With the 2019 NFL Draft in the books, we’re wrapping things up by offering player profiles on all the UDFAs signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers. The franchise’s history is strong with diamonds in the rough though in recent years, the classes have been weak. Hopefully this crop changes that trend.
#99 Tuzar Skipper / EDGE Toledo – 6’2” 248
The Good
- Good hand placement to chest of blocker
- Heavy hands to stun lineman
- Ability to move blocker with power to reset the LOS
- Good long arm and bull rushes
- Place under control as backside run defender
The Bad
- Generally adequate quickness at the snap
- Misses with his hands (chops, swipes) in pass rush too often
- Doesn’t win with speed while pass rushing
- Needs to disengage sooner to make more place in the run game
- There’s stiffness to his game, not a lot of flexibility
Bio
- Career – 90 tackles, 46 solo, 13.5 TFL, 9.5 sacks, 2 FR, 1 TD, 3 FF
- 2018 – 60 tackles, 32 tackles, 11.5 TFL, 8.5 sacks, 2 FR, 1 TD, 2 FF
- Started 15 of 29 games
- 2017 –suffered season ending ACL injury
- Started college career at Monroe College (NY)
- Communication major
Tape Breakdown
Tuzar Skipper (#99) is another of the Steelers tryout signees. He spent time with the Kansas City Chiefs rookie minicamp before his tryout. At his Pro Day he measured 33 inch arms with an over 80 inch wingspan. He ran a 4.89 40 with a 1.70 ten yard split. He put up 30 reps on the bench, a 33 inch vertical and 7.14 3 cone. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a lot of film for Toledo but wanted to give you an idea of what he can do.
He played DE for Toledo’s defense and lined up on both sides of the ball in 3 and 4 point stances. He generally shows adequate quickness at the snap with occasional good reps to get upfield quickly.
As a pass rusher, his best asset is his strength. He shows good hand placement to get his hands to the chest of the blocker and uses good leverage and leg drive to get movement into the backfield. He is effective with bull rushes and with a long arm. His hand usage in other pass rushes needs work as he seemed to miss with his chops, slaps and swipes too often. I saw him use a swipe/swim and chop/rip that have potential but weren’t effective because he missed with his hands. He’s a bit stiff and doesn’t show a lot of bend when using speed up the arc. I didn’t see any pass rush moves to the inside, doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any though and in the games watched he was not asked to drop into coverage.
Vs Miami, from the right DE position he uses good strength and leverage to bull the LG back into the pocket.
Vs Miami, he was a good rep of quickness at the snap. This shows he has the ability but it’s just not consistent.
At Northern Illinois, from the right DE spot vs Houston Texans second round pick Max Scharping he tries to swipe and completely misses allowing Scharping to get his hands on him and push him up the arc.
At Northern Illinois from the left DE he uses a rip up the outside. There’s potential to this move as he does lift the inside arm.
Against the run, he shows heavy hands with the ability to stun OL’s and has the strength and enough length to hold blockers at bay and play a 2 gap style. He must improve his ability to stack and shed. There were opportunities to make plays against the run but he didn’t disengage quickly enough. On runs to his side he likes to use a long arm to hold off defenders while he fights to stay outside. When he uses this move he will get turned to the side and lose site of the ball. His lateral quickness to beat OL to the outside is adequate and could improve by being quicker at the snap. On runs away from he does a solid job to stay square and shuffle down the LOS to make plays.
Vs Miami, from the left DE position he uses power again to reset the LOS, driving the RT back, and gets in on the tackle
Vs Miami from the right DE it’s a run away and he waits through the mesh point before making his move to the inside to make the tackle.
At Northern Illinois again the strength to reset, but you see his head turn to the outside and he loses sight of the ball.
At Northern Illinois from the right DE he gets good push up field and if he sheds the blocker quicker that a tackle at the LOS or behind it.
Overall, Skipper is a player who wins with power. Whether it’s in the pass rush or against the run his game is based on pushing back the player across from him. It will be interesting to see if he’s able to develop under NFL coaching. He needs to improve his hands, his pass rush plan and ability to shed in the run game. I don’t think the 53 man roster is an option and he’ll have competition to make the practice squad.
Chance of Making the Team: 1%
Games Watched: Vs Miami (FL), At Northern Illinois
