Jets Draft Florida DE Jabari Zuniga 79th Overall
With the 79th overall pick in the 3rd round the NY Jets selected Jabari Zuniga from Florida. He is considered a player who is considered to have a lot of upside after having a disappointing senior season.
The 6’3″, 264lb Zuniga ran a 4.64 at the NFL Combine.
With Zuniga, you either buy into the flashes or you don’t. He’s an explosive athlete who has been splashing and flashing since his freshman season but failed to fully reach the promise his traits and explosiveness implied. A monstrous start to 2019 was truncated due to a high ankle sprain. He’s disruptive in the gaps but is not stout enough at the point of attack. He has edge-rushing ability but could find stardom as a reduced rusher in sub-packages, where he’s craftier and more capable of exploiting athletic mismatches. His boogeyman qualities could spring themselves upon unsuspecting offenses relatively early in his career, but his grade is based on projection over production.
Here is his scouting profile from NFL.com.
- Long-limbed, athletic frame with chiseled upper body
- Looks the part of an NFL “dude.” Played at a variety of spots up and down the line
- Flashes playmaking talent on the other side of the line
- Able to ravage gaps with exciting snap quickness
- Rangy, fast and long to close and corral in pursuit
- Displays adequate toughness at four- or five-technique inside
- Can slow feet then reignite upfield burst to sneak tackles
- Scary potential as interior rusher in sub-packages
- Fluid to punch, separate and race past guard’s edge
- Suddenness has yet to be fully developed and exploited
- Lacks sand in lower body for sturdy base
- Gets driven off his spot by power
- Has difficulty unhinging from feisty tight ends
- Hasn’t proven to have definitive positional fit
- Speed-to-power rush charge tends to run out of gas
- Doesn’t get enough hip sink to consistently dip and flatten to QB
- Late activation of rush counters turning sacks into pressures
- Missed seven games and was never 100 percent after high ankle sprain in Week 3
- Below-average awareness and instincts
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