June 17th, 2010 
Jesse Bartolis 
Posted in 
Up next in our series is the young defensive tackle from Penn State, Jay Alford.
Jay Alford was drafted by the NY Giants in 2007 with the 81st overall pick in the third round.
What was Alford like heading into the 2007 NFL Draft?
CBS Sports.com
Positives: Has adequate upper body development with a thick chest, thighs and calves and the frame that can add at least 15 pounds with no loss of quickness … Combative type with a quick initial step in attempts to gain advantage … Has very good mobility and range for an interior lineman and could be utilized as a 3-4 defensive end due to his quick first step … Product of the training room, having added 40 pounds of muscle to his frame since arriving on campus as a freshman … Compensates for a lack of strength with a sudden burst that generally puts offensive linemen on their heels coming off the snap … His consistency in getting a jump off the ball and taking good angles let him apply steady pocket pressure … Flashes suddenness to gain advantage and has a good feel for blocking schemes and screens … Active moving down the line and has the closing speed to make plays on ball carriers along the perimeter … One-gap type who flows and fights to get to the ball … Uses his hands effectively to defeat blocks and uses his lateral agility to avoid the opponent on the move … Frees himself well with his feet to close on the ball when engaging single blocks … Routinely chases down plays outside the block, making him a better end candidate than tackle … Quick-twitch player with the ability to quickly diagnose the plays … Active in pursuit, showing a fluid lateral slide and is an effective wrap-up tackler when he stays low in his pads … Intense pass rusher with an array of moves to go along with his mobility in attempts to shoot the inside gaps … When sinking his pads, he is much more effective at gaining leverage on the bull rush … Good second effort type of pass rusher with quick change of direction agility on the move … Shows improvement in keeping his hands active to prevent blockers from latching on … Works hard to replace his hands when engaging blockers … Will close and deliver the big hit flushing out the quarterback (very quick over five yards), flashing that extra surge to seal the deal … Quick reader who won’t bite on misdirection or play-action.
Negatives: Gets too high in his stance at times, losing balance and leverage when trying to anchor … Tends to get over-aggressive at times as he tries to out-muscle rather than using his array of spin moves. That causes him to get washed out on the play, as he has marginal strength to anchor or split double teams … Lacks the wide, natural base to play in a two-gap system … Will over-pursue, losing leverage in the process, as he needs to restart to get back into the play rather than flow to the ball … Needs to wrap securely as a tackler, as he lacks explosion behind his hits (does not follow through when delivering a hit) … Lacks the bulk to stack and control playing the interior, but has just short-area quickness, lacking the sustained speed to be effective rushing off the edge … Better when on the move, as his lack of bulk causes him to struggle trying to disengage from multiple blocks … Gets frustrated when his initial move fails and will then throttle down … Good wrap-up tackler when he gets into position to make the play, but more often than not he will get his hands outside his frame, swing wildly, whiff or make arm tackles rather than securing the ball carrier.
Compares To: CLAUDE WROTEN-St. Louis … Alford is a classic overachiever, but lacks the bulk and overall strength to face up and split double teams. He is a move-oriented pass rusher who compensates for a lack of raw power with a quick initial burst to shock offensive linemen and rock his opponents back on their heels. Like Wroten, he might lack the sand in his pants to play regularly in a base defense, but while he is a good interior pass rusher, he lacks the sustained speed to be utilized as a full-time defensive end.
Jay Alford was a good productive college football player who had questions about his ability to be an everyday defensive tackle in the N.F.L. But the Giants don’t need him to be that. What he has shown is that at times he can be difficult to block disrupting the backfield as a pass rusher.
According to profootballfocus.com Jay Alford in 2008 was the 17th best interior pass rusher in the N.F.L. behind elite talents like Jay Ratliff, Albert Haynesworth, Tommy Kelly, Sedirck Ellis.
Tommie Harris one of the best pure pass rushers at the DT position in the league was right ahead of Alford. What’s MOST impressive about this number is that profootballfocus.com uses a cumulative rating where an average play or expected performance of a player at a position is a 0 a positive play is a 1 and a negative play is -1.
Jay Alford had a 5.7 pass rush rating in a total of 383 snaps, which is impressive. Only two other players had under 600 total snaps . If he had as many snaps as the rest of the higher rated players ahead of him he mmight have been in the top 10 interior pass rushers in the league (assuming his performance stayed consistend which is not guranteed at all).
Alford has shown that he can be a very good pass rusher in this league. However Alford had a negative rating overall because he was equally as poor a run stopper as he was a pass rusher and he had too many penalties.
But again recently Alford tweaked his left knee again which makes you almost feel sorry for the guy.
The Giants are well set at defensive tackle (hopefully) where they have guys who have specalities stopping the run Chris Canty. Guys who are suppose to rush the pasher Rocky Bernard, Jay Alford, (Nate collins? long shot probably). And whatever DE will play in the middle at times (Tuck or Kiwanuka) and guys they think can do a little of both: Linval Joseph and Barry Cofeild.
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