Ali Gaye, EDGE LSU: Offseason 2023 NFL Draft Profile

Gaye was a three-star JUCO recruit from Garden City Community College in Garden City, Kan. in the class of 2020

LSU has two stud pass rushers in Ali Gaye and BJ Ojulari. Gaye is the older prospect, and he displays a developed bag of pass rush moves and counters. A big year could propel the redshirt senior into the top 100 picks of the 2023 NFL Draft.

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Ali Gaye, EDGE LSU: 2023 NFL Draft Profile

Classification: Redshirt senior defensive end from Lynnwood, Wash.

Background: Gaye was a three-star JUCO recruit from Garden City Community College in Garden City, Kan. and Edmonds-Woodway High School in Edmonds, Wash. in the class of 2020. He was the No. 19 junior college (JUCO) recruit according to 247Sports, No. 31 for Rivals, and No. 43 for On3.com. He was an unranked three-star recruit coming out of high school in 2017 for ESPN with a 77 grade out of 100 and 247Sports’ No. 627 high school recruit nationally. Gaye originally committed to Washington in 2017. However, his SAT scores weren’t high enough to enroll at Washington. Gaye enrolled at JUCO Arizona Western College in 2018 before finding his way to Garden City Community College in 2019. In his lone year at Garden City Community College, Gaye produced 44 tackles, one sack, one forced fumble, a pass breakup, and two blocked kicks.

2021 Production: 4 games, 19 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 20 pressures, 2.5 sacks, 1 pass defensed

2020 Production: 10 games, 32 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss, 38 pressures, 2 sacks, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery, 1 interception, 6 passes defensed

Injuries & Off-Field: Suffered a season-ending torn labrum in 2021

Awards: 2020 Second-Team All-SEC

Overview: Gaye is unofficially listed at 6'6", 265 lbs. He successfully applied pressure on about 11.4% of his pass rush snaps in 2020 and 16.4% in 2021. Gaye possesses above-average athleticism for his position, but the JUCO product’s pass rush development is his most attractive trait. It’s good to see Gaye has a variety of pass rush moves and counters in his arsenal considering he’s one of the older prospects in the 2023 draft class. The Washington native incorporates spin moves, cross chops, and swim/arm-over moves. Gaye has active and quick hands that are enhanced by his impressive arm length. He frequently swipes and voids the tackle’s hands to create clear rush lanes. Gaye can easily get into the tackle’s pads and manipulate him into opening the interior rush lane. His reaction time helps him avoid cut blocks and redirect to cut off run plays or mirror the quarterback as he drifts out of the pocket. Gaye has good but not great pursuit speed. He reduces the contact surface he offers tackles throughout his pass rush and displays solid bend around the edge. Gaye constantly tries to get his hands in passing lanes. He has room to add more weight to his frame, which is good because he currently looks lean in his lower half. Gaye’s play strength needs to improve as he rarely wins with power and struggles to set consistent edges against the run. Powerful linemen displace him. Gaye lacks exciting speed, closing burst, change of direction skills, and leverage. His tendency to play with a high pad level costs him the leverage battle. Gaye’s burst off the line is inconsistent, and he lacks the speed to consistently capitalize on his pass rush moves. Missed tackles and penalties have ruined some potential big plays for Gaye.

Overall, Gaye possesses some tweener traits that land him somewhere between a 3-4 outside linebacker and a 4-3 defensive end. He has a developed bag of pass rush moves and counters along with some enticing physical traits. Unfortunately, Gaye still needs to develop his play strength, and a few mid-level athletic traits hinder his ceiling as a prospect.

Role & Scheme Fit: Designated pass rusher in a 3-4 scheme

Pros: Special teams experience on the punt return, punt coverage, and field goal block units, good (not great) pursuit speed, spin move, cross chop, swim/arm-over, appears to have ideal arm length, athleticism to mirror and track the quarterback, displays decent bend, incorporates swipes and manipulates the tackle into opening inside rushing lanes, gets his hands up for PBUs, takes appropriate angles to the football on outside runs, reaction time helps him avoid cut blocks, active and quick hands, combination of savvy and power to deal with tight end and running back blocks, room to add muscle to his frame, length lets him get into the pads of tackles and jostle them, reduces contact surface for linemen at the top of his rush, gets off blocks and redirects to the football, plenty of moves and counters

Cons: Age, missed tackles are a concern, frequently penalized, spin move sometimes takes him nowhere, change of direction skills are mediocre, doesn’t have elite pursuit speed, pad level is consistently too high, lacks high-end closing burst, looks lean throughout his build, play strength needs to improve (especially in his lower half), lacks the speed to make plays as a backside run defender, missed tackles ruined potential big plays, doesn’t consistently win with power, burst off the line is inconsistent, doesn’t always have the foot speed to capitalize on his pass rush moves, anchor doesn’t allow him to set hard edges against the run consistently, powerful linemen move him off the line

Round Projection: Mid Third to Early Fourth

Player Comparison: N/A

Submitted: 09-11-22