Bills draft DT Adolphus Washington with No. 80 overall pick

Ohio State defensive tackle Adolphus Washington brings a lot of size and athleticism to the NFL, but he’s not without his question marks. The Buffalo Bills are banking on his potential, selecting him with the No. 80 pick in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft.

Washington was a prized five-star recruit out of Cincinnati and stayed close to home with the Buckeyes. He had a productive freshman year in a part-time role, recording three sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss, and became a fixture on Ohio State’s defensive line for the next three years.

From 2013-15, Washington had a combined 10.5 sacks and 133 tackles, with 22.5 of those tackles coming for a loss. Even with Joey Bosa getting all the headlines, Washington was nearly as important to Ohio State’s defense, becoming a steady presence in the interior line. He switched from nose tackle to three-technique in 2015, proving he has valuable position versatility.

However, Washington’s senior year was marred by an off-field incident, when he got arrested for soliciting an undercover cop in a prostitution sting. He was suspended for the Fiesta Bowl and faced additional scrutiny from NFL teams, but the 22-year-old is determined to prove it was just a lapse in judgement and not a worrying trend.

“My thing was just to tell the truth, no matter what,” Washington told SB Nation. “And it’s not going as bad as I was afraid. It’s actually going very well, because I’ve always had a reputation of doing good, of doing the right thing and all those things, and honestly, it was just a mistake.”

Washington is a big man, measuring in at 6’3, 301 pounds at the NFL Combine. He supplements his size with uncanny quickness, capable of moving fast off the snap and disrupting the interior line. He’s a sure tackler and a strong asset in run defense, while showing enough ability to get to the quarterback. Despite running just a 5.17 40 at the combine, Washington can turn on the jets when he needs to, such as this glorious fat guy touchdown.

There are flaws in Washington’s game, as there always are with raw defensive linemen. Washington has impressive athleticism, but he doesn’t always play up to it. He plays with a high pad level, allowing blockers to push him around more easily than you might expect. He’ll need to add some lower-body strength if he wants to avoid getting bullied by NFL offensive linemen. As a result, Washington probably won’t be a three-down player right away at the professional level.

In a detailed scouting report, Ohio State blog Land Grant Holy Land makes a compelling case for Washington’s NFL upside, comparing him favorably to Tyrone Crawford.

At 6’4, 282 lbs, Crawford is a slightly skinnier version of Washington, and with eight sacks in his last two seasons working as the Cowboys’ three technique, Crawford represents the type of interior pass rushing force that Washington hopes to become at the next level.

...

The NFL (as the Broncos just demonstrated) is becoming reliant on great pass rushers who have the ability to thwart high octane passing offenses, and Washington has too much upside as a potentially great NFL pass rusher to fall too far in the draft.