Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah would be one of the smallest linebackers in the league at just 6’1 216 lbs. He’s incredibly fast, agile and smart. He played an odd role at Notre Dame as he played rover. In the NFL he projects to be a Will Linebacker for 4-3 teams and for 3-4 teams I think he could be moved over to Strong Safety as he has enough quickness and fast enough processing for the position. Koramoah primarily played and succeeded in man but he’s shown quality zone snaps as well. Man is preferred but he should be fine on a zone team as well.

Strengths: 

  • Amazing Movement Skills

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah’s strength lies mainly within his speed. He flies all over the field and he’s got incredible change of direction and short area quickness as well. He’s often in opposing teams backfields because of how well and quickly he fills his gaps. He’s good in space because of his quickness and change of direction skills.

  • Works Around Strength Weakness

His biggest weakness is probably his low strength but he knows how to work around that and he’s normally fast enough to get around blocks and he processes quick enough to not engage in blocks.

  • Quick Processor

He has got possibly the quickest processor in this class because after a play has started he reacts extremely well and he gets to the spot extremely quickly. He has great instincts as well. 

  • Great Blitzer

When blitzing and rushing the passer he’s not bad despite his size because he uses his hands extremely well to stay away from offensive lineman, and he’s also got great bend around the edge which allows him to turn the corner on offensive lineman.

  • Good in Man Coverage

In man coverage he has snaps mainly against WRs which is surprising to see for a linebacker. He’s fast enough to keep up with receivers and because he’s a LB he still has enough physicality to knock them off their landmarks. He’d definitely be a bit better suited to play man for a team.

  • Has Tools to Play Zone

In zone coverage Owusu-Koramoah holds up well enough and although there are some lapses in technique where he forgets to look back and ends up doing nothing, he can gain ground laterally and backward well which means with good coaching he can be good in zone as well.

  • Playmaker

The best part of his game is that he is extremely well trained in ball extraction. Every time he makes a tackle he’s trying to punch out the ball and during fumbles he’s always in the area and doesn’t miss recovery opportunities.

Weaknesses: 

  • Small Size

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah’s biggest weakness, which I believe can be fixed by moving him over to strong safety, is his size. At just 216 lbs he would be one of the lightest linebackers in the NFL. 

  • Not Good At Getting Off Blocks

While he’s pretty good at not engaging with blockers, at times he has to and he’s not great at getting off these blocks. 

  • Takes Bad Angles

He’s got great speed but sometimes he overestimates his speed and takes some absolutely terrible angles.

  • Not Good Tackler

His tackling form is also not the greatest, he often goes for the legs or tries to body tackle which leads in a few missed tackles. 

  • No Perfect Position Fit

The problem that I see with Owusu-Koramoah is that he’s a bit too small to play linebacker and doesn’t have a lot of work down the field for strong safety just yet. He’s going to need to change his game a bit for the pros but the good thing is a lot of his issues are fixable.

Player Comp: My player comparison for Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah is a bit of a bigger player but he was also a smaller LB coming out of college and that is Deion Jones of the Falcons. Both of these players are smaller LBs with amazing speed, acceleration, and change of direction ability. They’re both playmakers and both of these guys had the tools to be great in coverage.

Final Thoughts: Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah is a prospect who has all the tools to be a great player in the NFL and he also has the mental capacity and enough technique to be a really special player. My only real concern is that some team may not use him properly. We’ve seen teams in the past such as the Cardinals, with Isaiah Simmons and Haason Reddick, and also the Bucs/Rams with Mark Barron misuse guys with position versatility. Owusu-Koramoah will need to make the decision to gain weight and play LB full time or lose a bit of weight and be a strong safety. In any case however, for his use to be maximized he should be occasionally used in the other positions. I’m slightly higher on him than other people and I think that if a team plans on using him the right way he should go in the 12-18 range of the 1st round. The best team fit for him is the Giants, who didn’t have a WILL linebacker that they could play on a consistent basis, and they plan man where Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah succeeds.