Simms' DT draft rankings: No. 5 Lee Hunter
Chris Simms and Connor Rogers discuss Texas Tech DT Lee Hunter, who stands alone in Tier 3 as an instinctive player who plays fluidly and holds ground, but lacks a bit of explosiveness and is a bit leaner in the legs.
Video Transcript
One more defensive tackle for the top five to round it out, but this player's in a tier of his own at tier three.
Yeah.
That is Lee Hunter, The Fridge, from Texas Tech.
A well-traveled player.
He played at UCF at a pretty high level- I saw that as well before Texas Tech.
Yeah, I, I did not realize that.
Yep.
You know, Tex- first off, I mean, my man, I love the way he looks in his uniform.
He tries to look like he's like Deion Sanders in number two there.
But he's- Not, not, not exactly.
He's 320 pounds.
I was really, like, amazed with him too.
Yeah.
Okay?
Now, again, I don't know.
He- I wrote second round here.
I think that's about right.
Right?
But I wouldn't up- Again, another one of where I'd go if somebody took him late in the first, at 6'3" 1/2, 320 pounds, with over 33-inch arms- Right I wouldn't go, "Oh my gosh, what a stupid pick."
No.
I mean, he's got a lot to like.
You know, not the athletic look some of the other guys have, right?
A little bit more of the run stopper look- That's the difference nose tackle, shade nose look.
Yeah.
He's truly that guy.
That's why he's in tier three- Exactly instead of your top four.
Right.
Natural big man.
Not great muscle tone.
A little sloppy looking, but I love his I, you know, I, I, I don't love his legs, they're a little skinny, but then he's got a big butt that's high up in the air that I do like, right?
So he's got one of the And this happens sometimes with D tackles, where you're just like, whoa.
Like, kinda from the quad down, he looks like he's like a linebacker.
It's not even like a 320-pound man look.
Yeah.
Warren Sapp had an incredible, like, like you would think, is he a sprinter?
Like, is he a 100-meter sprinter?
He had these small little calf muscles.
And, but he had the athlete, athlete look with the size to go with it.
Feel like Hunter has that too, while being a bigger man than, of course, Warren Sapp.
But, right, he's not the kinda guy who pops 'cause of explosion or twitch right when you watch him.
That's not what he is right away.
The main thing you see right away with Hunter is he's hard to move.
He's more of the run stuffer type than the guys that we talked about before who could Kinda run stopper, but also disruptive.
Does really well with double teams.
I mean, really well.
He's immovable with double teams.
And he really never loses one-on-one.
That'd be another one too, right?
And he can be dominant.
He's gifted at holding his ground.
Holding the guard up, throwing him away, getting the ball carrier.
He's gifted in that department.
Great awareness, great eyes in the backfield.
I mean, really an instinctive football player to me.
And, you know, he doesn't get to two gap a lot, but you see enough as I went on to go, oh, he can be an elite two gapper, right?
And then you talk about, again, the athlete and being able to win, and win some of these wrestling matches in awkward positions.
Like somebody like you brought up before, Javon Kinlaw.
That's where I missed on him.
I liked him coming out of the draft, but he was too stiff, too upright.
He could never win in awkward positions, as I started to watch him in the NFL.
And I went, ah, I You know, I didn't catch that- Right when I evaluated him.
So th- that is a big thing, and he can definitely do that.
Now, I wish he was a little more cons- consistent exploding off the ball.
He needs somebody just to give him a little more urgency, right?
I think there's- Yes that missing in his game a little.
He doesn't have the gas tank the other guys did.
No, he does not.
He doesn't have the like, "Oh, it's gonna snap.
I'm gonna go" Yeah, yeah.
You know?
Yeah, it's not- He's a little bit like, "Huh, all right, I'm here.
Are you gonna move me?
I don't think you can-" Right " let me stay."
But you do see enough to know that can be there.
And as we've talked about before, usually you can get more out of these guys- Right once they get in the NFL, right?
Where they just go, "Whoa, I just have to do that and I can make 20 million a year?
Okay.
Yeah, I can do that."
So the hand use, gotta be a little bit better.
But, you know, he can be a real force at times.
You can see it.
It's not all the time, but he has moments in almost every game where you go, he dominates people, and that's what's amazing.
