NFL Draft Profile: LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah
Could the Notre Dame LB be a fit for Washington in the first round?
As the NFL draft gets closer, I’ll continue to break down some of the prospects at positions of need for Washington. Linebacker is clearly an area Washington needs to improve on as well as add depth. The team didn’t spend significantly on the position in free agency, meaning they may well look to add a linebacker early in the draft. Previously, I’ve looked at Micah Parsons and Jamin Davis. Today, I’m looking at another of the top linebacker prospects in Notre Dame’s Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah.
Owusu-Koramoah is an interesting prospect because of his versatility. He’s listed at 6-foot-1, 215 pounds which is very light for a linebacker, even in the modern NFL. It’s more in line with the size of a strong safety, which is closer to the role he played at Notre Dame. He lined up in various positions in college, from linebacker to safety to covering the slot. At his size, he’s athletic enough to handle the role of covering the slot.
This is a position Owusu-Koramoah often found himself in. He’s playing as an overhang or apex defender, meaning he’s not quite in the box, but not quite lined up over the slot receiver either. He aligns in that gap between the two and has to be just as ready to play the run as he does sink back into coverage. On this occasion, Alabama uses a play-action fake to work into a core passing concept. Owusu-Koramoah doesn’t bite on the fake, instead getting his eyes on the slot receiver. He sinks back with him and turns to run with him vertically. As the receiver breaks inside, Owusu-Koramoah has solid positioning to take away the route and force the quarterback to look elsewhere.
While he most regularly aligned in an overhang position, he spent plenty of time out over the slot too. He’s perfectly comfortable out there working against slot receivers in man coverage.
Here, Clemson uses a jet sweep fake to the right with the quarterback rolling out to the left. Owusu-Koramoah lines up over the slot receiver and is tasked with staying with the receiver on a crossing route. Crossing routes are typically the hardest for defenders to stay with in coverage because it’s all about athleticism, but Owusu-Koramoah isn’t lacking in that and he runs stride for stride with the slot receiver. He stays on his back hip, ready to undercut any potential throw, but the ball sails over their heads incomplete.
Owusu-Koramoah is also capable of playing in zone coverages too.
On this play, Louisville attempts to bait the linebackers up with a play-action fake before throwing behind them to a basic cross from the slot receiver. Owusu-Koramoah aligns in that overhang position again between the slot receiver and the left tackle. He initially bites up on the play-action fake, but soon recognizes his mistake and looks to sink back into coverage. He smartly realizes what the offense is trying to do, getting the linebackers to bite up and throw behind them, so Owusu-Koramoah turns to locate the slot receiver and his in-breaking route. He then sinks underneath the route, but cleverly adjusts his drop to sink into the path of the receiver rather than exactly where the receiver was when he turned his head to locate him. This prevents the quarterback from throwing to the slot receiver and forces him to work outside to his second read.
Owusu-Koramoah’s upside as a coverage defender is clear to see and that’s a valuable asset in a league that is based on passing rather than running now. However, to play linebacker in the NFL, Owusu-Koramoah still has to be able to defend the run. His athleticism does translate to run defense occasionally. There are times when his quickness allows him to elude blockers and make plays.
Here, Alabama calls a gap scheme run. The left guard pulls around to the right side of the line and is tasked with blocking Owusu-Koramoah. Owusu-Koramoah charges up to the line of scrimmage initially to fill his gap, but spots the guard pulling across to block him and the back working inside. He uses a sharp cut to evade the pulling guard and get back inside where he’s able to make the tackle on the running back for a minimal gain.
That was an excellent play. However, when blockers get their hands on Owusu-Koramoah, he can struggle to disengage and get off blocks. Often he is overpowered in those situations, which is understandable considering offensive lineman have a weight advantage of anywhere from 85 to 100 pounds or even more. But even tight ends, who don’t have the same drastic weight advantage, can make Owusu-Koramoah look lightweight in the run game.
On this play, Clemson motions a tight end into the core of the formation before having him sift across from right to left. Owusu-Koramoah aligns on the back side of the run and initially reads the play correctly. He spots the sifting tight end and knows that typically means the back will be following to the edge. He scrapes to the edge to re-establish it, but once there he’s met by the tight end, who bulldozes him. Owusu-Koramoah ends up on the ground as the running back runs by him. Technically, Owusu-Koramoah did his job in that he forced the back to work back inside towards the rest of the defense. However, I’d be concerned over how easily that tight end was able to knock him over and wonder if he’d be able to hold up consistently in the NFL as a linebacker in the box.
He’s much more suited defending the run from a secondary position, either as a strong safety or from the slot.
This time, Owusu-Koramoah aligns over the slot receiver, who is lined up tight to the formation. Owusu-Koramoah gets a terrific read off the snap and triggers on the run early, perhaps as part of a designed blitz. From that slot position, he’s easily able to use his athleticism to knife through the line and make a tackle for loss in the backfield. This is because slot defenders and safeties aren’t always accounted for by the offensive line in the blocking scheme. At his current size, this type of role suits him much more from a run defense perspective rather than playing as a pure linebacker in the box with bigger linemen picking him up.
One big concern I had when watching Owusu-Koramoah was his tackling. In the Clemson game in particular, I noticed a number of missed tackles and other occasions where his tackles weren’t at all convincing.
These are just two examples of Owusu-Koramoah struggling with tackling. On the first play, he aligns over the slot receiver on a quick out route. Giving up the catch there is understandable due to his inside leverage, but he then fails to make the tackle to keep the gain to a minimum. On the second play of the clip, Owusu-Koramoah comes charging in from the slot to fill the lane in the run, but drops his head and looks to land a big hit rather than wrapping up. The runner bounces off the hit with a spin move and picks up additional yards after contact until the safety is able to clean up.
Missed tackles can’t afford to happen in the NFL and with his size disadvantage, he needs to be a fundamentally sound tackler to ensure good tackles at the next level. Going for the big hit doesn’t always work for defenders at 245 pounds, let alone him at 215.
However, despite the tackling concern, Owusu-Koramoah has clear playmaking instincts that make him an exciting prospect.
On this play, Owusu-Koramoah lines up over the slot. Clemson runs a toss play in his direction, with the right guard pulling out to lead block for the back. With three receivers to that side and the pulling lineman, the back should have plenty of protection from Owusu-Koramoah. However, Owusu-Koramoah is either part of a blitz or just makes a terrific read, but as soon as the ball is snapped he bolts into the backfield. He beats the slot receiver and the pulling guard to their spots and closes on the back before he can even secure the ball. In fact, the ball bounces off the back and hits Owusu-Koramoah, who is aware enough to adjust and catch the ball. He then runs past the back and into the end zone for a turnover and touchdown.
Owusu-Koramoah is a good prospect with a lot of upside that will appeal to NFL talent evaluators, but his position is uncertain. From Washington’s perspective, Ron Rivera has a history of drafting college safeties and converting them to linebackers. Thomas Davis and Shaq Thompson were both safeties in college that Rivera drafted in the first round and turned into very productive linebackers in the NFL. The key difference between those two and Owusu-Koramoah is the weight. Davis weighed 230 pounds coming out of college while Thompson weighed 228. Owusu-Koramoah is about 15 pounds lighter than both of them, which is significant if he wants to play linebacker. If I’m drafting him in the first round, which he’s clearly talented enough for, I’d want to make sure I had a defined role for him in my defense. I’m not sure his size will allow him to play as a traditional linebacker, but perhaps he can fit into a big nickel role that can line up over the slot and tight ends instead of the Will linebacker.