Over the last five years, Tyrone Crawford has been one of the Cowboys’ three best pass rushers.
Crawford is a Dallas Cowboy in 2019, not only because he is a really good player, but because he offers positional flexibility. That may not be totally fair to Tyrone, but he’s made a pretty good living off being the guy who can play both defensive end and defensive tackle based on his team’s needs.
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We can learn a lot by studying the career of Tyrone Crawford, and that’s how we get to Iowa defensive lineman Anthony Nelson. A Top 100 prospect in the 2019 draft, Anthony Nelson is a defensive end first, but he has the ability to play inside as well, provided he gets a little bit stronger.
We’ll break down Nelson in depth, but I think it’s interesting to look at Crawford’s trajectory first, because he could end up following it.
Crawford was drafted 81st overall in 2012. At the time the Cowboys were playing in a 3-4 defense. Crawford played sparingly in 2012. In 2013, he tore his Achilles. In 2014 he had his first impactful season, logging three sacks while mostly playing as a strong-side defensive end, even though the plan was for him to be a 3-technique defensive lineman. Just for fun, can you guess who led that 2014 team in sacks? It was Jeremy Mincey (six). Henry Melton finished with five, while Crawford and George Selvie each had three.
In 2015, Crawford was once again tied for third on the team in sacks (five). He was also third in 2016 (4.5) behind Benson Mayowa and Maliek Collins. A similar script followed in 2017, when he was third on the team in sacks with four, behind DeMarcus Lawrence (14.5) and David Irving (seven). The picture of consistency, Crawford was also third in 2018 with his 5.5 sacks slotting in behind Lawrence’s 10.5 and Randy Gregory’s 6.
What’s amazing is that in Tyrone Crawford’s seven-year NFL career, he’s never really had a set position. He’s always been able to help out depending on your roster’s needs. He’s a highly valuable asset to have.
Anthony Nelson — Defensive Lineman —Iowa — #98
Height: 6’7”
Weight: 271
40 Time: 4.82
Tyrone Crawford was 6’4 and around 285 pounds when he came into the league. Anthony Nelson is not that. At 6’7 and 271 pounds, he’s obviously taller and leaner than Crawford. When I compare the two, I’m comparing them in the roles they could play.
Playing left defensive end, Nelson totaled 23 sacks over his last three years, and was second in the Big 10 in sacks in 2018.
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He’s not your classic flexible, bendy defensive end. He wins with his hands and upper-body strength, while also doing a great job of keeping his lower body moving upon contact. His contact balance is phenomenal. He also shows an array of pass-rush moves which really helps out his overall evaluation, showing that he’s advanced as a pass rusher to help compensate for his lack of fluidity and explosiveness. More than anything, it’s all in his hands. He uses great hand placement and packs a heavy punch that can rock opposing offensive tackles off balance. Last but not least, he’s a try-hard guy with high effort and a relentless attitude at all times.
His combine spider chart from mockdraftable.com is posted below. Does anything jump out at you?
Wow! Look at that three-cone drill!
The 3-cone drill is used to help evaluate the agility of a football player, especially a pass rusher. For more on what each combine test means, I highly recommend you read Dane Brugler’s article posted last week.
Based on Nelson’s tape, I would not have seen him in that sub-seven second range. But his combine scores were an encouraging sign.
While Nelson is not as strong as Crawford, he does have the length that we saw work for David Irving in spurts throughout his short Dallas Cowboys career.
Let’s go to the clip show! The games I studied of Nelson came against Penn State, Mississippi State, Iowa State, Wisconsin and Nebraska. The majority of the clips you will see are from the Nebraska game, and that’s because it’s the game with the most aesthetically-pleasing tape.
Let’s start with a few examples of Nelson playing the run.
In this clip he’s the left defensive end, wearing #98. Watch him grab the Nebraska right tackle and throw him inside, allowing himself room to get in on the stop. This is a great example of his strong hands going to work.
I don’t care what anybody says; length matters, as evidenced here by Nelson tripping up the running back. Just one of the benefits of being 6’7 with an 83″ wingspan.
On this play, he’s able to quickly disengage from the right tackle and chase down the ball carrier. He constantly flies to the football.
It’s not all roses, though. Nelson must get stronger if he’s going to have the ability to play on the interior every once in a while. At the combine he only threw up 18 reps on the bench press, which was one of the lower numbers in this draft class for a defensive lineman. Granted, the bench press is a very tough workout for players with arms this long. I think he can add some muscle, and you can see his strength through his strike, but there were times when he had issues on running plays.
Now let’s watch him rush the passer. We start in the Nebraska game, which was probably his best of the year. He doesn’t finish the job here, but you can see the effort and how’s he able to widen out and really attack the pocket.
I’ll be the first to admit that this Nebraska right tackle was not Nelson’s toughest matchup of the year, but in this clip you can kind of see his bread and butter. He wants to get wide, throw his hands at the tackle and initiate the bull rush.
What I love about this clip is Nelson’s understanding of what the offensive lineman is thinking. Now that he’s beaten him by running right through him, the offensive tackle is a little quicker to try to extend his arms and grab hold of Nelson. If you watch this clip a few times very carefully you’ll see how Nelson tempts the offensive tackle to make the first move with his arms, then counters with a burst around the edge and nearly gets another sack.
In this clip Nelson easily converts speed to power around the edge. That’s where he’s most dangerous as a player, when he can widen out and really create momentum when storming towards the quarterback. Because of his length, he’s able to initiate contact with the offensive tackle most of the time. The best analogy I have is that of a boxer who has more reach on his opponent. It’s a basic tangible advantage, before you add in the athletic component of both players who are going at it.
He didn’t use it much in the games I watched, but here’s evidence of a rip move.
Lastly, let’s go to the Hawkeyes’ game against Penn State. It’s 3rd and 18 so everybody is geared up to rush the passer, but you have to like the interior chaos he’s able to cause on the stunt. This is another one that reminded me of Tyrone Crawford, as I thought about the many times we’ve seen him rushing from the defensive end position, but stunting inside and pushing two blockers around.
Overall, I think it’s pretty easy to envision who Anthony Nelson is. My best comparison for him is a taller, longer, less powerful Tyrone Crawford. I’m also admittedly envisioning how I think he would be used in Dallas.
Lance Zierlein of NFL.com compared him to Carl Nassib. NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah said that Nelson reminds him of Isaac Rochell of the Chargers. Josh Liskiewitz compares him to Trey Flowers of the Patriots. These comps are all over the board because few linemen are as tall as Nelson.
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Nelson earned a third-round grade from me, but given the depth in this draft at defensive end, I think his range is pretty wide. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go anywhere between 50 and 100. If he’s a Dallas Cowboy it’s because they took him in the third round at pick 91 or traded into the early fourth, because he won’t be on the board when they pick at 129.
Given the Randy Gregory suspension and Jason Witten return, the Cowboys will very likely draft a defensive lineman on the draft’s second day. My concern is with how these positions will stretch in terms of depth compared to how I have them graded. Nelson would be a solid choice in the third round while allowing the Cowboys to address another position with their first pick.
(Photo by Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)