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Roquan Smith or Tremaine Edmunds?


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Roquan Smith or Tremaine Edmunds?  

61 members have voted

  1. 1. Who's the better prospect?

    • Roquan Smith, ILB, Georgia
      33
    • Tremaine Edmunds, ILB, Virginia Tech
      29


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I haven't scouted either player yet, but I get the sense that they are the two top ILBs in this year's draft. There are a lot of people who prefer Edmunds, and a lot who prefer Smith. Who do you think is the better prospect, and why?

EDIT 3/29: I finally scouted both. I voted Roquan. I gave both All-Pro grades, but Smith's 8.05 beat out Edmunds' 8.03.

 

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While Edmonds is more scheme diverse, Smith is the better football player. He consistently makes impact plays. Edmunds doesn't have the same instincts or grasp for the position. Maybe he will in time (he's super young), but Smith is ready to play now.

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12 hours ago, jrry32 said:

I'll make a bold claim: Leighton Vander Esch > Roquan Smith.

Not really as bold as it would have been a month ago. LVE is basically a more athletic Poz and Roquan is a less athletic Lavonte David. Not sure Roquan is that much better of a prospect than Darius Leonard.

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People sleeping on Roquan because of his size will be sorry. His football IQ, play recognition, instincts are off the charts. He's a fluid athlete and sure tackler. He's going to be a start.

Edmunds is pure projections at this stage. Has the size people get excited about, but his instincts, etc. are not on the same level. He is so overhyped.

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These two are not going to play the same position. Tremaine Edmunds is a MLB/SLB prospect. Roquan Smith is a WLB prospect only.

That being said, I have Roquan Smith with the higher grade. He isn't as versatile as Edmunds CAN become, but he's got a very high floor and does what a WLB should be doing at an elite level. He knows his weaknesses and molds his game to mask those deficiencies. Edmunds is overrated to me. I've seen him do literally nothing in games this year where I watched the entire 4 quarters. Although I do admit I need to watch more tape of him, as I stat checked the 3 games of his I saw and those were by far his worse games statistically. In fact, those were the only 3 games where his stat line didn't look very good. Going off of what I saw live, I was not impressed.

 

Side note: I have Rashaan Evans ahead of both of these guys right now. Slightly ahead of Roquan and pretty significantly ahead of Edmunds.

 

Leighton Vander-Esch is impressive to me, but I don't like that he didn't play in a phone booth much. He's a perfect spread offense weapon because of his size and speed, but he looks thin and I rarely see him taking on fullbacks or murking guys downhill. It doesn't mean he can't do it, but it's a bit of a projection moving forward.

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2 hours ago, Jeezla said:

Not really as bold as it would have been a month ago. LVE is basically a more athletic Poz and Roquan is a less athletic Lavonte David. Not sure Roquan is that much better of a prospect than Darius Leonard.

LVE will be a better player than Poz, and Roquan isn't Lavonte David. Roquan is more Deion Jones than David (which isn't an insult).

1 hour ago, big_palooka said:

I like LVE, but he is not remotely on Smith's level.

LVE is better than Roquan. Roquan is a great athlete with great range, but he gets stuck to blocks like velcro. LVE can do anything and everything. He's less experienced than Roquan, but I'd already take him over Roquan because of his ability to stack blockers and finish plays behind the LOS. You can find multiple plays a game where he plays through a block at the LOS and makes a tackle. I was very disappointed with how easy it was to neutralize Roquan by putting a body on him.

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I'm surprised it's even this close. The biggest difference between the two isn't size it's instincts. Edmunds is the lesser experienced but he really looked lost sometimes this past season. Doesn't matter how big or fast you are if you don't know where the ball is.

LVE had a great bowl game. But when I watched earlier games in the season I wasn't as impressed. I need to go back and check those out.

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1 hour ago, BrownLeader said:

I'm surprised it's even this close. The biggest difference between the two isn't size it's instincts. Edmunds is the lesser experienced but he really looked lost sometimes this past season. Doesn't matter how big or fast you are if you don't know where the ball is.

LVE had a great bowl game. But when I watched earlier games in the season I wasn't as impressed. I need to go back and check those out.

This isn't about who is better right now, it's about Potential, and Edmunds has a considerably higher ceiling as a Prospect than Roquan, even if he lacks natural instincts. The right coach can go a long way towards helping Edmunds get better at the mental aspects of the game too. Jim Schwartz has helped Nigel Bradham a ton in that department. If Edmunds goes to the Bears and gets coached by Vic Fangio, I'm going to assume he'll end up being alright (In 2-3 years) with his field awareness, knowing his assignments, and recognizing what offenses are trying to do. If he goes to the Browns, then he'll probably just be Dion Jordan.

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1 hour ago, BrownLeader said:

I'm surprised it's even this close. The biggest difference between the two isn't size it's instincts. Edmunds is the lesser experienced but he really looked lost sometimes this past season. Doesn't matter how big or fast you are if you don't know where the ball is.

LVE had a great bowl game. But when I watched earlier games in the season I wasn't as impressed. I need to go back and check those out.

He's a first-year starter. I put more stock into games late in the season than early in the season.

1 hour ago, Kip Smithers said:

You can’t really teach instincts, so if you’re relying on somebody to improve in that area then it’s unrealistic. Roquan can at least improve in his ability to fight through blocks.

Roquan isn't going to improve much in that regard. He might get better at avoiding blocks, though.

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