If anything, he progressed as the year went on. He was certainly a very good player. Sure he has some limitations but what player doesn't.
Doyle cost Epenesa millions
- Thread starter CyTwins
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During player interviews, the LT Runyan for Michigan, TE for Purdue, and Wirfs identified AJE as the toughest edge they faced. Runyan said he was just as tough to block as Young.
Did an Iowa fan really just say this?
So glad to see you're ok after another rough weekend. Thought maybe a wellness check was in order.
1st round, 2nd round, I really don't care where he is drafted. You are trying to troll an All American who will be a early round draft pick, it is a super bad troll, yet you keep on keeping on with it.
Well neither Purdue or Iowa played Ohio State this year.. And Wirf's didn't play in 2017 when Chase Young was a freshman and Young was barely even a factor that entire year. So, I don't really know what to think of those guys saying that.
But regardless, Epenesa is still good lol. He wasn't the player Chase Young was obviously, but that doesn't mean he's not good.
How much?
Michigan left tackle Jon Runyan, who provides deeply technical insights into his opponents, said Epenesa was tied with Ohio State's Chase Young as the two toughest defenders he ever faced.
"A.J. exploits the weakness of what I play," Runyan said. "I'm a vertical setter, and the weakness of a vertical set is what A.J. loves to do: bull rush with a one-armed stab. He's able to catch me leaning a lot, catch me off guard. Early in the [2019 Michigan vs. Iowa] game, the first three or four drives, I wasn't really keying on his shoulders. He started running downhill, and I wasn't able to get my hips down and react to the bull rush."
Purdue tight end Brycen Hopkins also singled out Epenesa as one of the toughest defenders he ever faced, adding a most unusual compliment to his scouting report: "I thought he was a great player. He was physical, but at the same time he's a cool guy. He wasn't a jerk out there. ... So I thought he was a great player, great guy. He came off the ball with an explosive power."
And then there's teammate Tristan Wirfs, one of the stars of Friday night's offensive line workouts. Wirfs didn't hesitate to name Epenesa as the toughest defender he ever faced. Sure, he may be a teensy bit biased, but players rarely single out teammates when answering "toughest opponent" questions.
"We had some battles," Wirfs said. "When I met with the Broncos, they said a scout was there [at Iowa practice] and I didn't lose to A.J. So I said, 'I'm glad you were there on that day.'"
Shocking a Michigan player would say someone is better than an Ohio State guy. Same with Wirfs talking up his teammate
There are far more players that have average to bad combine results that end up having great NFL careers
Right but Purdue's TE didn't play Young this year and Wirf's never faced Young in his entire life.. Lol so I think this has more to do with them thinking Epenesa is good and it's not suppose to be anything negative towards Young.
If you really insist on a basketball analogy, it would be like if Halliburton was having a decidedly mediocre season, some Hawkeye fan was making fun of him, but we still had 24 wins.
Yeah I've never said AJE is better than or even as good as Young.
I'm not mocking the guy at all. But yea, I saw many posts from hawks and even on early mock draft boards that had him in the top 5 and top 10 was an absolute lock. And yea poor play. He really only cracked it up the last few games. He was rather inconsistent, imo
So the AP puts guys who play poorly in all but the last few games on its All American teams. LOL, got it.
Would love to see which mock draft boards had him top 5, I stay on top of that stuff and never saw a mock with AJE in the top 5. Definitely saw him in and around the top 10.
Sure thing. How concerned are you with Campbell's regression?
A lot of similarities to CPR at this point in his career, but CPR had more top 2 wins than Campbell does.
None. How concerned are you about losing your three best players? (Wirfs, AJE, Stone)