A Look to the Future: Jerry Hughes, DE, TCU

TCU defensive end Jerry Hughes is likely to get many looks from teams in the 2010 NFL Draft because every team needs pass rushers and roughly half of the league is running a 3-4 front, which draftniks predict will be the future defense in which Hughes plays in. His stock will likely be up and down and anywhere between the mid first round and the mid second round, depending on the junior talent that enters the Draft. With that said, I thought I’d take a look into Jerry Hughes game on the field.

Hughes is a former high school running back and kick returner and it is safe to say that some of his characteristics from the former position translate very well to his current position of defensive end.

A few of the traits that translate to his defensive game well is his athleticism, explosiveness and quickness. He’s exceptionally quick off the line of scrimmage and around blockers. When playing along the line of scrimmage, he displays good lateral speed and quickness as well. His athleticism is important because he doesn’t have a problem avoiding trash (or defenders) at his feet.

When getting after the oppositions signal caller, he shows good pop on the offensive linemen as well as the ability to sink his shoulder and get around blockers. He shows good hand use when fighting blockers. What I mean by good hand use is that Hughes will slap away blocker’s hands, not allowing them to get a hold of him while he goes around the edge. Further, he does a good job of disengaging off of blockers because of his long arms.

While there are positives with Hughes hand and shoulder use, there are also negatives that need to be corrected. Early last season I caught a game of his against Boise State and what I noticed was that when he shifts over across the B or C gap in the 3-3-5 and rushes on the interior, he doesn’t always square his shoulders and that’s an issue because he fails to have leverage in his favor. He can be knocked around by interior blockers because of his body being turned sideways. However, when he did square his shoulders, he was very dominant as he was able to use a rip move to get into the backfield as well as a tremendous bulrush.

The other negative is his hand placement. When coming off the edge and sometimes charging through gaps on the interior, he doesn’t have proper hand placement. Instead of having his hands on the breast plates of blockers, he will have one on the side of the shoulder and one on the breast plate. He should look to have both hands on the breast plates and this also affects his pass rushing skills, which I’ll get into next.

Jerry’s pass rushing repertoire is limited due to his short time playing the position. Coming off the edge, he shows a good bulrush because of his good upper body strength and proper technique. He has one foot forward, the other foot back and sinks his hips low to the ground, driving his strength into the blocker. While his bulrush is good, he’s going to have to expand his repertoire because he needs more pass rush moves to beat blockers, specifically a dominant inside move. If Hughes had a dominant inside pass rush, he could take away screen passes by requiring the halfback to stay in pass protection more often.

As a strong side end, Hughes is expected to set the edge well and that’s something that should be questioned with Hughes. From the little I’ve seen of Hughes, I haven’t noticed any trouble setting the edge against tight ends or offensive tackles. He’s been pretty impressive in that regard in the little plays I’ve seen. However, what I noticed is that when he sets the edge, he does it well against a zone blocking scheme. When he’s facing an offensive line that is smash mouth, he will take himself out of the play. Hughes rushes parallel to the sideline and then leaves a gaping hole for an inside run. That also leaves a huge opportunity for the offensive tackle to hook Hughes and push him wide, creating a big hole for the halfback.

Moreover, Hughes rawness or his lack of instincts come into play often as he struggles to recognize when a halfback will be a strong or crossing flanker as he simply doesn’t pick up on it. A halfback will go out for a screen pass and Hughes will blow right by him. Another instance seen is that he will rush up the field and a halfback will run right past him up for a middle screen. If he recognized that, he could shed the blocker and step in front of the halfback for an interception on the attempted middle screen pass.

Further, Hughes doesn’t play many mind games with blockers. Its basically a ‘what you see is what you get’ with him. He’ll either line up in five technique or he’ll line up directly over you. If he lines up in a five technique, he’ll always rush parallel to the sideline and if he is directly over the linemen, he’ll often take on the blocker, disengage and then continue his path around the blocker by going to the outside. If he shifts over to the interior of the line, he’ll often rush in the A gap. Although he is predictable, he does mix up how far he lines up off the line of scrimmage. For example, if its a down and roughly ten yards, he’ll often line up about a yard off the line of scrimmage. However if its a down and roughly five yards to go, he’ll line up on the line of scrimmage more often then he will line up off of it. Here’s a small tally chart that I did when I caught the TCU – Boise State game last season.

Down and between 0-6 – Lines up ON the LOS – Tally: XXX
Down and between 7-10 – Lines up OFF of the LOS – Tally: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Down and between 7- 10 – Lines up ON the LOS – Tally: XXXXXXX
Down and between 0-6 – Lines up OFF of LOS – Tally: X

Last, he was sparingly used in coverage last season, sometimes playing the ‘rover’ role in TCU’s 3-3-5 defense and that will be something to monitor this upcoming season as he could have a more featured role in coverage because of the possibility of being required to do it at the next level. When he did spend time in coverage in college, he changed directions easily and moved well laterally.

This upcoming season will be big for Jerry Hughes because he’s going to have to prove he’s not a one year wonder. If he struggles this year, you can bet scouts will take notice of it and drop him down their draft board.