Name: Garrett Sickels
School: Penn State
Position fit: Edge
Stats to know: Doubled his total from 28 pressures as a sophomore to 56 pressures as a junior.
What he does best:
- Losing the first punch battle doesn’t mean he’s finished. Comfortable absorbing a punch from an offensive lineman and continuing to work his moves.
- Very active hands. Never quits on a pass rush and could run into a good deal of clean up sacks at the next level.
- Disciplined with his eyes. Rarely fooled by misdirections fakes even if left unblocked.
Biggest concern:
- First step is well below average. Not going to challenge the edge of an offensive tackle whatsoever in NFL and not a viable threat on stunts.
- Goes to the ground a lot trying to separate from blocks. Will lunge before he’s completely clean and give himself up.
- Little to no pop behind his punch. Almost never went to the bull rush as a pass-rusher and likely won’t be in his NFL repertoire.
- Don’t want him playing in space whatsoever. No quickness or change of direction.
- Limited length could lead to some of his go-to passing moves being rendered less effective at the next level.
Player comparison: Erik Walden, free agent
Sickels, like Walden, flashes some nice hand-fighting ability at times against both run and pass. Both are incredibly limited athletes though with average strength for the position. Like Walden, Sickels is a late-rounder at best though he could hang around an NFL roster.
Bottom line: There’s not much about Sickels game that gets you excited when projecting to the next level. After the progression he made going from a sophomore to a junior, it would have been nice to see him stay in school one more year to see if that same development could have happened again. As it stands though, Sickels had average production in this loaded class with well below-average measurables. It’s still up in the air if he’ll even make a roster come this fall.
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