Seahawks NFL draft 2021: Boogie Basham would be perfect fit
By Lee Vowell
A team can never have enough defensive line talent. The Seahawks drafting Boogie Basham would be a good fit for 2021 and a perfect one in future seasons. Basham has NFL-strength already but needs to work on his footwork but what he would offer Seattle is a Michael Bennett-type player.
I don’t mean that Basham is going to instantly come in and be a multi-time Pro Bowl player. He could be one day but not in year one. But Boogie Basham is like Bennett in many ways. One is size, another is his versatility and ability to play both defensive tackle and defensive end. But maybe the most important similarity between Basham and Bennett is Basham plays with intelligence.
Basham had the strength to overpower college offensive linemen and should be able to do that to some degree in the NFL but bull rush alone will not a consistently productive pass rusher make. The best pass rushers in the NFL either have uncommon speed with a knowledge of how the opposing lineman wants to block and then to apply said speed to get around the blocker.
Seahawks should take Boogie Basham to be the new Michael Bennett
Bennett was a great player because while he had quickness and strength he simply had more football-sense than those around him. He made the best of his skills by outworking and outthinking others. This is exactly what Basham should do as well.
Basham has fairly quick feet but understands how to use a spin move to get around a blocker but then knows how to stack spin moves while also using his quick feet. But Basham also knows how to cut between gaps and while he is a wide-body can figure out a way to squeeze in the gaps.
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At Wake Forest, Basham had 10 sacks and 18 tackles-for-loss in 13 games as a junior and had 5 sacks and 4.5 tackles-for-loss as a senior. He will get sacks in the NFL but his versatility, as Bennett had, makes him perfect for the Seahawks scheme. The Seahawks like players who can play inside and out, like Bennett and L.J. Collier and others. Basham is a perfect example of this.
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Basham will need to get better as a run defender and learn how to use his leverage and quickness to not get stuck on a blocker. But he has the skills to master this. Maybe not in 2021, but by 2022 Basham could be bouncing around the Seahawks defensive line while opposing offenses figure out how to block him.