Henry Anderson Provides Rare Interior Disruption for Mid-Round Prospect

Many NFL coaches would love to get their hands on a prospect like USC defensive lineman Leonard Williams, but no more than a handful of teams will get the opportunity to draft him. Most teams will have to look elsewhere in the 2015 NFL draft for a player to wreak havoc on the interior of opposing offensive lines.

Stanford's Henry Anderson is one such player who can disrupt opposing offenses but, unlike Williams, won't cost a premium draft pick. Such a combination seems rare, but one universal truth about the NFL draft is that there are good players drafted outside the first round.

Anderson might not excite a fanbase, but he is the type of player who can help a defense—particularly one that would deploy him as 3-4 defensive end or equivalent. The list of defensive linemen with similar statures—6'6" or taller and between 290 and 300 pounds—is exclusive.

The list of comparably sized players includes J.J. Watt, Mario Williams and Ropati Pitoitua—that's about it. To call Anderson a "tweener" is probably accurate, but if he can add weight to his huge frame, as he already has, he'll have some girth to go with his impressive length.

Anderson might need some time to grow an NFL body, which is why he will likely be available on Day 2. For a team that doesn't need Anderson to make an instant impact, it wouldn't be surprising to see Anderson come off the board earlier than expected.

Athletic Profile

Interior defensive players come in two types. Either they are immovable objects who can play on first and second down, or they are pass-rushers with great short-area quickness and agility. What makes Anderson so intriguing is his potential to be a combination of both.

At 294 pounds, Anderson had a 7.2-second three-cone drill and a 4.19-second short shuttle at the combine, two of the best times among defensive linemen. These agility measurements were in many cases comparable to players who weigh 20-plus pounds less than Anderson does.

Anderson's athletic profile was more impressive than the aforementioned Williams in everything but the 40-yard dash. The next time a defensive lineman is valued for his ability to run 40 yards will be the first.

Player	Height	Weight	40	Broad	Vert	3 Cone	Short Shuttle	pSPARQ
Leonard Williams	6'5"	302	4.97	106"	29.5"	7.59	4.53	110.7
Henry Anderson	6'6"	294	5.03	111"	30"	7.20	4.19	120

Short-area quickness is probably the most important trait for an interior defensive lineman. Anderson seems to have that agility, which is truly impressive for a tall player.

According to Zach Whitman of Three Sigma Athlete—who has reverse-engineered Nike's SPARQ rating, which teams such as the Seattle Seahawks use as a check for athletic ability—Anderson is also an above-average athlete relative to his peers. Per Whitman, Anderson’s pSPARQ is 120, which would put him in the 73.7 percentile among defensive tackles in the NFL.

SPARQ and Whitman's pSPARQ are also blind to height, so they don't take into account the fact that Anderson is 6'6". There are obvious height advantages and disadvantages for a defensive lineman.

NFL Network's Mike Mayock weighed in on Anderson after his performance at the Reese’s Senior Bowl and touched on how his height and weight will affect him at the next level:

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He's a defensive end at 6-foot-6, 287 pounds, and when he stays low, he can use his outstanding length to his advantage; when he gets up tall and exposes his breastplate that's when he gets in trouble. I think in two years, he's going to go from 287 to 310 pounds, and at 6-6, 310, he'll be the ideal 5-technique in a 3-4 defense, and I also think when teams get into sub packages he can use that length and quickness to his advantage and you can kick him down inside.

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It's worth noting that between the Senior Bowl and the combine, Anderson gained seven pounds. He went from 287 to 294 in a matter of a few weeks, so it might not take as long as Mayock expects for Anderson to get to 310 pounds.

In theory, the added weight would help Anderson become a plus run defender at the NFL level. His length and ability allowed him to make plays against the run and pass at the college level, but he could struggle with more physical and athletic blocking at the NFL level without packing on a few more pounds.  

Production

One thing is certain: There were few defensive linemen more productive than Anderson was last season. He was a first-team All-Pac-12 selection along with Williams, Danny Shelton of Washington and Nate Orchard of Utah.

Anderson had 15 tackles for a loss and 8.5 sacks in 2014. By comparison, Williams had 9.5 tackles and seven sacks playing in the same conference, and Shelton had 16 tackles for a loss.

Player	Run Stop % (Power 5)	Pass Rush Productiity (Power 5)	TFL	Sacks
Henry Anderson	12.3% (3)	12.2 (1)	15	8.5
Leonard Williams	13.9 (1)	7.8 (30)	9.5	7

ProFootballFocus has expanded its metrics to include college players, and Anderson's name came out on top of many of them. Anderson was fourth in run-stop percentage and third against Power Five conferences. Williams was second and first, respectively.

Unlike Williams, Anderson also showed up in the pass-rushing productivity metric, ranking second among interior defenders overall and first against Power Five opponents. Anderson had 57 pressures on 373 pass-rush snaps.

Anderson routinely demonstrated the ability to use his short-area quickness and length to stop the run and get pressure on the quarterback. On this play against Utah, Anderson slips his blocker to make the stop against the run:

Within the first few seconds against Oregon State, Anderson uses his agility to get interior pressure on the quarterback. On this particularly play, Anderson lined up as a nose tackle:

There are dozens of examples of Anderson abusing blockers to either make a play in the run game or get pressure on the quarterback. While he ends up on the ground too much for some, there is no doubt he made his fair share of plays at the college level.

With a few more pounds and his underrated short-area quickness, Anderson will be making plays at the NFL level for years to come. One shrewd NFL franchise is going to get a player who can disrupt the interior like few players in this draft for a phenomenal value.