Although he has 10 games to prove otherwise, North Carolina junior defensive end Quinton Coples has way to go to prove his top five prospect status.
Many consider Coples as the second-best 2012 NFL Draft prospect after Stanford's Andrew Luck. He looked far from it in UNC's 24-22 win against Rutgers. Stats can lie, but it's somewhat telling that Coples had zeros across the board against the Scarlet Knights.
For much of the game, Rutgers used a chip block from the running back on Coples' outside shoulder. Even when Coples was being blocked solo he wasn't making many plays in the pass game.
That's indicative of the top issue NFL talent evaluators will have with Coples. He's just not an explosive pass rusher off the edge. While no one expects him to fire out of his stance like Von Miller, the good top of the draft pass rushers have burst.
Quinton Coples’ struggles against Rutgers lead to questions
It’s possible that Coples was just having an off game, or there’s something going on no one is aware of. Regardless, it was a poor game against the kind of offensive line Coples should have picked apart.Despite not registering a tackle, Coples held his area in the run game opening area for UNC’s athletic linebackers. No one should benefit more from Coples this season than outside linebacker Zach Brown. NFL teams, though, will have to do their due diligence on Coples and decide if he’s merely a left defensive end or if he can line up over the left tackle at the next level. If he’s a LDE only, his stock could falter.
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