Gerald Willis DL Miami

STRENGTHS
Gerald has tremendous, athletic talent to be one of the best penetrating defensive tackles in this draft. He has excellent explosion changing the line of scrimmage in his favor on almost every play. He has enough flexibility to change direction once he gets into the back field to sack the quarterback and disrupt the rhythm of plays. Gerald has good foot speed to run down players from behind and tackle quarterbacks out of the pocket. He has the talent on the field to be a leader. He has the moxie to be the type of player his teammates depend on. Gerald has a lot of skills that need to be coached and to make him believe in himself but as I always say…it takes more that talent to play in the NFL.

CONCERNS
When I watch Gerald play, my reaction is, that he really pisses me off. His techniques are suspect and inconsistent and if his first move is stuffed, he struggles to make second move. His techniques against the run are poor and he tries to do everything with athletic talent and not using the correct techniques. It drives me crazy to see a big player with his lateral agility, not use the correct techniques to be a good run stuffer. Gerald must learn and use the correct techniques to keep players off his body so he can shed blocks and make tackles. I have more concerns, in fact too many to list but let me say this one thing…Gerald REALLY pisses me off when I watch him on film. He either struggles to accept authority and bring what he learns in practice on the field in game time or, he’s just stubborn and thinks he doesn’t need to use the correct techniques. Either way Gerald has a lot of work to do to reach his potential.

TALENT BOARD ROUND 3.22
Did I mention that Gerald pisses me off? He has such excellent potential to be more than he is on the field right now that it makes me want to cry. I see leadership in his play but I don’t see him leading. I see a potentially, excellent and COMPLETE Defensive lineman who could play more than one position on a defensive line but I don’t see on film that he believes that. How many players do you see on film, play sloppy but with great effort on every play? How many players do you see get into the backfield and then cannot finish because they didn’t use the right techniques to finish. If he was a freshman you could understand this type of play…but he’s not freshman and not as a player getting ready for the NFL Draft. What really gets me is, his teammates respond to him but I don’t think Gerald realizes it. He’s so busy giving so much effort that he doesn’t realize that his teammates are looking for him and reacting to his play. Some times you just have to take a chance on a kid like this. He has had some personal issues but I see a hell of a player emerging. I would take a chance that Gerald will become a much better, consistent and more of a complete defensive lineman at the next level than he has been at the college level. I truly believe that and now, the only other person who needs to believe it is Gerald. Maybe this profile of his play will piss him off and give him a kick in the buttocks, one can only hope.