{"id":62429,"date":"2019-04-02T14:17:53","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T18:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=62429"},"modified":"2021-03-14T15:02:12","modified_gmt":"2021-03-14T19:02:12","slug":"demarcus-christmas-2019-nfl-draft-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2019\/04\/02\/demarcus-christmas-2019-nfl-draft-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Demarcus Christmas 2019 NFL Draft Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Position<\/strong>: Defensive tackle<br \/>\n<strong>Height<\/strong>:6\u20193\u201d<br \/>\n<strong>Weight<\/strong>:294 pounds<br \/>\n<strong>School<\/strong>: Florida State Seminoles<\/p>\n<p><strong>Combine Performance Data<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>40-yard dash<\/strong>: 5.08 seconds<br \/>\n<strong>Bench press<\/strong>: 22 reps<br \/>\n<strong>Vertical jump<\/strong>: 25.5 inches<br \/>\n<strong>Three-cone drill<\/strong>: 8.13 seconds<br \/>\n<strong>20-yard shuttle<\/strong>: 5.07 seconds<\/p>\n<h1><strong>Demarcus Christmas 2019 NFL Draft Profile<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><strong>Demarcus Christmas<\/strong> never quite lived up to his billing coming out of high school. A four-star recruit, Christmas committed to Florida State prior to the start of the 2014 season. Unfortunately, Christmas appeared in just one game as a true freshman before suffering a season-ending injury. Because he was hurt so early into his freshman year, Christmas was able to redshirt the rest of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Christmas spent the 2015 and 2016 seasons as a reserve defensive lineman before earning a starting job in 2017. During his first season as a full-time starter, Christmas recorded 36 tackles, 4.5 tackles-for-loss, and one sack. The Sarasota native wasn\u2019t able to build on his promising Junior season, as the defensive tackle recorded just 28 tackles, three tackles-for-loss, and no sacks as a redshirt Senior.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the course of his career, Christmas has recorded 106 tackles, 11.5 tackles-for-loss, and 3.5 sacks. His stats don\u2019t tell the whole story, as Christmas was typically asked to eat up space so others could make plays. The ACC coaches recognized his unheralded play, as Christmas earned third-team All-Conference honors as a redshirt senior.<\/p>\n<h2>Strengths<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>has size and height required for an interior run-stuffer;<\/li>\n<li>capable of taking on double teams without losing his spot;<\/li>\n<li>flashed ability to collapse pocket interior;<\/li>\n<li>serviceable play recognition ability;<\/li>\n<li>deflected 13 passes during his time in college.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Weaknesses<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>a two-down player who offers little to nothing as a pass rusher;<\/li>\n<li>below-average athlete across the board;<\/li>\n<li>fundamentals leave a lot to be desired;<\/li>\n<li>slow first step leaves him vulnerable to quicker offensive linemen;<\/li>\n<li>eats up space but struggles to shed blocks and make a play on the ball carrier.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>NFL Comparison: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/L\/LoveKy00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyle Love<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Teams With Need at Position: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/bengals\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/chiefs\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/redskins\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Washington Redskins<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/titans\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tennessee Titans<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/falcons\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlanta Falcons<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Projection: <\/strong>Sixth to seventh round<\/p>\n<h2>Bottom Line<\/h2>\n<p>Christmas is a two-down run stuffer entering a league where stopping the pass is more important than ever. He\u2019s not an elite run stuffer by any means, but he should be able to fight for a job as a rotational depth piece. He has the size and build required to play on clear running downs, and his college tape shows he\u2019s capable of eating up double teams without losing his ground.<\/p>\n<p>However, Christmas will need to work hard to even make it on an NFL roster. He\u2019s a below-average athlete who doesn\u2019t bring much of anything to the passing game. Players like Christmas need to have elite fundamentals to make up for the lack of athleticism, and Christmas\u2019 technique still has a long way to go. Additionally, he doesn\u2019t shed blocks well and often gets eaten up by faster linemen.<\/p>\n<p>If Christmas does make an NFL team, it\u2019ll be as a reserve option near the bottom of the depth chart. He probably won\u2019t contribute much as a rookie, but he has the ability to develop into a serviceable early-down run stuffer.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"OxDiUDiqTW1J_5uUSLbaSw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1052012384\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'OxDiUDiqTW1J_5uUSLbaSw',sig:'g7iIct7vSFVEprdJT9qKn4bwiA9ZBeug0S8zZiqA8QM=',w:'594px',h:'416px',items:'1052012384',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Demarcus Christmas spent five years at Florida State and looks to carve out a role as a defensive tackle in the 2019 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":62432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[54,1647],"tags":[4070],"class_list":["post-62429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-nfl-draft","tag-2019-nfl-draft"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62429","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=62429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}