- Outside of the Power 5 conferences, SMU’s Justin Lawler is one of the best edge defenders in this year’s draft class. He has proven to be stout against the run and capable of getting after the quarterback when pass-rushing, Lawler enters the 2017 season with a Day 3 draft projection from PFF.
- Lawler’s best attribute in 2016 was his run stopping ability as he had a run stop percentage of 11.2 which ranks No. 3 in the draft class, posting 34 stops in run defense on 303 run snaps.
- He also showed great ability rushing the passer last season, registering a pass-rush productivity (PRP) of 13.4. That mark ranked No. 8 among draft-eligible edge defenders. Lawler was the best in the class when it came to creating pressure from the outside, he picked up an outside pressure once every 13.2 snaps (PRP measures pressure created on a per snap basis with weighting towards sacks).
- Lawler has to be consistent in 2017 to climb up draft boards. In 2016, Lawler saw six of his seven total sacks come in two games and had five games with two or less total pressures.
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