2016 NFL Draft: DE Emmanuel Ogbah dark-horse candidate for New York Giants

Back again with another potential dark-horse candidate for the New York Giants in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft. The first one we took a look at was Georgia linebacker Leonard Floyd, a player considered a dark-horse candidate as of today, but who in actuality should be a front-runner. Today we look at another EDGE player who could be appealing to the Giants -- Oklahoma State defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah.

The best edge rusher likely to be available when the Giants are on the clock is likely to be Clemson defensive end Shaq Lawson. Lawson tallied 25.5 tackles for loss last year and racked up 12.5 sacks.  sacks  Lawson lacks ideal size, but does have impressive explosion and short-area quickness, he's one of the few EDGE rushers with a good SPARQ score, which is a H/W/S metric that measures explosion.

I personally like Lawson and think he should be a target for the Giants and maybe he will, but the Giants have a clear prototype along the front seven of their defense and that prototype has a length requirement. The Giants have a core-organizational belief that perhaps the biggest indicator of success in a future NFL prospect on the defensive line is length and if you sift through years of Reese's comments you'll find mentions to how important they feel length is (or if you're like me and have seen the America's Game where Tom Brady talks about throwing the ball through the forest...) Now, Olivier Vernon does not have the prototype length, but that likely to the Giants is a case of a successful outlier. Lawson is solid, but he's not long. He reminds me of Chris Long coming into the NFL and I think will be a good NFL player.

Looking at the SPARQ score for EDGE players there are only 2two players higher than Lawson Charles Tapper and Emmanuel Ogbah. Ogbah put up a showing at the combine with a 4.63 40-yard dash, 35.5-inch vertical, and a 121-inch broad jump at 6-foot-4, 273 pounds. Ogbah also has length with 35½-inch arms and 10-inch hands. Ogbah is the prototype of a New York Giants defensive end.  But it's not like Ogbah is just an athletic freak as he registered 17.5 tackles for loss last season, and 13 sacks on the year.

That's an impressive accomplishment and it's a wonder that he's not higher regarded especially in this draft class which lacks top end athletes in the top 10 range. Ogbah has the H/W/S requirements but also has production to back it up and for the past 2 years (his statistics last year were nearly identical to this year).  in Bob McGinn's draft series here's what scouts had to say about Ogbah:

"Whoever takes him will get an excellent player", "He can play any position, except nose, he does what they tell him to do. He plays defense" , "Good effort player".   "Very explosive. Late First. Early second".

What? Wait. Big-time athlete who has a prototypical build, big-time production at a major college program for two years in a row, and he's one of the most explosive athletes in the entire class. What's not computing here? Well, other scouts told Mark Eckel that Ogbah is "as raw as can be" and that he has "bad instincts, real bad instincts". But these where things that were said about Ezekiel Ansah and Chandler Jones as well, but he tested better than either of those players and if memory serves me right those players combined for nine sacks in the final years of their college careers -- less than Ogbah had this year by himself.

Will Ogbah be the Giants pick at 10? Chances are probably not. But when you look deeper at the player you see a productive player, who fits the prototype of the Giants because he's a H/W/S/ phenomenon with long arms and big hands who comes into the league in much better position of what he did in college than either Chandler Jones or Ezekiel Ansah did, so maybe he should be.

Just for good measurement and because it's interesting why he's not getting a lot of love here is the spider chart for Ogbah.

Notice the comparison chart for Ogbah in terms of athletic similarities:

Aldon Smith, Lavar Edwards, Robert Quinn, Chandler Jones, Chris Kelsay, Jadeveon Clowney, Frank Alexander, Greg Hardy, Ziggy Ansah, Adlatus Thomas.

Players with his height, his weight, his speed have a very good chance of succeeding in the NFL. Top if off with a player who was not only productive, but scouts describe as versatile and does what the coaches tell him to do what's the hold-up?. If the Giants are taking a chance on a  "risk-reward" prospect at 10 maybe his name shouldn't be Floyd, but Ogbah.

And my parting thought is: honestly, don't the Giants have a difficult to pronounce name quotient that is presently lacking with Prince Amukamara leaving in free agency? Am I really the only one noticing this?