STRENGTHS
Maurice can play multiple positions on your defensive line in multiple styles of defensive fronts. He has excellent athleticism and shows on film good foot speed and quickness to be used as an interior pass rusher and disrupter on passing downs. Maurice is strong and smart and understands how to defeat double teams and does a very good job playing in a 2 gap system stuffing the run or setting the edge. He can also handle a zone blocking scheme against him because he has good lateral agility, strength and foot speed to control the line of scrimmage and allow his teammates to attack and make tackles behind the line. Maurice is what I call a complicated defensive lineman. He is so intelligent and football smart that it becomes complicated for offensive coordinators to figure out how to block him for all four quarters of a game.

CONCERNS
Maurice is undersized for a defensive lineman. Because Maurice doesn’t have an Andean Condor like arm spread he will struggle at times to finish. But don’t be fooled because Maurice plays like an Old World Vulture displaying predatory intelligence and skills to attack any style of offense.

BOTTOM LINE
The facts are, Maurice is a quality defensive lineman and if he decides that being on the outside of a defense instead of playing on the inside is more to his liking all he has to do is lose some weight and BAM, you have yourself one hell of a defensive end for a 4/3 defense. If he stays at his weight or gains a little without losing any athleticism, Maurice can be used on the nose in passing downs and on the outside as a Defensive End in a 3/4 defense. And last but not least… don’t forget his ability and skills to play now as a Defensive Tackle in a 4/3 also. Maurice understands leverage and is very strong and stout against the run and when offense coordinators are making game plans they must account for him on every play or he will burn you. What is really impressive about watching Maurice on film is how he doesn’t get fooled and knows what the offensive lineman are doing on every play. He can read and anticipate a screen play faster than most quarterbacks can complete the screen play. His head is up all the time and I can’t count how many tackles on running backs he has made by pushing his opponent with leverage and control, and taking both of them down for a run stuffing tackle. He has good foot speed to run down players from behind and although he might lack extreme quickness off the line his football intelligence and instincts allow him to play faster and quicker than most any other defensive tackle in this draft. In fact it would not surprise me to see him run faster than a lot of Defensive Ends and even some linebackers at the combine if he works out. Like I stated earlier, Maurice plays like an Old World Vulture displaying predatory intelligence and skills to attack any style of offense. I think that is what you want to add to your defense and worrying about his size just might be over thinking the draft process. But that’s just me Talking to Myself™… once again.

Drew Boylhart   JAN.2018