New York Jets DT Jonathan Marshall boasts a historically great athletic profile to go along with excellent production, but his late breakout is a concern.
Athletic profile
Jonathan Marshall is a world-class athlete for a defensive tackle. He carries a slightly larger than average frame for the position (6-foot-3 and 310 pounds) and posted elite marks in every drill he participated in at his pro day.
Here are Marshall’s pro day measurements and how they stack up against all defensive tackles who have data on record since 2000:
- Height: 6′ 3⅛” (62nd percentile)
- Weight: 310 pounds (65th)
- Wingspan: 76¾” (17th)
- Arm length: 32¼” (20th)
- Hand size: 9½” (23rd)
- 10-yard split: 1.67 seconds (89th)
- 20-yard split: 2.70 seconds (91st)
- 40-yard dash: 4.88 seconds (92nd)
- Vertical jump: 32″ (80th)
- Broad jump: 114″ (93rd)
- Bench press: 36 reps (93rd)
Marshall earned a Relative Athletic Score (RAS) of 9.99 out of 10, the second-best score ever recorded by a defensive tackle out of 1,309 qualifiers since 1987.
Jonathan Marshall was drafted with pick 207 of round 6 in the 2021 draft class. He scored a 9.99 RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 2 out of 1309 DT from 1987 to 2021. https://t.co/pfu75g5vG0 #RAS #Jets pic.twitter.com/GkFWdNU03y
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) May 1, 2021
Role/usage
Marshall handled a heavy workload in the Arkansas defense. He ranked third in the country among interior defensive linemen with 633 total defensive snaps and fourth with 63.3 defensive snaps per game, taking the field for 79.2% of Arkansas’ defensive snaps on the season. For comparison’s sake, Washington’s Daron Payne led NFL interior defensive linemen with 55.1 snaps per game in 2020.
The nose tackle position was Marshall’s primary home. He lined up over the center on 54.2% of his snaps in 2020. He played 1-technique (over the center’s shoulder) on 10.9% of his plays and either the 3 or 4i-technique (guard’s outside shoulder or tackle’s inside shoulder) on 34.8% of his plays.
On the 290 snaps in which he did not play nose tackle, Marshall lined up on the left side of the defensive line more frequently than the right, posting a 66%/34% left-right split on his non-nose tackle snaps.
Positives
Underrated pass rushing ability
The “1.0” listed under “Sacks” on Marshall’s stats page is an eyesore, but it’s completely misleading. Despite managing to collect only one sack in 2020, he was actually an impressive pass rusher.
Maybe we’ve found our goal-line H-back?
Lawrence Thomas 2.0?