The ability to hold the ground is elite.
You know, shows a g- elite ability to push the pocket.
Not consistently, but when he does do it, it's like, whoa, he can really do it in a big-time way.
He's a shade nose, nose tackle guy.
But, you know, the one thing I wrote, as the season goes on, you know, he won as an athlete more.
And, you know, and I wrote, "He's a better athlete than I first gave him credit for."
And I wrote, then my last line was, "I've seen worse go late in the first round."
So I really like the guy.
I expect him probably early second.
But again, man, another guy where just shocked we haven't heard, or I haven't heard more about him.
I know you have.
No, he had a really big Senior Bowl week.
He obviously played at a, a program that had a great year for Texas Tech.
he was good at UCF before Texas Tech.
Yeah.
He was better against the run.
It feels like he found something as a pass rusher- Yeah at Texas Tech- Right that he didn't really have.
So he's been kinda one of these late risers this year.
JamesF5S in the chat said, "When an NFL strength coach gets Hunter, he'll turn into a monster."
I, I think so.
He's got that kind of, like It, it could be.
Because yes, he could use a little bit more muscle.
And, you know, just another guy, just maybe just, you know, the, what I always say, the hot poker near the ass, right?
Right, yeah.
Whether that's another teammate or one of these ornery defensive line coaches who- Yelling and just like- you know, just like, "Hey, what the F are you do..." You know what I mean?
Yeah.
You know, sometimes they, these guys haven't had that.
The NFL will be a different experience and, yeah, the usually guys like this, a fire gets lit underneath them being around other alpha males and realizing they, they're just not gonna dominate just showing up every day.
It's been a good nicknames day.
We had Big Citrus- Yeah Dominique Orange.
Right.
Hear from Lee Hunter on his nickname, The Fridge.
The nickname, The Fridge.
Yeah.
Where do, where does it come from?
I think it speaks for itself.
Yeah.
We met you, and we're- It's like, wow.
Yeah.
Big dude.
It's a dude that lives up to the nickname.
No, The Fridge come from I was at practice one day.
My, my defense coordinator walk up, he said, "I'm gonna call you The Fridge."
I'd be like, "Why, Coach?"
He's like, "'Cause people wanna eat c- if people wanna eat, they gotta get through you."
And, and I can't put it in my ring with it.
So if you hungry, you gotta get through the fridge if you wanna eat.
Good luck.
I love- That's good the old school country guys.
That is good.
I love it.
That's great.
It's so good.
People are hungry- Yeah they have to get through you.
The Refrigerator Perry was, that called that 'cause he was like- Literally the size of a refrigerator.
This one, this guy's bigger than Refrigerator Perry.
But yeah, you gotta get, you know, if you're hungry and you wanna eat- This is so good you gotta, you gotta get through the fridge.
Good luck with that.
but yeah, really impressed with him.
and there's some other guys we haven't talked about here.
Right.
You know, do you think he's early second?
Where do you- I think mid to late second.
Mid to late second, you think?
I think the, the- Yeah the lack of athleticism compared to the other guys will pigeonhole him- Yeah into a more rotational role.
Right.
By the way, rotational role is not an insult.
Like, that's what every NFL defensive line coach does now.
Yeah, yeah.
But I don't, I don't think he'll have the, like, he could play 70% of the snaps and dominate today outlook, but he could have a really important 45% of the snaps.
Yeah, right.
Right.
So- Yeah.
I'll be interested too.
Again, he- 40 to 65?
40 to 65.
40 to 65.
You think that- Yeah.
Yeah.
Somewhere in there.
All right.
Yeah.
I know it's a big range, but- No, no, it's, it's, you know, 2020 is not, not a big range.
As we know, a few different draft picks and all that, and that could be easily you can drop down 20, 20 spots.
Yeah.
I, I would, I would say, really, I would think it's gonna be maybe a little before that, right?
I would probably go, like, 32 to 52 or something like that.
Yeah.
That would be where mine is.
But again, impressive player.
And to me, this is kinda one of the keys to the draft for my money.
The, these players, where they go, and does more of them end up in the first round than we expect, which of course will lead some players off the first round, you know, board, that we're gonna be like- Yes "Wow, we thought he would definitely be in the first round"
