Da'Quan Bowers - Draft Stock

By Neal Olsen - NFL Draft Analyis for The-Mainboard.com

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Strengths:
The biggest thing that stands out when watching Bowers is how well he is built. In what is becoming one of the toughest positions to draft for, Bowers is your picture perfect 4-3 defensive end. He has a great built and combines that with outstanding athleticism similar to Mario Williams and Julius Peppers. Bowers shows outstanding burst off of the line and uses his hands well. This year he has fought throughout the play and doesn't just rely on his speed off of the edge. This has allowed him to finally start to live up to the tremendous hype he had coming into Clemson. When he is able to maintain proper leverage and use his hands effectively,  there is no other pass rusher like him playing college football this year. Finally I referenced it a bit but the speed off of the edge is very impressive for his size. You don't see to many 280 pound lineman able to have the straight line speed that he has which he has demonstrated multiple times during the 2010 campaign.

Weaknesses:
Easily the most concerning aspect of Bowers overall resume is simply the lack of consistency. I valued him as a third to fourth round prospect coming into the 2010 season and based on this season he has vaulted up my rankings based on his play. He has always had the ability to breakout like he has and this year it seems the loss of his father is a motivational tool for him. I would be weary of getting burnt by a player who just had a monster year in what is considered a money year. In addition to the consistency questions, Bowers has similar lapses that all college linemen have coming into the NFL. When he fails to stay low, he can be driven out of a play. In addition to the lapse in leverage at times, if he just tries to get by with his natural ability and lets technique go out of the window offensive linemen have had no problems bottling him up. Both of these were demonstrated in his first two years at Clemson.

Overall Analysis:
Bowers has been one of the biggest risers throughout this college football season. He has finally started to live up to the billing that most had of him coming into college. Without Robert Quinn playing, Bowers has certainly made himself the number one 4-3 end out of draft eligible prospects. There will probably be many questions that will hit him with the spike of his play this year, as general managers decide whether to risk a top five draft pick on getting the guy of this year or potentially getting the guy that was heading towards bust territory after his first two years.  I think the potential is to big to ignore and he will find himself at worst the second true defensive end off of the board in April's draft and I would certainly imagine he is scooped up in the first ten selections.