miscommunication issues in the back 7 and he was being talked about as a guy who was part of the issue. He could be a scapegoat out of the two DCs, but the whole defense was a mess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmike90 Posted May 4, 2023 Share Posted May 4, 2023 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpacemanSpiff Posted May 4, 2023 Share Posted May 4, 2023 Florida players tend to do better in the pros than they do in college, but I can speak firsthand as a Gator fan that both years Dexter started, the defense has been -- well -- very, very, very, catastrophically bad. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeaReylo Posted May 5, 2023 Share Posted May 5, 2023 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugashane Posted May 5, 2023 Share Posted May 5, 2023 17 hours ago, SpacemanSpiff said: Florida players tend to do better in the pros than they do in college, but I can speak firsthand as a Gator fan that both years Dexter started, the defense has been -- well -- very, very, very, catastrophically bad. True, but it is important to point out he wasn't a reason for the defense being crap. He was just one of the few brighter spots on a weak defensive cast. I'm hoping it gets turned around sooner rather than later. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JibjeResearch Posted May 5, 2023 Share Posted May 5, 2023 9 hours ago, BeaReylo said: When Gervon gets his technique right and the quick off the ball from the NFL conditioning, he will be unstoppable! I think by the 8th week, he should be displacing somebody on the DL lolz ahahahaha🤣 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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