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Passiveness and Run Blocking
One of the weird things seen on Jaelen Strong’s tape is that he’ll occasionally seem to lose his motor. This is something that you never want to see from a player. On these two back to back plays, Strong’s effort is put into question twice- despite being one of the first two reads on both plays.
In the first play, Strong is slow coming out of his stance and heading into the flat, although it looks like an overthrow- there’s reason to assume that if Strong was more aggressive in getting into the route that he would have been at the point where the ball was thrown to make this catch.
In this second play, which happens right after the last one, Strong jogs gingerly out of his stance before breaking incredibly lightly inside.
Strong won’t get this target, but comparing him to his teammates on this play you can see how much more aggressively they’re coming off the line than he is.
This doesn’t come up on his pass routes enough to make it a legitimate cause for concern (although it is without a doubt something teams will pick up on) but where it does come up too often is on his run blocking.
This play just makes it seem like Strong doesn’t even care. He doesn’t seem to take urgency to get to the man he wants, and actually tries to dodge a player that he should be putting a bump on. When he reaches the player he wants, his attempt to engage him is just awful. Strong’s issues in run blocking go farther than effort though.
Here you can clearly see him take a poor angle at the CB, getting too close to him and then giving him the ability to get around. He needs to make a decision as he comes towards him- either engaging him or stopping shorter to cut off his angle. Instead, he’s just an easy obstacle to overcome and that’s really the story of Strong’s blocking. He gets in the way, but he doesn’t do it well.
Strong’s lack of ability to engage his man ruins a potential touchdown run, as his man is able to close in on the RBs space. That’s something that comes up often, as Strong loves to take bad angles and has trouble putting his arms into a defenders chest. He’s much more comfortable just getting in the way and that’s what the DBs prefer too.
It’s everywhere in his run blocking and a NFL team shouldn’t be expecting him to have a lot of positive impact in their run game.
Pro Comparison and Draft Projection
Pro Comparison: I like the comparison of Marques Colston for Strong. Colston’s a different size, but is the ceiling that Strong can be looking to realistically achieve if he maximizes his route running skills. He’s already able to make the same kinds of athletic catches.
Projected Round: There’s talk of Strong making it into the first round but I think he’s much more likely to be taken in the second, possibly falling as low as the 40’s.
