{"id":139918,"date":"2023-04-06T09:00:30","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T13:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=139918"},"modified":"2023-04-04T06:22:28","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T10:22:28","slug":"felix-anudike-uzomah-nfl-draft-profile-team-fits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/04\/06\/felix-anudike-uzomah-nfl-draft-profile-team-fits\/","title":{"rendered":"Felix Anudike-Uzomah NFL Draft Profile, Team Fits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Felix Anudike-Uzomah NFL Draft Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Position:\u00a0<\/strong>Edge Defender<br \/>\n<strong>Height<\/strong>: 6&#8242;-3&#8243;<br \/>\n<strong>Weight<\/strong>: 255 pounds<br \/>\n<strong>School<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/tag\/kansas-state-wildcats\/\" target=\"_self\">Kansas State<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023-nfl-draft-profiles\/\" target=\"_self\"><em>More 2023 NFL Draft Profiles<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>2023 NFL Draft: Felix Anudike-Uzomah Scouting Report<\/h2>\n<p>After spending the past three seasons with Kansas State, Felix Anudike-Uzomah has decided to skip the remainder of his collegiate eligibility and declare for the 2023 NFL Draft. It&#8217;s hard to blame him for this decision, and Anudike-Uzomah enters the NFL Draft on the heels of a dominant season. In 2022, the edge defender recorded 46 tackles, 11 tackles-for-loss, and 8.5 sacks during his 14 games of action.<\/p>\n<p>Anudike-Uzomah, a Kansas City native, joined Kansas State prior to the start of the 2020 season. After a relatively quiet rookie season, the Anudike-Uzomah broke out in a big way during the 2021 campaign. Playing in 12 games, he finished the year with 50 tackles, 14.5 tackles-for-loss, and 11 sacks and earned First-Team All-Conference honors.<\/p>\n<h3>Strengths<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Fast off the snap with the speed to blow past tackles;<\/li>\n<li>Impressive strength &#8211; can win as a bull rusher as well as a speed guy;<\/li>\n<li>Advanced pass-rushing skillset for his age &#8211; already has multiple moves;<\/li>\n<li>Can get low to the ground without losing his footing;<\/li>\n<li>Impressive pursuit speed means he&#8217;s never out of a play;<\/li>\n<li>High-motor guy that never gives up until the whistle is blown.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Weaknesses<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Exclusively an edge &#8211; lacks the strength to play inside, even on passing downs;<\/li>\n<li>Pedestrian athleticism puts a cap on his ceiling;<\/li>\n<li>Gets knocked down more than you&#8217;d like trying to get too low in his rushes;<\/li>\n<li>Struggles to shed blocks in the run game;<\/li>\n<li>Can lose power in rushes with poor footwork.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>NFL Comparison<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/S\/SheaJa00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jabaal Sheard<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Teams With Need at Position<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/cardinals\/\" target=\"_self\">Arizona Cardinals<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/ravens\" target=\"_self\">Baltimore Ravens<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/panthers\" target=\"_self\">Carolina Panthers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/browns\" target=\"_self\">Cleveland Browns<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/lions\" target=\"_self\">Detroit Lions<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/chiefs\" target=\"_self\">Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/rams\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Rams<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/saints\" target=\"_self\">New Orleans Saints<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/seahawks\" target=\"_self\">Seattle Seahawks<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Projection<\/strong>: Round 2<\/p>\n<h3>Bottom Line on Felix Anudike-Uzomah<\/h3>\n<p>Felix Anudike-Uzomah isn&#8217;t an All-Pro type of player, but that doesn&#8217;t mean he can&#8217;t start in the NFL. In fact, his college tape implies that he can be a multi-year starter in the league, even if he doesn&#8217;t have the highest ceiling. Anudike-Uzomah can win in a variety of ways, as he&#8217;s fast enough off the snap to get past slower tackles, and strong enough to push around weaker ones. While some prospects only have a handful of rushing moves entering the NFL Draft, Felix Anudike-Uzomah already has a variety of ways to get to the quarterback which should keep offensive tackles on their toes.<\/p>\n<p>Anudike-Uzomah&#8217;s bend is both a blessing and a curse. Getting below offensive tackles is probably the fastest way to get after the quarterback, and the Kansas State product can get low while maintaining his speed and balance. However, if a lineman gets a good hit on him, he&#8217;s going down. This is largely due to his (relatively) pedestrian athleticism. While some players are physically gifted enough to recover when hit from such an unnatural position, Anudike-Uzomah is not one of them. He&#8217;s not a bad athlete by NFL standards, he&#8217;s just nothing special.<\/p>\n<p>Athleticism is especially important for edge defenders, so Anudike-Uzomah&#8217;s lack of physical prowess means that he&#8217;s never going to be a superstar. This also limits him in terms of positional versatility, as he doesn&#8217;t have the size or strength to line up inside in pass-rushing situations. Basically, teams will know exactly where he&#8217;s lining up on every single play.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, Felix Anudike-Uzomah&#8217;s lack of physical gifts will keep him out of the first round. However, his technical know-how and ability to get after the quarterback in a variety of ways ensure that he&#8217;ll be an early Day 2 pick. Look for the Kansas State product to compete for a starting job right out of the gate and put up 5-8 sacks per season.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Jerome Miron &#8211; USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After spending three seasons at Kansas State, edge defender Felix Anudike-Uzomah has declared early for the 2023 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":139921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1647],"tags":[7811,9805,7661,7638,7659],"class_list":["post-139918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","tag-chiefs-featured","tag-felix-anudike-uzomah","tag-panthers-featured","tag-ravens-featured","tag-saints-featured"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}