NFL position rankings: Edge rushers a special group, but with concerns

For clarity’s sake, we’ve divided the front-seven players on defense into three categories — interior linemen, edge rushers and off-the-line linebackers.

The edge-rush group includes 4-3 defensive ends and 3-4 outside linebackers, players whose sizes can differ but also be interchangeable depending on the scheme. That hopefully takes the confusion out of the difference between ends in 3-4 and 4-3 schemes, which most often are vastly different body makeups.

A few months ago, it appeared that this might be a special — even a generational — group of pass rushers. It still could be. There just have been a few wrinkles added to the mix through the draft vetting process.

On the plus side, players such as Kentucky’s Alvin “Bud” Dupree and Clemson’s Vic Beasley helped themselves enormously by turning in fantastic workouts at viable edge-setting weights and might have secured places high in the draft, and possibly even top 10.

Dante Fowler Jr.’s ascent has been more of a slow burn, but he has done nothing to change his status as one of the best exterior players available — also a top-10 possibility.

It gets complicated with Missouri’s Shane Ray and Nebraska’s Randy Gregory. Grading the players themselves, with no other factors considered, Ray and Gregory appear very high on some teams’ draft boards. But injury (Ray) and character concerns (Gregory) have left their stocks volatile heading toward Thursday.

We still expect them to be taken in the first 32 picks, but it could be a bit of a fall as teams are forced to weigh heavily some issues. Ray might need surgery, or at worst extensive rest, on his nagging toe injury, which could put his offseason availability in question. And Gregory has been removed from consideration from some teams on the fact that they don’t believe he’s accountable enough to trust in the first round.

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After this top group of talents, there still are solid options on Day 2 of the draft — more of the provisional mold of rusher, with either size or athletic concerns — but the dropoff might not be that steep until Round 4 and thereafter.

Here are our top 10 interior defensive line prospects for the 2015 NFL draft:

SLEEPER
Golden

People bent on fitting players into a box and relying too much on athletic testing numbers might not love Golden, who is a bit short, short-armed, and lacking in explosion and short-area burst. Advice to those folks: Watch the tape. What they’ll see is an instinctive, disciplined rusher who sniffs out screens and diagnoses run plays well, can chase ballcarriers down from behind and has a white-hot motor. Mizzou missed him badly against Indiana, when he was hurt, and Tevin Coleman ran right over his would-be gap for tracts of yards. Also be sure to watch the way he rushed athletic quarterbacks and you’ll see that Golden doesn’t overrun plays. He has some innate traits that can’t be taught and has future starter written on him.

OVERRATED
Danielle Hunter, LSU

Hunter is blessed with a rare body and athletic gifts. He just doesn’t know how to use them yet. The good news is that Hunter appears to play with great effort and he applies his speed to the field. The bad news is that the team that drafts him must be very patient and perhaps strip down his game fundamentally before building him back up. And even then, he might never be a big sack producer, as his 4.5 sacks in his past 23 starts would attest. One scout we talked to lamented that LSU did not turn Hunter into a tight end instead.

SMALL-SCHOOL WONDER
Kyle Emmanuel, North Dakota State

Few players on any level of football can boast of Emmanuel’s production last season, when he tallied a stunning 97 tackles, 32.5 (!) of them for losses, as well as 19.5 sacks and three interceptions. Given his physical traits, which include some unusually short arms, Emmanuel projects to being a Kroy Biermann-like rusher — ideal as a third end/OLB in a rotation but serviceable as a lower-end starter in the NFL. With great energy and diagnostic skills, Emmanuel also could endear himself to special-teams coaches.

COULD RISE IN DRAFT
Dupree

Since the scouting combine, scouts have been willing to overlook Dupree’s rawness as a football player and lack of good instincts, citing his exceptional athleticism and the fact that he played out of position at Kentucky out of need. He destroyed his combine workouts and interviews, endearing himself to many teams picking high in the draft, and won’t last long. In fact, two personnel directors said they would not be stunned if Dupree was either the first or second true edge rusher off the board on draft day. That’s what jaw-dropping athleticism will do for a player’s stock.

LATE-ROUND STEAL
Ryan Delaire, Towson

Another player whose timed speed appears out of whack with how he plays, Delaire consistently showed up on tape in the two games we watched on him. He hustles to the ball, can set up linemen with countermoves and has a nice frame to work with. Delaire might not be a star, but he has a little Paul Kruger to his game and could effort his way to 8-10 sacks eventually with good instincts, effort and technique.

PLAYER WHO WILL GO UNDRAFTED BUT SHOULDN’T
Shaq Riddick, West Virginia

Asked to play out of position as a 3-4 end, Riddick still played well with high effort, good burst and some interesting instincts worth cultivating. He’s far from a finished product and likely will need a year (or more) in an NFL weight program to pack on more pounds to his 6-foot-6, 245-pound frame. But invest in this former Gardner-Webb transfer and you might have a decent edge player in a few years. His athletic numbers were impressive, and he likely could keep much of that athleticism with an additional 25-30 pounds.

IDEAL FIT
Beasley to the Falcons

We love the fit of Beasley screaming off the edge in Dan Quinn’s “Leo” rusher role as a tone setter for a defense that needs a reboot. Beasley has infectious energy and closing speed and can make up for deficiencies around him on the Falcons’ defense. He might never be a true edge setter against the run but can be a weak-side force to give left tackles fits for 30-40 snaps a game.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm