The Five Best Rookie Pass Rushers of 2022 

DE/EDGE PRE-DRAFT RANKINGS Tier 1 (The studs) ⁃ Travon Walker ⁃ Aidan Hutchinson ⁃ Arnold Ebiketie ⁃ Josh Paschal ⁃ Kayvon Thibodeaux ⁃ Boye Mafe Tier 2 (Higher upside starters) ⁃ George Karlaftis ⁃ David Ojabo ⁃ Jermaine Johnson ⁃ Cameron Thomas ⁃ Drake Jackson ⁃ Michael Clemons Tier 3 (Solid Starters) ⁃ Sam Williams ⁃ Esezi Otomewo ⁃ Demarvin Leal ⁃ Logan Hall Tier 4 (Role players) ⁃ Nick Bonitto ⁃ Tyreke Smith ⁃ Myjai Sanders ⁃ Jesse Luketa ⁃ DeAngelo Malone ⁃ Dominique Robinson ⁃ Kingsley Enagbare Tier 5 (Fun Flyers) ⁃ Mika Tafua ⁃ Ali Fayad ⁃ Alex Wright ⁃ Jeffrey Gunter

Posting at a normal hour is a rarity Brett

Brett the level of production this year on these types of videos is so much improved and what I always wished they could be. Absolutely love it dude.

Man I almost thought he was gonna mention Karlaftis. He’s safe from the kollman curse 😮‍💨. Thanks kollman!

Jets and Ravens both got absolute steals in Johnson and Ojabo at where they were picked. As a Ravens fan I love seeing Ojabo paired back with McDonald and across from Oweh. Definitely the potential for a terrifying rush duo.

Boye Mafe was 2 years younger than me at my high school. Real nice dude and an absolute stud athlete. Really happy to see him get some praise

What a great list. I disagree with almost every ranking lol. This is the perfect Brett Kollmann video.

Hutchinson has almost zero bend but has an elite skill of turning his speed off the line into power to either go through or around the OT. And as an athlete, his RAS was still really good, like 9.87 or something out of 10.

As a Seahawks fan im really excited for Boye, we have been really missing a reliable pass rusher on the Edge since Cliff retired so im hoping he can fill that spot and excel.

Loooove the Paschal Pick! He was one of my absolute favorites that I watched this year.

After listening to Brett's description of Ebiketie, I could not stop but keep thinking "that's pretty much Azeez Ojulari".

As a falcons fan this gives me hope!

Great video Brett! Any chance you could show where we could learn more about the point made about the 3 cone time being a great indicator of a good pass rusher?

I look forward to another NFL season of your content, m’man! 💯

Brett, big fan of yours all the way from Kingston, Jamaica. Absolutely love your videos. keep up the good work.

Love your stuff Brett. Insane mix of top notch analysis and high level entertainment. You are so right on Ebiketie, the Houston comp is spot on. I think Ngakoue is also a fair comp. In any event, I think you are way too low on Karlaftis. I'd urge you to go back and watch his tape again, pretty much anything beside for Ohio St. His hands and feet are synced up better than anyone else in the draft and he was constantly double and triple teamed. If you focus solely on his technique, it will blow you away. Athletically, he does have a few questions, especially with speed, but overall he is a BEAST

I can attest to hello fresh btw, I learned to cook because of their packages and the food is genuinely amazing. I don’t order from them now because of money but I still only cook from their recipes because they’re that good

6 pm in Amman, Jordan! Thanks for the dinner show Brett

Sick video Brett!

Love this content!

Love to see my Lions pick up 2 of the potentially 4 best edge guys in the draft. I’d love to say we’re looking crazy in this rebuild, but we all know their track record😭

As a Falcons fan I hope you're right about Arnold. We've needed a pass rusher for over a decade.

“I think some people probably expected him to be higher on this list…” Well Brett you just put Aidan Hutchinson at 4 and now KT and 3 so I have no fucking clue what to expect for the rest of this video.

I’m so exited for Hutchinson. My home team is the Wolverines so I was already a big fan and now he’s at the lions? What a great thing.

KT and Azeez are gonna be dangerous for the Giants defense

Arnold Ebiketie is an incredible football player. #5 player on my board, and the guy I would’ve pounded the table for the hardest.

David Ojabo is going to be a beast for the ravens across from Odafe Oweh when he comes back

Falcons finally get something 😫

Love your videos!

