STRENGTHS
Darrian is a multifaceted, multi-position defensive player. He has excellent size and speed to play more than one position in your defensive front seven. Darrian is very smart and shows the agility to rush the passer from off or on the line of scrimmage. He has those long arms and legs that makes it easy to cover ground quickly without having the blazing speed and quickness that most teams will be looking for in workouts. In spite of playing numerous positions on defense, his instincts are better than most would expect. Darrian is patient and doesn’t get fooled into taking false steps when tracking where the ball is against play action. He has very good cover skills (for a linebacker) to go up against those pass-catching Tight Ends that cause so much trouble for most defenses. Darrian is a bit of an anomaly for the linebacker position and most teams’ evaluators, struggle with anomalies.
CONCERNS
Darrian is very good in coverage against the quick routes, close to the line of scrimmage. He also is surprisingly good in coverage on deep routes because, with his long arms and legs, he covers so much ground he can eliminate the cushion and trail the play and still knock the ball down. He will struggle to cover the intermediate pass routes because of his long legs and lack of quickness to change directions. That being said, because he covers ground so quickly, separation in those routes will not last long before recovers. If you use Darrian on the line as an edge rusher he will have to learn better pass-rushing moves and this will affect his draft status if a team, is projecting him at that position and not as a linebacker.
BOTTOM LINE: 1.72
The definition of the word “anomaly” is something that deviates from what is standard, normal, or expected. Darrian because of his size and athletic talent, deviates from what is the standard, normal, or expected athletic talent for those who “check all the boxes” when evaluating players for the draft. His workout numbers might not be what is the norm for a linebacker but because of his size, length, instincts, and high football IQ, on the field, those workout numbers will not reflect how well he plays, and how much of an impact he can have. Those workout numbers might not show the norm or standard to play the linebacker position. They may not show the perfect numbers to play Edge Rusher. They may not show the norm or standard for him to be good in coverage. All I can tell you is to forget the freaking numbers, stop checking the freaking boxes, and turn on a game he has played in and you will see him show more than the normal and standard player who impacts a game and makes a defense better.
