B.J. Raji: DT Boston College

Raji is BIG, I mean REALLY big. He already looks like a starting NT in a 3-4 defense. I would think he would fit better in a 3-4, than a 4-3 but I certainly am not a pro-scout. HE IS BIG.

I saw him in the senior bowl and was very un-impressed with his play. He was dominated on a few plays by a single Guard. He drew double teams occasionally but not consistently. One thing of not though would be that he may not have needed to make a strong impression in the actual game because everyone was soo high on him after his senior bowl workouts and practices.

I would say yes he is very similar is size to a Casey Hampton. He is listed at 6’1, 325, which is the same weight and heigth that Hampton is listed as. (Although I would think Casey is a bit bigger than advertised.)

He played pretty well at undertackle in the 4-3, but he is certainly qualified in every significant category to anchor a 3-4, at least in my opinion. He eats DTs for breakfast, he has a quick first step, he is most certainly heavy enough… Very big boy.

Regarding the Senior Bowl, this happens every year, especially with dlinemen. But I look at it more as maybe farting at the end of an ace interview, if I may be so crass. A real stinky one too. How much do you let it affect your overall take on the kid, though? One question that I still haven’t been able to answer for myself is whether or not he has anything other than just a spin move….hopefully Dan can weigh in on that as well.

On his character issues, the grade thing is being overblown I think. This link talks about what it was all about, and it was NOT grades related. He was misinformed about some requirements for his classes. I’m not sure if they resolved it or not, but he certainly comes off as unprofessional. keeping track of your schoolwork is no one’s job but yours, and when I see him lay an egg at the Senior Bowl Game, I think, “yet another example of not bringing enough professionalism to the table.” The suckerpunch? Who knows. I don’t think it is terribly serious, but again, it is unprofessional. These are marks against him, in my book, but willit precipitate his downfall? Not likely.

Now there was one thing that cropped up in his Senior Bowl performance that I didn’t see covered much, that definitely bothers me: he came in overweight. 334 was his official weigh in I believe, and that is at least 10 lbs over his typical gameday weight. That isn’t terrible, until you put it up beside his history of not managing his weight well enough. At one point he was over 350 in the BC program, which caused a lot of concern at the time.

The combine is very important for him, I think. He needs to come in at his proper weight, he needs to show his quickness, and above all he needs to come across as a man who is ready to take on the responsibilities of millions of dollars and a key role in some franchise’s future. I would feel good about THAT man on my team. But if he gets the idea in his head that he is a top 15 pick regardless of what he does or how he does it (and he would probably be correct in that assessment) and he doesn’t ace the combine, then he may very well still be a high pick, but I wouldn’t want to be the team who took that risk…

styg50 brought up a lot of the issues I have with Raji. I also just put Raji’s scouting report. But here goes on your questions:

1. If you had to pick one of the two only, I’d say he’s a better fit for the 3-4. He’s just so big.

2. Any concerns about his character will have to be figured out in interviews with teams. Some definitely are going to have flags raised about that, though. It’s kind of hard to get a beat on his character right now. He had the incident and missed a year of football. Did he bust it in 2008 only because he knew he had to?

3. I’d compare him to Gabe Watson of the Cardinals. A big, huge run stuffer who has a little bit of burst off the snap.

Personally, I think eight would be too high, but crazier things have happened.

I go to BC so you’ll obviously have to take my opinion with a grain of salt but I think Raji has the potential to do well in either 3-4 or 4-3. He seems to revel in taking up blockers so I agree that he would probably be best served by a 3-4, but he also has a good amount of quickness for his size. He could bring an above average pass rush for his position.

I think he could approach a poor man’s Haynesworth, who is also pretty big for a 4-3 but still manages to excel.

i agree his size will help him perform well

I hope my browns will take him at pick 5