STRENGTHS
Taven is a beast; there is no better definition of his play on the field than to say that he is a beast. He has the quickest and most explosive burst off the line of scrimmage than any defensive lineman in this draft. He packs so much power and explosiveness and quickness when coming off the line of scrimmage that most offensive lineman going up against him will be off balance and stumbling on just about every play whether it’s a running play or a passing play. Taven has excellent size and athletic talent to play multiple positions in multiple styles of defensive system on your defensive front line. He has leadership qualities through his play on the field. He works hard on every play and can stop the run as well as get into the backfield on passing downs like a power defensive end in spite of the fact that he played mostly as a defensive tackle in a 4/3 defense. Taven has the potential to be an impact defensive line man that offensive coordinators will have to account for on every single play.

CONCERNS
Taven struggles to keep his feet at times when shooting gaps and getting into the back field. He also is easy to push off his pass rush gap because of his poor foot work and lack of hand usage in developing pass rushing moves. He is susceptible to cut blocks and has to learn how to finish and become more than just a disrupting defensive player. Taven has to become more of a student of his position and learn to get off blocks quicker to make more tackles against the run. Right now Taven is accomplishing his ability to disrupt biased only on his athletic talent. I have no doubt that Taven will improve in every way and get better and better with pro style defensive line coaching

BOTTOM LINE
I realized while watching the Florida vs Missouri game that Missouri tamed the beast. Their whole offensive game plan was based on how to block Taven on every play. Taven is the type of defensive lineman that makes quarterbacks drop their eyes at the snap of the ball to identify how far into the back field off the snap he is. That is what I would call an impact defensive lineman. Missouri’s game plan was to let Taven blow off the line into the back field and use his lack of pass rushing moves and poor foot work to push him up the field away from any action and it worked. Taven was confused and because of his lack of skill set (Hand Usage) he struggled to make a consistent impact. As the game went on Taven’s answer was to play more two gap and stay on the line of scrimmage and this once again played right into the hands of the Missouri offensive coordinator and continued to take Taven out of impacting. Taven has excellent talent and obvious excellent work ethic. He has to improve his footwork and hand usage to become the impact player his talent suggest that he will become. There is no quit in this kid and it’s just a matter of time before he becomes the type of impact defense player you can build your front seven around. But, he will need some time before you can unleash the beast.

Drew Boylhart   FEB.2018