Scouting Report: Eli Harold, DE/OLB, Virginia

Eli Harold was a four-star high school recruit from Virginia Beach, Virginia. He chose to stay home due to Virginia’s head coach Mike London’s connection to the Virginia Beach area over a variety of SEC schools. Harold was the fifth-ranked weakside defensive end in the 2012 high school classs and no. 50 recruit nationally. Harold enters the 2015 NFL Draft as a future late first-early second round draft pick.

College Career Overview

Harold played in all 12 games as a true freshman in 2012 and drew the start for Virginia’s defense in 2013. Harold played well as a sophomore and was seen as a pre-season Bednarik Award watch list going into his Junior season. Harold earned All-ACC second team honors in 2014.

Measureables

DOB	1994 (not specified)	Bench (225 lb)	24 reps
Height	6’3-1/8″	Vertical Jump	35″
Weight	247 lbs	Broad Jump	10’3″
Arms	33″	20 Yard Shuttle	4.16 sec
Hands	9-3/8″	3 Cone Drill	7.07 sec
40 Yard Dash (10 yd split)	4.60 sec (1.56 sec)	60 Yard Shuttle	11.81 sec

Stats and Awards

University of Virginia (2012-2014)	All-ACC Second-team, All-ACC Coaches Second-team (2014)
2014 – 54 tackles, 14.5 TFL, 7.0 sacks, 2 PD, 1 FF, INT	CollegeFootballNews All-Sophomore Second-team (2013)
2013 – 51 tackles, 15 TFL, 8.5 sacks, 1 PD, 2 FF	Career No. 10 all-time in TFL and No. 11 in sacks at Virginia
2012 – 36 tackles, 7 TFL, 2.0 sacks, 1 FF, 1 INT

Scouting Report

Fluid, natural runner in space
No read-and-react on read-option plays
Pass rushing moves consisted of club-swim, club-rip, and decent double-swipe to jump inside
Solid spin move that he rarely, ever used that I wanted to see more of
High effort player, doesn’t give up on pursuit
Seems content with being blocked and doesn’t have a backup pass rush or second effort
Very active hands while he’s pass rushing, but can’t seem to separate once the blocker is fully engaged.
Has a violent push IF he gets his hands inside the blocker and shows good strength but way too inconsistent placement
Spends a lot of time on the ground
Doesnt get proper hip bend and overpursues even with clean shot into the backfield
Tall lean frame but needs to add muscle. Added 10-12 lbs for the NFL Combine so we need to see how he effectively can use this added mass.
Excellent backside pursuit. Is always around the ball with high motor.
The definition of a project 3-4 OLB. Needs to develop moves better, needs to get better at shedding blocks, decent at holding point of attack in downhill running game and with added strength should be better.
Below average snap recognition skills. Tackle reading from 3pt stance and snap/cadence reading from the 2pt shows up in snap recognition.
Relies on speed to shed blocks rather than strength and hand placement
Inconsistent pass rusher. Somtimes looks great like against Louisville, but other times looks awful like against Pittsburgh where he struggles getting off of blocks.
Seems like he doesn’t plan his moves beforehand leading him to stalemates. When he decides pre-snap that he is going to spin or use a club-swim he looks good. Too often he just seems content with winging it and his natural awareness isn’t strong enough to do that on the fly.
Suscepible to cut blocks. Cameron Erving abused him with that multiple times in a row when UVA played FSU.
Loses leverage in run support once the offensive lineman gets his hands on Harold inside the shoulder pads.
So much better at inside pass rushing as opposed to edge rushing.
Generally has problem turning corner while edge rushing.
Stands too tall in pass rushing which makes him lose leverage.

Film Study

Five games were watched to analyze Harold’s pass rushing and run defense in this scouting report all from DraftBreakdown.com. These games were:

UCLA – 8/30/2014
Louisville – 9/13/2014
Pittsburgh – 10/4/2014
Florida State – 11/8/2014
Miami – 11/22/2014

1. Pass Rush

Harold’s best attribute as an edge rusher is pass rushing, showing a good burst off of the line of scrimmage. It seemed to me that he was tackle-reading when he was in a three-point stance, waiting for the left tackles movement to react which made him appear slow off of the snap, while he was snap- or count-reading in a two point stance. Here are a couple of plays of him being “slow” off of the snap in a three point stance.

To be an effective pass rusher in the NFL, an edge rusher needs to have a variety of moves to get into the backfield. Harold doesn’t have many moves besides, a club-swim move, speed-rip move, and a double-swipe move to rush into the backfield. In this play, Harold uses his club-swim move, but slips while turning the corner and loses balance.

Here’s another club-swim move to edge rush.

Here’s the double-swipe I referred to above to get the outside edge on the blocker.

One of the things that I was dissapointed with while watching Harold was that he actually has a good spin move, but he used it only once or twice in ALL of the snaps I saw. Here Harold uses it to work inside getting the blocker to commit outside with his initial press to the outside shoulder. He needs to use it more to be less predictable.

Overall Harold seemed better with inside moves rather than working outside to get penetration. This could be due to poor hip turning or for lack of ankle flexibility.

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