PROSPECT SUMMARY – QUINTON BOHANNA

Kentucky nose tackle Quinton Bohanna is an old-school interior defender who will be best served in a traditional role as a two-gapping nose at the pro level. Bohanna offers looming size and power on the interior but struggles at times with leverage, pad level, and consistency in anchoring in the middle. Any team who invests in Bohanna will need to hope that he’s able to maintain his reduced size after he showed up at his Pro Day approximately 30 pounds lighter than his listed weight (357 lbs) on the Kentucky roster. The biggest barrier to success for Bohanna will be his antiquated role: he’s a scheme-specific player that most teams don’t really carve out an active roster spot for in the modern game, so he’ll need to thread the needle to find a home in the pros.

Ideal Role: True nose tackle.

Scheme Fit: Odd front, two-gap system.

FILM EVALUATION

Written by: Kyle Crabbs

Games watched: Alabama (2020), Tennessee (2020), Florida (2020),

Best Game Studied: Florida (2020)

Worst Game Studied: Alabama (2020)

First-Step Explosiveness: Bohanna’s first move out of his stance is typically up, not out. The tightness through his core is restrictive to driving out of his stance and into gaps. He’s not going to find success in a penetration role without completely reshaping his frame and overhauling his athletic profile.

Flexibility: TIghtness is visible in his stance, through his hips, driving out of the blocks, and trying to lock out and squat to anchor in the middle. Squatty centers will find opportunities to work underneath his pads and roll him back into an upright position. Taking double-teams will require added focus on early split of half-man in order to prevent anchoring in a 2-on-1 fit without leverage.

Hand Counters: Bohanna does show some modest attention to detail in order to attack at the sign of a strike from opposing linemen. He offers plenty of strength to dislodge fit hands but swiftness to counter tight punches isn’t strong, so anticipation will be key in order to clear his chest against first strikes.

Hand Power: If there’s one thing Bohanna does well, it is strength. There’s plenty of power rolled into his punches and he’ll land two-handed blows on blockers, looking to stun and neutralize to create stalemates up front. Most blockers won’t have the pop to take uncontested hands to the chest.

Run Defending: Bohanna, when able to strike first, is effective in stuffing up action on the interior. He’ll need sound play from the linebackers behind him to keep things clean, however—he did not illustrate lateral range or ability to cross face on blocks in order to have a bigger presence than immediately over the center.

Effort/Motor: This is inevitably going to be a low-snap volume defender in the pros. In a perfect world, he’ll be logging somewhere between 30-40% of your defensive snaps after he develops with his hand usage and gets more consistent with his pad level. As a result, you should expect you’ll get his best on each snap. But his range and area of influence in the middle is still very limited and he’s not going to be seen downfield in pursuit very often.

Football IQ: Bohanna, despite having 30-plus starts with the Wildcats, will need plenty of polish and focus to ensure he’s consistent and effective as an A-gap defender in the NFL. Coping mechanisms and techniques for his athletic limitations will need to be added to his arsenal.

Lateral Mobility: Short-area agility and mobility is an issue due to heavy feet and tight hips. Relying on him to scrape and flow is a losing proposition relative to asking him to railroad opposing centers and trying to stuff up the mesh point.

Core/Functional Strength: Despite the natural lack of leverage due to his size and tightness through the core, Bohanna does illustrate admirable strength to absorb blocks and try to hold ground up front. Alabama gave him fits with their heavy-handed interior trio, however, so gap/power-heavy offensive lines in the pros should be able to manipulate his leverage issues.

Versatility: Bohanna was routinely rotated out of the Wildcats interior, and in obvious passing situations he rarely saw the field. Expect more of the same at the pro level. Bohanna is a short-yardage specialist and candidate to develop into a base personnel rotational defender.

Prospect Comparison: Daniel McCullers (2014 NFL Draft, Pittsburgh Steelers)