The draft has come and gone and now my favorite part of the cycle starts: digging into all the new bright, shiny toys and seeing how they may fit on the team. Today, we’re taking a look at Dani Dennis-Sutton, the edge rusher from Penn State.
His RAS paints a pretty clear picture: a big dude (6’5”, 256 lbs) who is an absolute freak athlete. He posted some nice production, too, leading the Big Ten in pressures per game (3.8) in 2025 (per Dane Brugler’s The Beast). Over the course of his 4 year career (all at Penn State), Dennis-Sutton amassed 34.5 Tackles For Loss, 23.5 Sacks, and 7 Forced Fumbles.
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So why was he sitting there for the Packers to draft in the 4th? You might expect a large, freak athlete edge rusher with good production at a big school to go in the 1st round. While there is a lot to love about Dennis-Sutton, he is far from a perfect prospect.
To start, his eyes are easily confused by fakes. Sometimes it leads to comical moments, like him decking a RB in the backfield long after the QB has pulled the ball and is around the edge. Other times times it leads to a prolonged hesitation to attack that leads to a hole for the runner to hit.
For a guy with his athletic testing, his change of direction is pretty slow on tape. His TFL numbers for his career are good, but they could have been better if his ability to change direction was just a tick better. There are quite a few times where he breaks through the line, only to be undone by a slight movement by the runner. I know that’s not uncommon — running backs are shifty little buggers — but it shows up enough for me to raise a flag about it.
Some of that slow movement when not moving in a straight line can also be seen when he’s the looper on a stunt. On these plays, you want a tight arc around the crasher, exploding into the backfield with speed and power. Dennis-Sutton’s loop is not that.
That also hurts him in the run game. As you might expect from a man of his size, Dennis-Sutton does a really nice job setting the edge, but, on the reps when he needs to disengage and pursue, he’s slow on the turn and it takes a while for him to gain momentum.
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One last note on the bad, and it’s something you can see in some of the clips I’ve posted above. At Penn State, Dennis-Sutton rushed from 2-point, 3-point and 4-point stances. He does his best work out of a 2-point stance. When he has his hand in the dirt, his first move is to stand straight up, robbing him of his explosiveness and presenting a large, slow target for an offensive lineman. This is one of those things that could likely be coached by Green Bay, but, in looking at how he operated in college, it seems that Dennis-Sutton would work best as a stand-up rusher early in his time in the league. (That’s probably good news for the Packers, however, since they are headed back towards a 3-4 base defense.)
Now, for some good. I mentioned the run game earlier, so let’s start there.
He can show a nice anchor at the point of attack and make himself an immovable object on the edge, squeezing the inside of the line like a vice. (I forgot to highlight him in this clip but he’s #33 on the right side of the line.)
On outside runs, he shows an ability to get to the outside shoulder and string the runner outside. The runner falls down in the next clip, but, had he stayed on his feet, Dennis-Sutton stringing the play out leaves the runner with no place to go.
He has good speed, power and just enough bend off the edge to force tackles to account for that. He doesn’t have a huge bag of effective counters, but he’s more than capable of the occasional inside move if a tackle oversets.
He has strong, active hands that makes it hard for a tackle to get him locked up. He ties his hands well to other moves, which can make for some really fun reps. In the next clip you can see his hands along with a shoulder move that gets him into the backfield. We also see him light up a running back as the QB scoots around the edge. (The next clip has the original play, then a portion of the play slowed down for a better look at his arm/hand usage.)
I mentioned earlier that his work as a looper on stunts leaves a bit to be desired, but as a crasher he can do some nice work. The clip below shows him utilizing a jump-cut to open the outside for the looper, but there are also instances of him throwing his body inside to open a rush lane.
He also has some of the funniest clips I’ve seen, a nice combination of a big strong man against some opponents that can’t quite match his physicality. Every single one of the plays in the clip below made me laugh out loud.
So what do the Packers have in Dani Dennis-Sutton?
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He is an explosive athlete, but he works best when working in a linear path. Change of direction is not his strong suit and he can sometimes get lost with playfakes/eye candy in the backfield. He’s large and strong and is good with his hands. That serves him both as a stand-up pass rusher and as an edge-setter against the run.
Early on, his best work may be as a situational pass rusher, both off the edge and as a crasher on stunts. He has real potential to be a demon on special teams, which will give him enough value in the short term to be able to fine tune some of the rougher parts of his game on the defensive side of the ball.
He’s a fun player and certainly seems like he could be a useful one, but he’s far from a finished product now. Between the athletic profile and the parts of his game he excels at, Dennis-Sutton is a player with a solid base coming in, and has room to grow with good coaching and a targeted utilization. I’m excited to see what he can do at the NFL level.
Albums listened to: Metric – Romanticize the Dive; Richard Edwards – nepo babies take manhattan; Nine Inch Nails & Boys Noize – Nine Inch Noize; Ringo Deathstarr – Colour Trip; The Olympians – In Search of a Revival; Halsey – If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power
