On Friday, I had the opportunity to participate in a conference call with NFL Network & NFL Draft Analyst Daniel Jeremiah as he previewed 2023 NFL Scouting Combine. Several members of the media that will be in attendance for the event were able to pick Jeremiah’s brain on numerous draft prospects as well as NFL teams and what prospects may best fit their respective roster and needs.
When I got my opportunity to speak to Daniel Jeremiah, I asked him about Clemson DL Bryan Bresee and why teams are split on him as a prospect as he mentioned in a previous podcast despite Bresee being considered a top-15 prospect by many in the draft industry and one of the top DL overall in this draft class.
“To me, he’s a tough player to evaluate because you see flashes of it,” Jeremiah said. “You see some of the flashes of the quickness. I know he has battled the injuries. I think there’s some stiffness there, and maybe some of it is injury related. But he’s not the loosest athlete. They move him around up and down the line of scrimmage. I just didn’t see somebody that was really explosive and fluid and loose. Like I thought he was kind of more of a tight athlete who’s got some power.
That’s why I think you get into a little bit of a tough evaluation there. And I have talked to teams that really like him, and I’ve talked to teams that aren’t nearly as high of him and don’t see him as a first round player.”
Bryan Bresee has been a highly controversial prospect for a plethora of reasons during the pre-draft process. He was one of the top recruits coming out of high school and showed promise as a true freshman at Clemson, posting 6.5 TFLs and four sacks in 12 starts. However, He tore up his ACL four games into the 2021 season, missing the rest of the campaign, and saw more adversity come his way in 2022, dealing with a kidney infection while losing his younger sister to brain cancer.
Still, while Bresee has the excuse of injuries working for him as he definitely didn’t look healthy during much of the 2022 season, his tape is littered with technical errors as well as stiffness and lack of finish like Jeremiah mentioned. I did the pre-draft profile on Bresee for the site, calling him a “young, raw defensive lineman that needs refinement as his poor pad level, lack of hand usage, and fast-depleting motor result in plenty of frustration when watching his tape as a player that is a projected first-round pick that is expected to play all three downs.”
I ultimately graded Bresee as a second-round player, stating that he has a bunch of raw talent, but needs some serious development to capitalize on his physical gifts. He also needs his medicals to come back clean after having notable injuries in the past two seasons, potentially affecting his longevity in the league as well as his draft stock. It appears that Jeremiah isn’t as high on Bresee either compared to the general consensus, placing him at #24 overall in his latest mock draft to the Jacksonville Jaguars as a player some have compared to former 49ers DL Justin Smith.
The NFL Combine will be a big rite of passage for Bresee as he attempts to prove to teams that he is fully healthy, and his injuries are a thing of the past. His testing and field workout will also be huge regarding how teams view him as either a potential three-down difference-maker at the next level or more of a guy that plays in spurts. He is a player I plan to interview and watch closely as his size, measurables, pedigree, and background should interest the Pittsburgh steelers who disparately need to add youth and talent to their defensive line this offseason.
