2021 Chiefs Draft Prospect: Payton Turner

NAME: Payton Turner

POSITION: Defensive End

SCHOOL: Houston

HEIGHT: 6’5”

WEIGHT: 270 pounds

CAREER BACKGROUND

A Houston, Texas native, Payton Turner has long been a highly touted athlete in H-Town. He was both a football and basketball standout for Westside High School. In 2016, the defender was named first team District 18-6A. However, Turner missed most of his senior season because of a knee injury. This highly affected his offers to play college football. A two-star recruit, Turner stayed home and joined the Houston Cougars program.

In his true freshman season of 2017, Turner appeared in 11 games. He totaled 14 tackles, one sack and one interception. He became a starter on the defensive line for the last three seasons of his college career. In 2018, a foot injury prematurely ended his year after starting 11 games. Turner started to produce at a higher clip in his junior season of 2019. He finished with 34 total tackles, eight tackles for loss and four sacks. Turner’s 2020 campaign was not only shortened due to the pandemic, but he also missed a couple of games due to an injury. But still, he recorded 25 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss and five sacks in five games played. He then participated in the 2021 Reese’s Senior Bowl. Following the 2020 season, Turner earned second team All-AAC honors.

SCOUTING REPORT

Positives

Read And React Ability

Turner processes plays quickly and tactically. Where this really stands out, is against the run. He stays patient and under control while reading mesh points on read option looks, for example. Meanwhile, he anticipates what the opposing offensive linemen’s plans of attack are. He picks up on those little signals of what direction they may be looking to move. Additionally, Turner does well to take noble angles and get to an area of the field well before the ball is starting to go there. Not all of these effort plays and controlling gaps well lead to stats fans will be looking for in the box score. Though, he can effect reps in a variety of ways, both against the run or the pass.

Strength

This is honestly Turner’s best option right now, in terms of beating blocks. He has the immense hand power to outmuscle or wear down the opposition. Elsewhere, Turner is smart to start generating his power quickly and at the beginning of a rep. He can create significant separation with an initial push or punch at the point of attack. Turner possesses the core and grip strength to outlast opponents on plays that take an elongated period of time to develop. Furthermore, the way in which he can displace blockers and move them off their base point leads to many opportunities for the defense to make stops behind the line of scrimmage.

Flexibility

Turner will obviously not be confused for being a bendy pass rusher coming off of the edge. However, he surprises with how loose and fluid his movement can be. The tilt at which he rushes at is advantageous for his larger frame. Combined with the ample strength that he has, Turner uses a lean stance and long strides to collapse the pocket. The defender can press and squeeze down in shorter areas more often that expected. To boot, his use of leverage seemed to improve as the years went on at Houston.

Negatives

Pass Rush Counters

There is plenty of development needed for Turner, regarding pass rush moves and counters. He has trouble stringing together multiple moves against opponents. His go to move is a combo of a club, followed by a swim. It just appears to be that Turner is moving in slow motion. Especially when you watch other teammates on the defensive line, it can certainly take a great deal of time for him to get home. The best way that Turner can get after the quarterback, is due to overpowering blockers and displacing opponents’ arms into awkward positions.

Hand To Hand Combat

Keeping his hands active and rolling can be hit or miss. When he does get them into the chest of blockers, Turner can sometimes become too high with his arms and pad level. If the handfighting does not resonate, there are a few other courses of action that Turner attempts to use in order to win the battle. He tries to use a spin move, but that is generally thwarted. Moreover, Turner attempts to utilize lower half strength or jump cuts to get around opposing offensive linemen. This can occasionally lead to him losing his balance.

Speed/Burst

Gaining ground on the quarterback or ball carrier by closing down on the them comes and goes. Turner does not have the first step explosiveness that other defensive ends have in this draft class. Mainly, that is due to how he sets up in his stance and failing to fire out of it. His steps can become choppy in traffic or short areas. In those situations, Turner’s astounding tilt can be taken away, and he starts to run too high. These issues could be tweaked and fixed possibly quicker than the other aforementioned question marks.

Chiefs Fit

A big thing that makes Payton Turner a possible target for the Kansas City Chiefs, is how smooth he can move for his size. It may not be necessarily sexy. But, Turner has the high motor and energy needed to be a two way defender. His pass rush plan has some inside-out versatility. And, the Houston product has shown to be technically sound against the run. This player also showed that he could handle twists and stunts with ease in college football. Kansas City loves to throw those in for their defensive ends, if the time is right. Consequently, Turner can control caps and the line of scrimmage. This would potentially open up more one on one opportunities for potential Chiefs teammates Chris Jones and Jarran Reed.

Be on the lookout for our final FPC Chiefs draft prospect profiles over the next couple of weeks. For more great sports and NFL content, stay tuned to Full Press Coverage.

– Braden Holecek is the Kansas City Chiefs managing editor for Full Press Coverage. He covers the NFL. Like and follow on Follow @ebearcat9 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Follow @FPC_Chiefs //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js and Facebook.