Chiefs 2019: Future Impact Player Jaylon Ferguson

Chiefs 2019: Future Impact Player

Jaylon Ferguson

by Laddie Morse | February 23, 2019

If I were to ask you if you’d be interested in having the player with the most sacks in the history of college football on your roaster with the 29th pick in the draft… would you be interested? And, if that player had a record – a police record – would that change your mind? Right! It depends on what was on his record. Jaylon Ferguson, from Louisiana Tech, is that player. He played for four full years and is now 23 years old but when he was a freshman he got in a fight in a McDonald’s restaurant and then was convicted of simple battery. Ferguson now says,

“It was a mistake made by a young man, when I was 18 years old… Now I’m 23, I’m not even the same person. So, just get a chance to meet me, understand me, and see my side of the story.”

Per league rules, a player’s NFL Combine invitation is to be rescinded if… he is ever found guilty of either a misdemeanor or a felony involving violence. So, what did the NFL do, they “disinvited” Ferguson from the NFL Combine on February 13. Then, two days later, and with a good bit of social media protestations and his agent coming out with a statement against the NFL… Ferguson has had his “conditional invitation” partially reinstated which means, he can be interviewed and poked and prodded, but he can’t participate in any of the workouts. However, it may have been because he also had a public intoxication charge against him in college so the league may be treating him like someone with two strikes against him. What’s confusing about the leagues stance on these issues is that Ferguson will be completely under scrutiny on March 19 at his school’s Pro Day and you can bet each and every team will be in attendance. So, the NFL Combine is a Club with Rules and you can’t get in but all the Pro Days are free game. ??? Confusing. See what I mean. Any way… back to Jaylon Ferguson.  

What this means for the Chiefs is that, Mr. Ferguson, if he checks out, could be a player the Chiefs consider with the 29th pick in the draft. After all, he’s done nothing anywhere close to what Tyreek Hill did before he became a player the Chiefs drafted. My take is… he’s a genuinely kind and soft spoken person who got caught up in a bad situation as a youth and reacted in an untoward manner… WHEN HE WAS 18 YEARS OLD. By the way, it may have been prior to his college career as there are reports that this took place before his freshman year (not that it really matters).

Once the word gets out about Ferguson, I’m sure there will be a host of teams who will want to seriously consider drafting a player with his skills and demeanor at a position that many call, the second most valuable position on the field: an OLB who can get after the quarterback. So, let’s take a look at who Jaylon Ferguson is, on the field.

Jaylon Ferguson grew up in St. Francisville, Louisiana which is in the crook of the L-shaped state and then he played for Louisiana Tech which is in the middle of northern Louisiana off of I-20 so, he didn’t move very far from home to go to college. By comparison, Ferguson is 6-foot-5 and 262 pounds, two inches taller than Justin Houston and four pounds heavier. I bring that comparison up because I’ve been to multiple Chiefs training camps and stood a few feet from Justin Houston and he is one hulk of a huge man. Ferguson started all four years at Tech and played in 50 games including a Bowl game in each of the 4 years he was there. We know that Andy Reid is big on selecting guys who have played a full college career so it’s natural to assume the Chiefs will be looking into Ferguson especially considering that the Chiefs may need to be planning for life without Justin Houston one year from now. Here are some stats on Jaylon Ferguson.

45.0 sacks should stand out to you and so should the 67.5 tackles for a loss. In 2018, Jaylon Ferguson had 17.0 sacks and 26.0 tackles for a loss… in 13 games no less.

Now, there are those who want to discount his performance because he played in CUSA (Conference USA) but at some point you have to realize he was consistently dominating everyone he faced. He had 6 tackles, a forced fumble and a sack against LSU this year (2018) and, need I remind you, LSU plays in the almighty SEC (a strip-sack that came off of LSU’s 6-7, 321 lb. Austin Deculius). From Rotoworld comes this about Ferguson,

“Former NFL scout Jim Nagy compared Louisiana Tech DE Jaylon Ferguson to 2018 first-rounder Marcus Davenport. Nagy argues that Ferguson is more athletic than the former No. 14 overall pick Davenport, who also didn’t play Power 5 football, and Nagy warns us not to discredit Ferguson too much because of his school because he “more than held his own” against LSU. Ultimately, Nagy believes Ferguson will have a “really good career” and his friends inside the NFL agree with his assessment. Ferguson is a versatile player that will likely be selected on the Day 1/Day 2 borderline.”

Let’s look at Jaylon Ferguson on the field. First, a strength:

DrafTek has Jaylon Ferguson ranked as the #32 best overall prospect while CBS Sports slots him at #49, which may be due to his off field questions.

Above, you can see that Ferguson already has different moves to get to the QB. His speed pops out over and over again when I watch his tape. Not as fast off the snap as Dee Ford but, not many players are. In the first clip he’s fast enough to drive the QB deeper behind the line of scrimmage (los) until he tackles him 7 yards deep. In the second clip, he makes a play a lot of DEs can’t make because they’re not fast enough to A) recognize the play and B) track the QB all the way across the los. In the third clip, Ferguson bullrushes the left tackle all the way back into the QBs face, who then attempts to move up into the middle of the pocket but Jaylon has the strength to maintain his block and then uses his left arm to bring him down. Ferguson actually ends up getting pancaked at the end of this play but by then he’s already shoved the 300+ pound tackle all the way backwards and has reached out with one arm to take the QB down. Ferguson said in a recent interview that he sees himself like Khalil Mack and tries to pattern his play after the Bears OLB… and why not, he’s 2 inches taller,15 pounds heavier and he just broke Terrell Suggs NCAA record for the most sacks in a college career.

Of course not everything about Jaylon Ferguson is peaches and cream, on the field. He sometimes allows blockers to push him too far up field on running plays. That may be easy for them to do considering Ferguson always has his ears pinned back so he can get horizontal with the QB. I guess that comes with the territory for a guy who is already a sack master jedi.

You would think that this habit can be coached out of him but we’ll have to wait and see on that one. His ceiling is high so that any issues he has should be dealt with by his new NFL coaches, hopefully the Chiefs coaches.

What do you think? Do you think Jaylon Ferguson could be on the Chiefs radar? Or should be?

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