With the 135th pick in the draft the Pittsburgh Steelers select:
Joe Mathis OLB Washington
Probably a little early but I'm not risking missing out on him. Write up is from a Steelers fan page.
Every year, there’s always a pass rusher who emerges out of nowhere to become one of the leading candidates in a draft class. While he doesn’t exactly hail from nowhere, but from Power Five member, Washington, not many analysts had him pegged as a guy to watch this season, and for good reason. He had only four sacks in the combined two years that he played prior to this season. He also couldn’t seem to break into the starting lineup.
All that changed in 2016, as Joe Mathis earned a starting spot and built a reputation as one of the most efficient pass rushers in the nation, racking up five sacks in four out of the six games he played. Those numbers might not sound great, but it honestly doesn’t tell the full story of just how disruptive Mathis has been from snap to snap.
Mathis is way more disruptive than the sack numbers would indicate. He’s always finding ways to disrupt the QB. One of my favorite traits about Mathis is his heavy hands which really allow him to stone people at the point of attack. Adding onto that point, he’s athletic and pretty quick off the line, but his speed off the line is not just a way of beating tackles to the outside, no, he uses it by converting it into power, and it’s so effective that he can sometimes knock tackles on their rear ends.
In terms of trying to beat tackles on the outside, Mathis shows a remarkably good amount of bend for someone his size, and has shown flashes of being able to dip underneath offensive tackles. He’s got some variance in his developing arsenal of moves, showing off a good inside swim move that’s effective.
Of course being an
edge defender means more than just rushing the passer. Mathis plays with really nice leverage in run game, and is very disciplined. What I mean by disciplined is that I never see him getting too aggressive trying to rush up the arch, rather he stays square and he sheds blocks with effectiveness (hands probably help in this regard).
Mathis also never seems to look uncomfortable playing in space, whether it’s dropping into coverage or being left on an island against a much shiftier player (you’ll see what I mean by this). I don’t know if I would call him twitched up, but he’s definitely a player you can play in space and not worry about him.
@Merlin is on the clock
@Boston Ram is on deck
