What does DE William Bradley-King bring to the Washington Football Team?

What is Washington getting in its seventh-round pick?

With the first of its three seventh-round picks, the Washington Football Team drafted defensive end William Bradley-King out of Baylor. Washington needs depth at the defensive end spot behind Chase Young and Montez Sweat and Bradley-King will get a chance to compete with the likes of last year’s seventh-round pick, James Smith-Williams to make the roster as a back up behind Young and Sweat. 

Bradley-King is listed at 6-foot-3, 252 pounds, which is pretty light for a 4-3 defensive end, but he does also have long arms that reach nearly 34 inches. That size is more in line with a 3-4 outside linebacker, but Bradley-King’s play style suits him putting on some more weight and playing with his hand in the dirt. While slightly undersized, he plays with good power, leverage and understands how to make use of what he does have.

One of Bradley-King’s go-to moves is the long-arm rush. It won’t always be his primary move and he has more to him than just one rush, but he does this technique effectively. Here we see him working against West Virginia’s right tackle. He nearly jumps offsides before the snap but manages to contain himself. That did put a thought in the right tackle's mind to ensure he gets width to cut off the rush. With the tackle focused on cutting off the speed rush outside, he exposes his chest to Bradley-King, who stabs it with his inside arm. From there, Bradley-King extends and locks out his arm, staying low and under the tackle. This allows him to drive the tackle back towards the quarterback. As he does this, the tackle trips on the right guard’s foot, causing him to lose his footing and Bradley-King finishes him off by driving him to the ground.

Bradley-King also packs a solid punch despite weighing 252 pounds. He does a solid job converting speed to power and driving his blocker back towards the quarterback.

On this play, Bradley-King works against the Texas right tackle. He initially takes two long strides up the field to try and get hip-level with the tackle to force him to open his hips to the sideline. With that goal accomplished quickly, Bradley-King then transitions his rush from speed to power, closing the gap between himself and the tackle and using his momentum to explode into the blocker. He stays low and gets under the pad level of the tackle while landing both hands inside on his chest. That gives Bradley-King all the leverage to drive the tackle back towards the quarterback, who feels the pressure coming in quickly off the right side and wisely gets rid of the ball in a hurry.

While he has a variety of rushes, I think Bradley-King can improve his hand usage. There were a few times in the games I watched that he tried to swipe away the blockers hands, only to miss or have little impact. 

These two plays are examples of what I’m talking about. On both plays, Bradley-King uses both hands to swipe down and across his body, trying to clear the hands of the left tackle as he works to the edge. However, on both occasions, he fails to clear the hands of the blocker, allowing them to keep their hands on him and prevent him from bursting past them. 

Using a hand swipe technique like that can be incredibly effective when used correctly. It was one of Chase Young’s go-to moves in college and brought him a great deal of success. If Bradley-King can improve both the placement and strength of the swipe, it could become a weapon for him too, but at this point it needs work.

Besides his rushing ability, there were a few things that stood out when watching Bradley-King. The most obvious thing that jumps off the screen when watching him is his motor and effort. He plays every single play as if it’s his last, leaving nothing on the field. It sounds like a simple thing, but not every player has the same effort and desire to chase down every single play.

On this play, Bradley-King is left unblocked by the offense, who use a speed option play where the quarterback can either run with it himself or pitch it to the running back outside. The quarterback pitches it to the back early, leaving Bradley-King out of position. However, Bradley-King shows great desire and effort to want to make the play. He chases down the back from the middle of the field all the way to outside the numbers, where he eventually makes the tackle. 

Bradley-King plays with that level of effort on every single snap, which is a credit to his work ethic and his stamina to keep going at that level throughout the game. But he’s not just all effort either. Bradley-King shows good football IQ regularly, understanding where he is in relation to the play and how he can best impact the play. He routinely spots quick throws to the flat and works to get his hand in the air to try and bat down passes at the line of scrimmage.

Here, West Virginia looks to hit a quick pass to the running back in the flat. Bradley-King aligns outside the right tackle and looks to rush up the field off the snap. However, as he rushes, he has one eye on the quarterback in the backfield. He spots the quarterback setting up to throw quickly in his direction, so instead of engaging with his blocker with some type of rush move, Bradley-King makes himself as big as possible, jumping and extending his arm up in the air. He bats down the pass immediately and prevents the quick completion to the flat.

Those types of heads up plays show up routinely when watching Bradley-King, which suggests he’s a smart player with an understanding of the bigger picture, rather than just purely focusing on only his pass rush or his technique. Those types of players tend to have the intelligence to move around and play different positions. Position flexibility has been a big point of emphasis from Ron Rivera and Washington this offseason and particularly in the draft. Bradley-King fits perfectly into that with the versatility to line up in various spots. Baylor used multiple fronts and Bradley-King switched between lining up as a 4-3 defensive end with his hand in the dirt, standing up as a 3-4 outside linebacker rushing off the edge, playing a 3-4 defensive end or even kicking inside to a three-technique defensive tackle spot.

These three plays all show Bradley-King working from an interior position, as opposed to on the edge. On the first play, Bradley-King aligns as what’s known as a 4i technique. He’s on the inside shoulder of the right tackle, which is a spot Washington fans saw the likes of Jonathan Allen and Matt Ioannidis play when Washington used a 3-4 front in the past. He stunts inside off the snap to engage with the guard, using his quickness to set him up before sneaking inside to pressure the quarterback. 

On the second play of the clip, Bradley-King again aligns in a similar technique, but this time on the opposite side of the line. Oklahoma State runs the ball to the left, trying to take advantage of a smaller player like Bradley-King working inside the tackles rather than on the edge. But Bradley-King attacks the block of the guard, getting his hands inside and preventing the guard from reaching him and cutting him off, or shoving him outside beyond the play. Instead, Bradley-King maintains his gap and bursts through the block as the running back cuts back towards him, making the tackle in the process.

The third play of the clip is another running play, but shows more versatility from Bradley-King. It’s a very similar play to the second play, but this time Bradley-King takes on a double team from the left guard and left tackle. He doesn’t look to penetrate, but instead looks to occupy blockers. He feels the guard working across to him and quickly works to engage with the tackle at the same time. While he occupies both blockers, the linebacker behind him is left free to read the back and flow to the ball to make the tackle.

Bradley-King was so versatile that even though he played both inside and out on the defensive line, Baylor still occasionally asked him to drop into coverage, and he didn’t look horrible doing so.

Here, Baylor looks to send a cornerback blitz from the short side of the field. To make up the numbers in coverage, Bradley-King is asked to drop into coverage on the opposite side of the corner. As he opens his hips and sinks back, he spots the running back flaring out to the flat and starts to step up towards him, but then gets his eyes on the quarterback, who he notices isn’t setting up to throw that way. Bradley-King responds by sinking back further and gaining more depth, getting in the passing lane of a spot route that the quarterback could have been looking for. Soon the corner arrives from the far side and lands a big hit on the quarterback for a sack.

There’s a lot of good traits to Bradley-King’s game, which is an encouraging sign for a seventh-round pick. His football IQ, motor and versatility will appeal greatly to Rivera, which will give him a good chance to compete to make the roster, which is never guaranteed for a seventh-rounder. He’s not too dissimilar from James Smith-Williams last year, who made the team as a back up defensive end behind Young, Sweat and Ryan Kerrigan, but also offered some flexibility to kick inside and rush from a defensive tackle spot on occasions. I think Bradley-King could play a similar role for Washington, but the key will be his weight. Smith-Williams is listed at 265 pounds, and is probably still slightly light for that role. Bradley-King will need to work hard to put on additional weight if he’s to take Smith-Williams spot.