2022 NFL Draft Profile: EDGE George Karlaftis

Purdue’s George Karlaftis is one the top EDGE prospects in the upcoming NFL Draft. He’s a virtual lock to go somewhere in the first round, with a real possibility of coming off the board within the top ten. Karlaftis is a native of Greece, moving to the United States at the age of 13. As a true freshman in 2019, Karlaftis started all 12 games for the Boilermakers and recorded 7.5 sacks and 54 total tackles. He was forced to miss the vast majority of his sophomore season due to a positive COVID-19 test. He returned this past year to once again start all 12 games. Karlaftis’ junior numbers were a bit more modest than his freshman numbers, registering 4.5 sacks and 39 total tackles. He was recognized as a 2021 First-Team All-Big Ten and Third-Team All-American.

Strengths

Hand Usage/Pass Rush Plan: If it wasn’t for Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson, Karlaftis would be this draft’s best technician as a pass rusher by a landslide. He’s liable to use any variety of swims, stabs, swipes, rip-throughs, or pulls on any snap, and can execute each of them at a high level. Karlaftis isn’t “one-and-done” with his pass-rush moves, either. He always follows up with a counter-move if his initial move isn’t an immediate winner. As a result, Karlaftis maximizes his chances of getting to the quarterback on every passing down. Since tackles have so many possible moves to worry about when facing Karlaftis, he’s very good at setting up tackles with fakes to get them out of position for his actual move. He simply doesn’t take snaps off, capitalizing on every opportunity to work over and set up his opponent.

Power/Explosiveness: As any great baseball pitcher knows, it’s a lot easier to fool hitters if they always have to prepared for the fast ball. For Karlaftis, his fastball is the bull rush, which is formidable due to his tremendous lower-body strength and explosion. Karlaftis attributes his superior leg strength to his days of playing water polo as a youth. It shows up on tape. His ability to churn through blocks makes him a headache to face on an every-down basis. His strength does him plenty of favors in the run game, as well, as he’s consistently able to set the edge and hold his ground, sometimes even against double teams.

Weaknesses

Playing in Space: For all of Karlaftis’ physical attributes, agility isn’t necessarily one of them. The West Lafayette, Indiana native can be exploited as the last man on the line of scrimmage with reverses and and end arounds. He’s also not great at dropping into coverage. If you’re a team with 3-4 defensive scheme that call for your outside linebackers to cover the flats or hook areas, Karlaftis isn’t a very good fit. His straight line speed isn’t special either. Don’t expect him to make too many plays downfield, or running sideline to sideline.

Bend: While Karlaftis can get the corner on tackles by setting them up inside and defeating their hands with swim or swipe moves, don’t expect him to do a Von Miller impression by speed-turning towards helpless quarterbacks. He always plays with good pad-level, but he lacks the ability to dip his center of gravity to get under a block and flatten towards the quarterback. Despite having a very high rate of winning reps, Karlaftis’ lack of bend keeps him from winning quickly very often.

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Ideal Role

Defensive End in a 4-3 Scheme: Unless you’re a rare 3-4 defense like the Green Bay Packers’, which prefers to use bigger, power-based outside linebackers, you’ll probably need to run a 4-3 base to truly mazimize Karlaftis’ strengths. He compares favorably to the likes of Cameron Jordan or Jared Allen, i.e., heavy-handed defensive ends that tend to thrive playing from a three-point stance in a close alignment. Karlaftis can even kick inside on passing downs to bully guards in the mold of a Justin Tuck.

Potential Fits

Amongst the teams at the top of the draft order, the Atlanta Falcons, New York Jets, and Minnesota Vikings make sense as possible landing spots. If he falls for whatever reason on draft day, the Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Chargers, or New Orleans Saints should jump at the chance to scoop him up.

– Ryan Cuneo is the Managing Editor of Full Press Giants. He covers the New York Giants. Like and follow on Follow @ryan_cuneo Follow @FullPressGiants and Facebook.