Typically, at this point in the NFL and NCAA football season, there’s a clear-cut consensus No. 1 overall pick nearly decided for the upcoming draft. Last season, that pick was clearly going to be Andrew Luck. In 2010, Sam Bradford was the obvious choice. This season though, it could be any number of players, and it will likely come down to each individual team’s draft board.
One former NFL scout thinks the No. 1 pick should be Florida State defensive end Bjoern Werner. Russ Lande, who worked for the St. Louis Rams and Cleveland Browns and now writes for the National Football Post, had Werner at No. 1 on his Top 200 prospects for the 2013 draft.
Werner is a junior defensive end for the Seminoles who racked up 13 sacks this season. In his first two seasons at Florida State, he accumulated 10 1/2 sacks. Werner was born in Germany, and came to the United States to play football as a junior in high school at Salisbury School in Connecticut. He’s listed at 6-foot-4, 255 pounds on Florida State’s website, and has a freakish combination of strength, leverage, speed and agility for the position. He can slide around the edge of the offensive line to get to the passer and can be a stout run defender setting the edge.
Werner’s most impressive attribute may be how complete his game already is, despite being a foreign underclassman. Werner will no doubt draw comparisons to J.J. Watt, as he’s the defensive player du jour, but that would be inaccurate. Werner can better be described as a Chris Long or Osi Umenyiora-type defensive end prospect.
Watch Werner match up against Wake Forest in the video below.
Photo via Facebook/BRFloridaStateFootball
