He reminds me of a shrunken W Sapp, he is farocius, he just doesn’t have a lot of height(like Dumervil). I think He’ll be better than McCoy as a pro.

So yes, I do have a considerable bias in favor of Brian Price. However, the nutcases like myself that go to the Rose Bowl at any chance have relentlessly broken down his game.

Ultimately, Brian Price has his incredible attributes that make him one of the most dominant players in college football. He has a very quick first step, as powerful of a bull-rush technique as anyone else in the college game and a natural heat-seeking nose for the QB. At the college level, against all these stereotypical Pac10 offenses that the rest of the country likes to generalize and deride, he proved to be un-blockable. Teams would put two blockers and occasionally three, but it hardly mattered. In addition to all this strength and natural ability, Brian Price has an internal drive unlike almost any other prospect. I recommend everyone goes out and reads about his troubled past in south-central LA, a childhood surrounded by violence in which he had to witness two of his brothers get murdered. He focused his entire life around football in order to avoid the troubles of gang life that engulfed much of his community, always working harder than anyone else in the game, on the practice field, and in the classroom. Brian Price has such incredible dedication to becoming the absolute best. This is an immeasurable element that, despite going in the late first/early second round, will likely make him one of the top 10 best athletes to come out of this draft.

Of course, his game is flawed and does explain why he won’t go nearly as high as Suh or McCoy. (For the record, Price was not as good as Suh in college. Nobody is, but that’s not meant as an insult towards anyone, just praising the game of Suh.) I question a couple of concerns people have about BP, but other worries are legitimate. BP is a pure defensive tackle with no prospects as a DE. That’s just his only position, and I don’t think it makes him a tweener. He is only 6’1, but I question how important having a 6’4 DT really is. He won’t be able to knock down ten passes, but is that really so important for a DT? I say, no. He is being pigeon-holed into the 4-3 defense, but I’m certain his dedication to the game and raw athleticism would enable him to play in the 3-4 as well.

A much more concerning element of Price’s game is that he is not in the absolute best shape. When double/triple teamed on every play, he simply could not play every down in a college game. NFL o-linemen are bigger and stronger, so while I have no doubt Price can hold his own from day 1, he needs to work on endurance. College teams would draw up specific plays for when he was on the bench taking a breather. Luckily, I think training year-round will improve on this problem. By far the biggest problem with Price, and the one thing that agree with teams in lowering his draft ranking, is that he has comparatively slow lateral movement. While a traditional pocket QB is dead meat, a quick scrambling one can get away from Price. Brian Price will have trouble with a Donovan McNabb type who can scramble away from pressure, moreso than Suh or McCoy will. This is something a good pro coaching staff will have to work with Price on, or he will have a problem at the next level.

In all, I fully expect Price to be drafted in the late first round. If he slips to the second, every team in the NFL will have made a critical mistake. He has the same internal, immeasurable drive that Maurice Jones-Drew had coming into the league. It is tough to estimate this in a highlight reel and even harder in combine workouts. MJD was taken in the second round and decided to wear #32 at Jacksonville in resentment of every pro team passing him up. We all know that was a mistake, as the guy who was apparently ‘too short to be effective in the NFL’ has quickly become one of the top three most dominant backs in the league. Surprise, surprise, ever since the rookie season he has produced infinitely more than his college rival, Reggie Bush (who relies purely on speed and only happens to be on a stronger overall team). Brian Price will simply outwork everyone else in order to prove his critics wrong and gain the respect of his teammates. Teams rightfully have legitimate concerns about his lateral quickness, but he has the right mindset to solve these problems. In hindsight a few years from now, he will have proven himself to be one of the top-10 best athletes to come out of the 2010 draft.

is his situational awareness. He does an incredible job of getting penetration but sometimes (quite often actually) he’s got so much penetration that when the play bounces outside it runs right by him. Basically he can have his momentum used against him to throw him past the play to the point where he can’t move on the ball.