{"id":82950,"date":"2020-03-19T19:17:40","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T23:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=82950"},"modified":"2025-09-25T12:01:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:01:06","slug":"anfernee-jennings-nfl-draft-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2020\/03\/19\/anfernee-jennings-nfl-draft-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Anfernee Jennings 2020 NFL Draft Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Overview<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Position: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Edge Rusher<br \/>\n<\/span><b>Height: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6\u20192\u201d<br \/>\n<\/span><b>Weight: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">256 lbs<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><b>School: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alabama Crimson Tide<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Anfernee Jennings 2020 NFL Draft Profile\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jennings was a highly recruited in-state talent for the Crimson Tide. As a Dadeville High School senior, Jennings\u2019 impressive 170 total tackles and 14 sacks earned him an opportunity to play in the Semper Fidelis All-American Game. The four-star recruit generated numerous offers from schools such as Arkansas, Georgia, Arizona State, and Nebraska before committing to Alabama.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jennings began his collegiate career as a 2016 redshirt freshman where he initially was lost in the shuffle of Alabama\u2019s deep depth at linebacker. However, as the season progressed, Jennings was able to play valuable snaps. Entering his 2017 season, Jennings took on a starting role within the Tide\u2019s defense before a knee injury in the College Football Playoff semifinal game ended his season. Through extensive rehab, Jennings had a solid junior season in which he was nominated for the Bednarik and Butkus Award watch list. Jennings then returned for a memorable 2019 senior campaign which ended with him being selected to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.secsports.com\/article\/28262132\/2019-all-sec-football-team-announced\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">All-SEC First Team<\/a> as well as being a Butkus Award semifinalist.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Strengths<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">strong hands with good block shedding ability;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">good length and extension when engaging blockers at the point;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">has a well-developed arsenal of pass rush counters with smooth transitions from one to the next;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">disciplined and consistent edge setter when defending the run;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">strong base;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">good tackler with an NFL caliber frame;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">admirable on-field leader who accepts his role along with assignments and consistently executes;\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Weaknesses<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">average athleticism for an NFL edge rusher;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">stiff hips with average flexibility in his rushes;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">average agility and lateral movement prevents any strong hopes of him consistently playing in space;\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">average first step quickness and often needs to utilize his counters to win rushes;\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lack of top-end athleticism shows up when trying to tackle shiftier runners;\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>NFL Comparison: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/N\/NinkRo20.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rob Ninkovich<\/a>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Teams With Need at Position: <\/b><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\/bills\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Buffalo Bills<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/cowboys\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dallas Cowboys<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/dolphins\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Miami Dolphins<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/falcons\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlanta Falcons<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/giants\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Giants<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/jets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Jets<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/lions\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Detroit Lions<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/patriots\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New England Patriots<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/rams\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Los Angeles Rams<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/ravens\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Baltimore Ravens<\/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\/seahawks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Seattle Seahawks<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/steelers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/texans\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Houston Texans<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/titans\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tennessee Titans<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Projection: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Early to late third round <\/span><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<h3><b>Bottom Line\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jennings does not provide game changing athleticism when coming off the edge of a defense. Additionally, he will rarely win a pass rush purely based on first step quickness or pure bull rush strength. However, Jennings is smart enough to recognize his physical limitations and has committed himself to developing the finer details of the position. Despite being just an average pass rusher, Jennings excels at defending the run and his eye discipline coupled with his football IQ make it very difficult for offenses to get him out of position. Furthermore, Jennings wins pass rushes based on his polished hand technique as well as an array of counter moves that keep blockers guessing and constantly on their toes. Jennings plays with a team first mentality and consistently does what coaches assign him to do before worrying about impacting the play in other ways. While Jennings is not the flashiest playmaker coming off the edge, he consistently plays his role well and understands the value of team defense better than most. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"bGuKEDeZQOt9aTeXhQxxdQ\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1176204089\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" 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:'bGuKEDeZQOt9aTeXhQxxdQ',sig:'2GhJq0sRzW4SK2Juist8XDF0hKnysYkKituoy_UKN3c=',w:'594px',h:'395px',items:'1176204089',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>Overview Position: Edge Rusher Height: 6\u20192\u201d Weight: 256 lbs School: Alabama Crimson Tide Anfernee Jennings 2020 NFL Draft Profile\u00a0 Jennings was a highly recruited in-state talent for the Crimson Tide. As a Dadeville High School senior, Jennings\u2019 impressive 170 total tackles and 14 sacks earned him an opportunity to play in the Semper Fidelis All-American [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3217,"featured_media":83093,"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":[1647,54,33760],"tags":[5273,5997,1674,177,61,6024,40,2363,2030,242],"class_list":["post-82950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","category-editorials","category-profiles","tag-2020-nfl-draft","tag-2020-nfl-offseason","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-football","tag-new-england-patriots-draft","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft-grades","tag-nfl-draft-profiles","tag-rob-ninkovich"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82950","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\/3217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248235,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82950\/revisions\/248235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}