Chris Braswell scouting report: Exploring the Alabama edge defender’s strengths and weaknesses

Despite being a highly-ranked recruit in 2020, Chris Braswell decided to redshirt his first year at Tuscaloosa and had limited playing time in the following season. However, he eventually earned a spot in Alabama’s “Cheetah”package for passing downs.

In the previous season, he achieved personal bests in snaps played (569), tackles (42), TFLs (10.5), sacks (eight) and forced fumbles (three), in addition to recording a pick-six. He also recorded 20 tackles, four for loss, 2.5 sacks and a forced fumble.

Bio: Standing at 6-foot-3 and weighing 250 pounds, this individual is a redshirt junior.

Analyzing Chris Braswell’s strengths and weaknesses

Defensive Tackling:

• Has improved his ability to standing up and anchoring against drive-blocks at the point of attack
• Counters the first step(s) of offensive tackles to where if they use bucket-steps or open the hips horizontally, Braswell will make sure he turns his body and keeps the outside shoulder clean
• Does a nice job of staying ready to slip inside and wrap up the ball-carrier up the B-gap when setting the edge
• The way Chris Braswell can bounce laterally allows him to side-step blockers effectively
• Happily erases space toward pulling guards and squeezes the lane the offense is trying to create inside of him on power/counter plays, as well as squeezing down sifting tight-ends on split zone
• Frequently is able to press of blockers late and corral the ball, with pretty strong tackling efforts where he stays on his feet to stop the initial momentum of ball-carriers
• While remaining disciplined in staying at home for quarterback containment and (naked) bootlegs, this player also possesses incredible pursuit speed when not blocked on the backside of lateral concepts, rollouts, and similar plays.
• Spent 52 snaps in coverage last season and earned a PFF grade of 71.7 in that regard – Particularly dropping into the hook-zone, you like his ability to get square and read the eyes of the quarterback to chase down underneath throws or scrambling QBs

Defensive Pressure:

• Has real pop off the ball, with the hips and ankle flexion to turn the corner at challenging angles
• Features an effective chop-rip move to clear the reach of tackles, plus he added a promising cross-chop to his arsenal last year
• Even when he doesn’t defeat the hands, you see him drive through contact and circle around as he’s dipping underneath opponents with his legs not being underneath his frame
• Has improved his ability to convert speed to power and will give a little dip up the field to force tackles to open their hips in order to go through them with the long-arm
• Whether it’s violently sticking his foot in the ground when stunting over to the A-gap or accelerating as he’s circling back towards the quarterback after overshooting the target initially, the mobility in his lower body stands out regularly
• Alabama moved Chris Braswell inside a lot more regularly on passing downs and he’d condense the pocket by angling directly towards the QB or set up lanes for loopers that way
• Does well to yank aside tight-ends after engaging with them initially on play-action, even if they do get hands inside his frame, as well as arm-overing to get inside of tackles setting out to him occasionally
• Recorded 27 total pressures on just 167 pass-rush snaps in 2022 and his pass-rush productivity (11.9) was actually higher on a heavier workload last season – tied for 11th among all FBS defenders with 56 pressures

Areas for Improvement:

• While his run defense certainly improved last season, Bama started almost every game and used more even fronts on early downs last season, where he’d be off the field in favor of a heavier base D-end on the strong side (for a reason) who could shoot and lock out his arms
• Struggles to set a firm edge against double-teams with the tight-end on the front-side of (wide) zone concepts, allowing the ball-carrier to string plays out and allow lanes to develop inside
• Can get some happy feet when trying to anticipate the snap count and have a false in his get-off because he’s not loaded up optimally
• It took Chris Braswell a while to figure out how to really win that initial phase as a pass-rusher and now his counters are still largely absent, outside of throwing some spin moves without really moving off the spot
• While he can run the hoop – even through contact – in impressive fashion, he lacks suddenness to reduce his surface area in those encounters as more of a linear rusher

Top 5 Prospects for the 2024 NFL Draft

When observing the defensive front for Alabama and anticipating who will be the next standout player, it is important to consider that their top performers tend to have technical prowess rather than being solely reliant on their athleticism. This was the case for Chris Braswell, who initially ranked seventh on Bruce Feldman’s annual list due to his limited playing time as a redshirt sophomore.

After watching his tape last summer, I initially believed he had a lot of room for improvement. However, the more I delved into it, the more I found myself becoming a bigger fan. His raw explosiveness, ability to evade blockers in the run game, and knack for disrupting quarterbacks with his speed and power moves all caught my attention.

Regrettably, Chris Braswell still needs to improve in setting a physical edge against the run and his approach to rushing the passer remains very straightforward without any variations. However, I would now be more confident in selecting him in the second round, knowing that he can serve as a rotational pass rusher for me as a rookie while I work on developing his skill set.

Grade: Mid- to late second round.