Did you just put in a brock lesnar quote for mafe? Top tier commentary

I’m curious on where you’d rank Karlaftis had he continued to progress from his freshman season at Purdue

I've been hyped on Josh ever since I watched him dominate in every game I watched of him especially in Florida where he took over that game and looked like a future superstar in thar game

good shit brett, per usual

I traded up for Ebiketie in my dynasty draft, thanks for making me look good Brett

Running out of time is my love language. Keep enjoying life (especially the offseason), Brett.

I love your number 1 not just bc I'm a FALCONS FAN!!! Arnold matched up with Jarrett and our new acquisition from the giants (Carter) might be our only upside in these rebuilding seasons

Are we also getting this for IDLs? I need another reason to get excited about Wyatt

Great video

Keep sleeping on Drake Jackson! Hes literally fallen into the best situation in the league. Opposite Bosa and with arguably the best dline coach in the game. SF were in the bottom 5 with blitz rate but in the top 6 with sacks. That good.

As a Falcon fan this warms my heart…As a dawg fan glad to see Travon get love as well..

Interesting take on Hutch’s athleticism. Have you seen his RAS? He’s got some freaky tools

As for being relatively stiff but getting around a corner quickly, what you said about Hutchinson, reminds me a lot of Nick Bosa

As a falcons fan, I'm so happy we finally have edge presence

Brett is the 🐐

I dunno why people make opinions controversial. Its an opinion everyone has the right to have one. Everyone has the right to express theirs. Nobody is forced to agree. People just want to argue i think. Keeping putting your opinions out there Brett its why we watch the channel for.

Personally really excited to see how 3rd and longs go for Devonte Wyatt. I think teams are going to have trouble blocking Rashan Gary, Preston Smith, Kenny Clark, and Devonte Wyatt all at the same time. Edit before anyone says something: I know that there will probably be a whole video about IDL, but they’re obviously still pass rushers.

When Brett uploads a video a football gets its laces.

It'll be fun to see who breaks out

Falcons Fan. Seeing this after Julio signed for Tampa. Works like a antidepressant for me rn.

Spoiler: Mafe: 1:02 Hutchinson/Pascal: 5:42 Thib: 8:21 Walker: 10:35 Ebertikie: 13:01

*Die hard falcons fan here* In 2018 you were wrong about Isaiah Oliver. You better be right about this one lol

Somewhat on-topic, somewhat off-topic, I seriously can't wait for like February-March timeframe (I'm just assuming that's when he'll get around to college and Draft-based content). I wanna see Brett's video on not only Will Anderson being probably the best pass-rusher of the last decade, if not longer, but the combo of him and Dallas Turner just being the best pass-rush duo since Derrick Thomas and Cornelius Bennett at Alabama in the 80's. This upcoming season will just be utterly fucking filthy with those two opposite of each other, literally no one in the country has an answer for them.

Good stuff. Here's hoping you're wrong about Thibodeaux, and he turns out to be the best of the bunch for my Giants! :)

Falcons fan here 🤙🏾 excited about AK

Arnold looked good in his first preseason action. Hope he continues to improve.

Boye Mafe is going to be a stud. Him and Darrel Taylor are going to be fun to watch over the next few years

I love the anticipation of finding out who has the best rookie season

Two aggies in those three first pass rushers you mentioned! Gigem

Love that chicken salad and chicken shit reference lol suits MN perfectly too bc of Brock Lesnar😂

Do corners next 🙏🏾

I honestly think pascal made more sense as a DT in the role that Aaron darnold plays. I didn’t see him do it. So I’m very likely wrong, but there was a few inside moves he made on tape that made think he’s be able to make a very very good AD impersonator.

It’s crazy to think 2nd round edge rushers are 1st rounders any other year. Goes to show how deep this class was

As a Giants fan I actually thought you would put Thibs top 2 on this list. What is it that your down on him? For me is his motor that worries me

I am once again devastated

I think going to the Dean Pees system and having Grady Jarrett will certainly make a big difference.

I don’t know how I feel about Alex Wright. If he learns from Clowney and Myles, then I think he can be the long term staple on the team. But part of me thinks that he just doesn’t have that extra step in him. I hope I’m wrong tho lol.

Brett you release a video for me to watch at a normal hour in germany what happened to you and thank you

I think the greek kid is gonna have a chance to be really good right away with Chris jones keeping the attention in the middle. Without a doubt deserved to be on the list

Would you have counted ebiketie as highly if he only had 32-33 inch arms?

Shoulda posted this after seeing that first half from Karlaftis... 😬😬🤔

I'm mainly interested to hear as an Aggie fan. Why Clemons > Leal?

