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The selection of Alex Okafor by the Arizona Cardinals was met with pleasure and also with skepticism. Having played defensive end all through college, now he is being taught now to play outside linebacker like former teammate Sam Acho.
Despite some criticism that he is not consistent in his effort, one of our Texas Longhorn sites, Barking Carnival, wrote a piece about the Texas players that were taken in the draft.
Okafor left Texas on a spectacular note with 4.5 sacks against Oregon State in the Holiday Bowl, and had a long, productive career in Austin, but NFL scouts were concerned about his status as a tweener - not explosive enough as 4-3 defensive end to offset average size, not quick enough as a big 3-4 OLB to hold up in zone coverage and provide a consistent blitzing threat off of the edge.
What Okafor can do is hold up straight up against the run - even against bigger players. And he's a high effort pass rusher who grinds for his sacks. While he doesn't have any single attribute that distinguishes him from other NFL quality players, he has no real weaknesses that can't be addressed by coaching, particularly his tendency to get hung up on blocks and lose the edge.
He has no real weakness that can't be corrected. He has had great sack numbers before. Texas fans say that he has a good motor.
The only thing that should stand in his way is transition to OLB, and that is something that rookies have to do frequently.
Sounds like he is a pretty good player.
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