Cleveland Browns Draft Profile: Malik McDowell

There is no doubt the Malik McDowell is physically gifted. He has a talent to play football.

However, talent only gets players so far in the NFL. At some point, players must learn to develop the skills necessary to play at the NFL or they are very quickly removed to make room for players who will.

Malik McDowell’s play at Michigan State is that of a physically gifted athlete who plays based on his athleticism alone. Up to this point in his career, athleticism has worked for him.

Note: Malik McDowell injured his ribs on October 15, then a month later injured his ankle on November 5. These injures affected his play during the season.

Strengths: After watching his games, it is clear McDowell has several strengths. He is an extremely athletic player. His natural athleticism gives him an advantage over other players. He is quick off the ball. He engages with “heavy hands”, which means he has good power with his initial punch. He has a very quick first step which gains him an advantage off the snap.

He excels when asked to play in a one-gap scheme where he can shoot a gap and be disruptive in the backfield. All of these characteristics are what make up an excellent 3-technique in the NFL.

Weaknesses: McDowell has developed little if any defensive line technique. He simply relies on his natural athletic ability to win against offensive lineman.

For example, he consistently lines up in a sprinters stance (typical for a 4-3 defensive end) while playing the 1 or 3-techniques. A defensive tackle stance is usually with a wide base with feet parallel allowing the DT to hold off double teams and play double gap responsibility. To see a defensive tackle in a sprinters stance is highly unusual.

Michigan State has built their program on fundamentals and strong technique. To see McDowell play with poor technique and lack of discipline is a real red flag. One wonders what led the coaches to allow him to play with poor technique. It is something one simply does not see a lot from the MSU program.

It should come as no surprise that McDowell is often blown off the ball by double-teams. He has the natural ability to split those double-teams on occasion. But as a rule, double-teams were extremely effective against McDowell.

Watching the tape, one wonders if McDowell understands his role in the defense. He plays like a player who is just showing up and playing football. He seems to play without an understanding of how his role affects the roles of the rest of the defense. Yet, his athletic ability allows him to consistently make plays that cover up this flaw.

McDowell is often off-balance. Even when lining up as a defensive end (where he plays much better than at DT), he is often pushed around by tackles who play technically sound. If his first pass rush move fails, he lacks counter-moves to recover.

Like all college linemen, McDowell plays too high. He will need to learn to play with leverage at the NFL level.

Bottom Line: Joya Crowe was prescient when she said “They done blew up his head.” McDowell plays like a kid relying solely on natural ability. For whatever reason, he never learned the technical skills necessary to succeed beyond his natural ability.

In the NFL, his skill set best translates to being a 4-3 defensive end. The only issue with that move is that the 4-3 defensive end position is extremely technical position that requires discipline to be played correctly. McDowell shows neither of these abilities on tape.

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Staying at defensive tackle in a single gap system would be the best fit. Even then he will need to learn technique if he wants to have an NFL career.

McDowell is a project at the NFL level. He will need to learn the technicalities of the defensive tackle or defensive end position before he will be successful. But he must first come to embrace the idea that talent alone is not enough to succeed in the NFL.

Everyone is a natural freak in the NFL.