Phidarian Mathis

Context

Plays all across the interior of the DL for Alabama, most frequently lining up as 3 technique, also had plenty of snaps at 1 tech and played some at 5 tech.

Pass Rush

He has adequate upfield burst against the pass, gets out of his stance quickly and uses his good foot speed on the second and third steps but he doesn’t close the distance as quickly as you would like to the OL, mainly because of a lack of initial explosion. He has a good plan and array of moves to his pass rush. When he wins, he wins with power and hand usage. He deploys an excellent club move with great timing, power and placement to win the initial phase of engagement with the blocker. He has many moves that he can work off the initial club including a rip, swim and long arm to take advantage of his length.

While he begins to win the edge due to this initial excellence with his hands, his height begins to work against him and he doesn’t corner effectively. He often stands straight up and loses leverage. While his hands are accurate and powerful, they’re not especially fast and so he hasn’t yet learned how to win quickly. He does have good foot speed and moves well laterally for his size, therefore he is effective on stunts and inside twists – he works well to free up his teammates. He’s good in pursuit of the QB, uses his processing to understand when he will be flushed out of the pocket and cuts off his escape lane. He is competitive and aggressive, relentless with his motor and will bring high effort for every snap he’s on the field.

Vs Run

He diagnoses blocks extremely quickly and is an outstanding run defender. Against reach blocks, he is especially good in getting to the outside shoulder of the blocker quickly. He diagnoses double teams quickly and gets his hands on fast to reset the levels of the OL. His hands against all types of run block are outstanding, his placement, strength and timing are excellent, he works himself into a position of leverage where he consistently manipulates the point of attack against even iOL with excellent play strength. He will do this from any alignment. Against reach blocks, he can fit his hands and pads on the move while moving laterally to stay gap disciplined.

Against double teams when he doesn’t shock the OL backwards he can corkscrew his leg to reduce his surface area for the drive man to hit. He understands his part in the defense, when to stay gap disciplined and keep his LB clean. Against all blocks he will pull the OL to turn him and disengage using his hands and tackle the runner in his gap. He uses his length well to tackle all types of ball-carrier. He is a good backside defender, disengaging quickly to get into the cutback lane, he is susceptible to a cut block and can’t always stay clean. He is relentless in his pursuit and will make tackles down the field/to each sideline.

SUMMARY
Excellent hand usage and plan as a pass-rusher, lacks leverage to close on QB consistently. Outstanding run defender due to elite processing, hand usage and play strength

PRODUCTION
SR: 7 Sacks, 6 QB Hits, 44 Total Tackles, 1 FF, 2 Batted Balls
JR: 3 Sacks, 2 QB Hits, 29 Total Tackles, 2 Batted Balls, 1 PBU
INJURY: None

RAVENS FIT
Athleticism 3
Intelligence 5
Versatility 4
Grit 5
Scheme 5