Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah NFL Draft 2021 Prospect Profile: Notre Dame Linebacker Projects Late First-Round Pick
@jcblanco22This is The Game Day’s Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah NFL Draft 2021 Prospect Profile. After you read our Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah Scouting Report, Marcus Mosher’s first 2021 NFL Mock Draft for Round 1.
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Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah NFL Draft Prospect Profile
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah Draft Prospect: Bio & Measurables
- School: Notre Dame
- Class in Final Season: Redshirt junior
- Age on NFL Draft Day: 21 Years Old
- Height: 6-foot-1
- Weight: 215 lbs.
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah Scouting Report
Strengths
- Outstanding speed, both sideline to sideline and down the seam in coverage
- Constantly demonstrated he could cover slot receivers, tight ends and running backs with equal aplomb throughout college career.
- Demonstrates elite explosion on tackles.
- Excellent football instincts and knack for getting hands on the ball in coverage.
- Innate ability to quickly find and promptly chase down ballcarriers.
- Lauded for high effort/motor.
- Displays strong change-of-direction skills.
- Effective blitzer with above-average closing speed to quarterback.
- Could conceivably shift between linebacker and safety without much difficulty.
Needs Improvement
- 215-pound frame will make taking on blockers at the next level challenging.
- Could be mowed down by true power backs if trying to tackle one on one.
- May be forced into some specialty roles within a defense initially until he puts on some more weight.
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah Draft Prospect NFL Outlook
How Owusu-Koramoah acclimates to the NFL will be one of the more fascinating semi-longitudinal studies to undertake over his first 2-3 seasons. Some defensively challenged team will invest what will almost certainly a late first-round pick in him, so Owusu-Koramoah is going to presumably get plenty of reps and get them early. However, it’s how his size is factored in that could be the most pivotal factor in how quickly he can hit the ground running.
On the one hand, teams can guarantee themselves the same speed demon that totaled 142 tackles (96 solo), including 24.5 for loss, seven sacks, one interception, six additional defensed passes, five forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries in 25 college games if they don’t try to overburden him with putting on additional weight over his first couple of years in the league. On the other, if they roll him out there as a 215-220-pound linebacker, they could see him consistently struggle against both the athletic behemoths that populate NFL offensive lines and similarly, monstrous power backs a la Derrick Henry or fellow incoming rookie Najee Harris.
Therefore, the team that drafts Owusu-Koramoah will have a bit of a project on their hands, albeit a highly talented one that should be able to make a solid impact at minimum during his rookie year if deployed correctly. That could equate to a non-every-down role at first, with Owusu-Koramoah perhaps best reserved for some passing-down work and special teams while he gets his feet wet at the next level.
Additionally, one way his versatility could truly be utilized as a strength and buy him many more first-year reps in the process would be by occasionally deploying him as a safety, where his speed would be an enormous asset and his lighter weight would be much less of an issue.
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah NFL Comparison
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah Scouting Report: With his unique dimensions for a linebacker, Owusu-Koramoah doesn’t have too many exact comparables at the NFL level, especially because many of the players at his position that come in weighing below 220 points are usually not long for the league or inevitably put on significantly more weight.
However, offhand, there are a couple of inactive players that both had significant success as pros at a similar weight to Owusu-Koramoah. The much more recent example is former Jaguars linebacker Telvin Smith, who, at 6-foot-3, 215 pounds, rattled off five straight 100-tackle seasons that each included at least one sack, and who also recorded three multi-interception campaigns. Like Smith, Owusu-Koramoah is an adept pass rusher and coverage linebacker, so those types of numbers could potentially be within his wheelhouse.
A more “classic” example is former Cowboys and Rams linebacker Dexter Coakley, who, at just 5-foot-10 and playing weights of between 215 and 230 pounds for most of his career, made the NFL All-Rookie team in 1997 and also garnered Pro Bowl berths in 1999, 2001 and 2003. Coakley boasted 4.4 speed coming out of Appalachian State, and like Owusu-Koramoah, was a sideline-to-sideline force that could also cover backs, receivers and tight ends.
(Read Marcus Mosher’s take on the NFL Draft Ja’Marr Chase vs. DeVonta Smith wide receiver debate.)
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah 2021 Draft Team Fits
Tennessee Titans (No. 22 overall selection)
The Titans defense was a considerable issue last season, with Tennessee allowing the ninth-most points per game (27.0), ninth-most rushing yards per game (127.6) and fifth-most passing yards per game (270.8). A player as versatile defensively as Owusu-Koramoah could certainly address all their issues in one fell swoop.
New York Jets (No. 23 overall selection)
The Jets are starting anew under Robert Saleh, and as the Titans, New York’s defense was mostly atrocious the majority of the season. Gang Green surrendered the seventh-most points per game (28.6) and fourth-most passing yards per contest (275.6). While the run defense was about the only serviceable part of the unit, Owusu-Koramoah’s elite talent could certainly help shore up that end of things further while also greatly improving pass coverage in the short-and-intermediate passing windows.
Jacksonville Jaguars (No. 25 overall selection)
The theme of laughable defense is also certainly upheld in fine fashion by the Jaguars, which allowed the second-most points per game (30.8), third-most rushing yards per game (153.2) and seventh-most passing yards per contest (264.4) a year ago. Like Tennessee, Jacksonville needs serious help on that side of the ball across the board, and as mentioned earlier, the franchise has a recent history of success with a linebacker of Owusu-Koramoah’s unique dimensions/skill set in Smith.
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah 2021 Draft Prediction
Jacksonville Jaguars (No. 25 overall selection):
Urban Meyer will grab his franchise quarterback early and then nab Owusu-Koramoah to start patching up the porous defense he inherited. The Jags have already begun addressing the defensive line and secondary with the free-agent signings of Tyson Alualu (UPDATE: Alualu has gone back on his verbal agreement and re-signed with the Steelers, making defense even more of a priority in the draft) and Shaquill Griffin, and Owusu-Koramoah will therefore be a potentially impactful addition for the middle of that defense.
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah NFL Draft Bet
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First LB drafted (+500 at PointsBet)
prop bet
+500
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah To Be The First LB Drafted In 2021 NFL Draft
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This is a highly appealing price, and it’s certainly not completely out of the question a team uniquely values Owusu-Koramoah for their scheme over Penn State’s Micah Parsons, who’s the odds-on favorite to be the first linebacker off the board.
Parsons just ripped off a 4.39 40-yard dash at his pro day while checking in at 6-foot-3, 246 pounds, however, and that size/speed combo is very likely going to prove too tantalizing for a team picking in the No. 10-20 range in the first round. Parsons sat out last season, but the corroboration of his speed and the size he boasts makes him a surer proposition for the NFL, on paper ,than Owusu-Koramoah. Therefore, this is worth a flyer if you can swing it, but it’s hard to envision Parsons not going off the board first.
Now that you’ve read our Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah 2021 Draft Prospect scouting report, stay tuned for more NFL Draft analysis. Then, after the 2021 NFL Draft, we’ll cover his impact on betting lines, odds and tips for his NFL team.
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