Kayvon and Azeez are going to be a premier pass rush duo.

commenting off that first statement, walker is easily a chase young level prospect

Real quick question: As a Steelers fan (not that football savvy but love my hometown team), I'm always amazed about how much love Myles Garrett gets above TJ Watt, despite TJ being the objectively more productive player over the last couple of seasons. Is it because Garrett has a dream build of a prototypical pass rusher or because he's more likable than TJ, who the latter is less outspoken and keeps his head down and works. I think TJ is the best edge guy but would love to know if you'd do a vid or have addressed the comparison between the two. Like your content btw

I understand why you feel the way you do about Walker, but even if the reason he didn't have many true rush opportunites was due to scheme, we still haven't seen him be a true rusher enough to know what he will be. I hope he does well, but I dont think he will be much more than a run defender as a rookie.

23 being "old" in draft terms is crazy to me. That would still leave someone around their prime by the end of 1st contract, and physical decline is usually a bit after 30. Teams operate in a "we need to be good this season", or at most "by next season" types of mentalities. You don't know what will happen with players. If someone is going to be good, the fact that you *might* "only" get 7-8 years of top production (but maybe still 10+) being used as a reason to lower a 1st round talent in the draft seems...odd. IMO this should only be a factor if the player's value is likely to crater before or at end of rookie contract. That's not going to be a thing for a 23 year old draft pick, unless they get injured or turn out to just be bad...and both of those things happen to younger picks as well. It will hurt HoF chances, but not chances for draft pick value for team.

How do you feel about Jermaine Johnson

Whish we got analysis on karlaftis

I wanted Arnold in Seattle so bad

Sure we don’t always agree on much lol but man mafe in tier 1 is an insult lol surprised to see a hand fighting pro being put in the 2nd tier when he was a consensus top 15-20 pass rusher in the draft

At first, I thought you were being unfair to Hutchinson by putting him at 4. Then I remembered that you're considering destination, not just individual talent.

My favourite breakfast program is 12 hours late today :D (greetings from Europe)

I would have to go with D Williams on the Cowboys that’s what he goes by now because he’s not gonna be asked to do a lot besides come off the edge and be in the third guy next to Demarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons I mean Randy Gregory got the bag for that just feed the third fiddle to them so I think he can go off

If Demarvin Leal gets a decent amount of playing time I expect him to have a really good season he was a 3rd round steal for the Steelers I remember him being recognized as a first round talent but he ended up falling due to a bad combine performance

Brock Lesnar - “Chicken salad baby”

Out of the gate you're saying Mafe isn't multi-dimensional so that makes me wonder if he makes the finsl cut at the edge, or if the Seahawks move him inside. And sorry about Thibodeaux but here's a guy who backed into the first round based on his 2020 season, not 202. The league tried it with Josh Rosen remember?

So what you're saying is the Jags got a placeholder at 1st overall? Not making a compelling argument for that future bust with the lackluster highlights either...

If you adjust the ranking based on the team the players went, and their coaching staff, I am curious to know where drake Jackson would have ended up since he isn't in your top 5. Kris Kocurek and the 49ers have a good track record at making DL more productive, and Jackson would play on the same DL than Bosa and Armstead which will attract a lot of attention.

As a biased cardinals fan I’m hoping for Cameron Thomas

Kinda bold to put Michael Clemons above Demarvin Leal

I miss the drink mixing intros.

Love that Ebiketie is at #1. Think the Falcons fit will do wonders for him. Question i do have is where do you have JJ and Ojabo (if healthy)?

Paschal looks like he's on 2x speed while the rest of the players going at normal.

Hutchinson looks a lot like trey Hendrickson. Both seem to just fight hard and have great hand usage

Drake Jackson gone have the best stats I’m calling it

The one thing I hate about Mafe is that he has been playing for so long, he will be 24 by the time the season starts, I feel like he hasn’t progressed very much throughout his tenure. It makes me worry about his ability to learn and progress. On the other hand he was playing the same position for the same coaches for years so maybe he just did was he was asked.

Aidan Hutchinson is a Michigan bosa

Can’t wait for Derrick Hall to top this list next season

Say Bonitto!

Thibodeaux over Hutchinson is a bold move after pre draft hype and whatnot, I personally think they're the best 2 in the class and about even but bold nevertheless. Travon Walker is obviously one of the finest athletes ever seen at the position but he wasn't just a normal edge rusher in college, I'm more scared that the jaguars might force him into a round hole and ruin his development