re: Draft Prospect: Ezekiel Ansah

Bucky Brooks-

The former walk-on track star has been the buzz of the NFL scouting community with his exceptional athleticism, movement skills and motor. Scouts rave about his raw talent and rush skills despite a limited football background. In fact, the comparisons to Jason Pierre-Paul have been flying off the tongues of evaluators since Ansah started wreaking havoc on opponents in the fall. If he seizes this opportunity to showcase his talents against elite competition, Ansah can transition from urban legend to certain first-round pick.

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More reporting on him at Sr Bowl

assume ya are just referring to sack stats. Beyond the numbers his quality of play is obvious.

Justin Tuck-

"I don't see anybody in this league at that position who has that kind of athleticism," Tuck said of Pierre-Paul. "And yes, I'm talking about [Chicago defensive end Julius] Peppers, I'm talking about [Dallas linebacker] DeMarcus [Ware] and [Buffalo defensive end] Mario (Williams), all those guys.
"I really don't see anybody who has that ability to adjust his body in positions that he can do. A man that big should not be allowed to do that. He's truly a freak. The sky is the limit for him and I know we use that cliché a lot, but it's really true with him because of his work ethic."
LINK

he's off my hit list at #15. Think he might creep into the bottom 10 of the first round.

a good Senior Bowl analysis-

Zigging and zagging with Ziggy! The star of this year's Senior Bowl game was BYU DE Ziggy Ansah, who made plays all over the field on Saturday including a couple of sacks and a forced fumble. That came after a very disappointing week of practice for the one-time immigrant from Ghana, who orginally came to the U.S. as a track athlete and has only been playing football for three years. First impressions, though, can sometimes be deceiving.No question that Ansah showed tremendous athleticism in the actual Shrine game. For a 270-pounder he has exceptional acceleration and sideline-to-sideline range as he is a long strider who just eats up ground in space; he can also plant and change direction and with his long arms is a nightmare for QBs to throw over, especially when he gets off his feet into the air. However, the tape aso showed that just about every play that Ansah made in the game came on plays in which he wasn't blocked at all or was blocked by a TE. He also got some penetration when going against Wisconsin OT Ricky Wagner, but just about everybody that Wagner faced all week got a lot of penetration. In fact, in normal pass rush situations against other OTs, Ansah made very little impact. As he did during the week, Ansah's only pass-rush technique was to put his hands into the blocker's chest and try and bull-rush him into the pocket. And while he did try a couple of spin moves, there was virtually no evidence of any even rudimentary pass-rush technique. Even the highlight reel sack on which Ansah forced the fumble came after his initial charge was stopped, but he was able to track down the QB after he left the pocket. All that is going to leave NFL pro personnel evaluators with a tough job grading Ansah, because so much of his ultimate grade is going to be based on potential. In fact, after watching Ansah in the Senior Bowl game, a pretty good case could be made that he might just be best suited to playing some kind of OLB role in a 3-4 defense at the next level where he could best take advantage of his ability to track the play in space. At the same time, though, there are going to be a number of teams in divisions such as the NFC East and West with more than one athletic QB running a pistol offense which are going to be intrigued by Ansah's ability to track the ball whether or not he can get off an initial block.

I'm liking Dion Jordan as a much more NFL ready prospect. Thing is, I currently think there's less than 50% chance he could even be available at #15. Ansah looks like he could definitely be available and passed on.

I want ansah!