STRENGTHS
Malik has as much athletic talent as Jadeveon Clowney. He has the length that you look for in a pass rusher and the size and strength you look for in a defensive lineman who can play any position in multiple style of defenses. For a tall player he comes off the line of scrimmage at a good pad level getting into his opponent with good leverage. Malik has the foot speed and agility to turn the corner and sack quarterbacks. His height, long arms and legs make it easy for him to knock passes down and his strength in his lower body makes it easy for him to use any move to free himself up in the middle of the line to make plays behind the line of scrimmage. With all of Malik’s natural athletic talents I suspect his workouts to be outstanding and be the talk of this draft if his injury is healed.

CONCERNS
Malik plays like a ghost. By that I mean he seems to be caught between the plane of existence of a Defensive Nose Tackle in a 3/4 defense and a pass rushing Defensive End in a 3/4 or 4/3 defense. This has caused him to have very poor techniques to free his self up when switching back and forth between positions and to look very sloppy. Not using the correct techniques for each position makes him look like he is not consistent and disappears during games and then all of a sudden appears when he does use the correct techniques. The key for me is there is never a lack of effort when he struggles to appear or when he disappears. Another concern is Medicals and if Malik can’t work out because he ended the season early with a bad ankle.

BOTTOM LINE
Here’s the key… on every play Malik is doubled and or tripled teamed. It doesn’t matter in what front (and this defense plays them all) Malik is the defensive player the Head Coach, Offensive Coordinator and Offensive line coach has too game plan for. There is no doubt about the fact that Malik’s techniques are poor and sloppy. Nevertheless there is also no doubt about his effort on every play and his athletic talent and finally there is also no doubt that when he does use the correct techniques that he is pretty much unstoppable. Add all that together with the fact that he plays all the defensive line positions in any style front and could even play some coverage as a pure linebacker and I think the fact that he does disappear and then reappears during games can only be because of his poor techniques. Most people think that Ghost’s are relentless in there haunting until the person they are haunting leave the premises. I believe if your team needs a defensive lineman and the General Manager passes on selecting Malik, it will haunt him until he leaves the premises or in this case…fired.

Drew Boylhart  FEB.2017