George Karlaftis Scouting Report: NFL Draft Prospect
Measurements
Height: 6’4″ Weight: 275 lbs.
40 Time: 4.69 Reported
George Karlaftis Overview
I don’t know why I’m doing this to myself. Why do I need to do this now? Haven’t I suffered enough? Even though this is going to be painful, deep down, I know I need it. I need it for closure. I need it to move on. That is why I am writing my full scouting report on George Karlaftis just a few days after Purdue thoroughly face-fucked my Iowa Hawkeyes. Purdue had two standout players. One was David Bell who I wrote about earlier this year. The other was George Karlaftis.
Karlaftis was a player that I was extremely high on going into the season. I was pleasantly surprised to see my colleagues rank Karlaftis far higher than the consensus as Draft Dive saw him as a top 10 prospect coming into the season. He had 7.5 sacks in an impressive freshman season. He had two sacks in 1.5 games before an injury and Covid shortened his season. Of course one of those games was against Iowa, so I was all too familiar with the havoc that Karlaftis could cause. So now that he has thoroughly dominated Iowa for the last time (GO PRO, GEORGE), it was time to take a deep dive into his games against Notre Dame and (deep sigh) Iowa.
George Karlaftis Strengths
Active Hands
Karlaftis is bursting with energy, but he always seems to have a plan. He knows how to use his hands to put himself in advantageous positions.
This is just a quick swipe at the right tackle’s outside hand, and Karlaftis moves onto the quarterback with a full head of steam. If an offensive lineman gets lazy with his hands, he is going to pay. Karlaftis feasts on any lapses in technique.
This doesn’t only help him with his pass rush, but it makes it incredibly difficult for offensive linemen to stay with him in the run game. He is constantly chopping, swimming, and wiping hands away to keep blockers off of him and cause havoc no matter how the offense attacks.
Power
On top of his active hands, Karlafits beats people with pure power as well.
He puts the lineman on skates on this play. The right tackle gets stood up, and his legs are flailing from side to side just to try to keep upright. This was something that consistently showed up on tape. Karlaftis isn’t just strong. He does an incredible job of using his hands for leverage where he gets underneath the lineman, and they simply cannot anchor down to stop his momentum. Again, it is imperative for linemen to have impeccable hand use to keep Karlaftis off of them.
Get Off
This get off was so damn impressive that I nearly got off watching it. Karlaftis was so fast off the snap that he had the right tackle beat before he even knew what happened. The tackle tries to take a step back to give himself depth, but Karlaftis was so fast around the edge that all the tackle could do was dive for him to try to alter his path in the tiniest bit. Karlaftis might not be the fastest guy as an edge rusher, but with get off like that, he can still do damage with a rush around the edge.
George Karlaftis Weaknesses
Inability to beat triple team
How do you stop Karlaftis? It’s actually fairly easy as the man has one clear weakness that was exploited by Illinois.
Karlaftis consistently struggles when a team keeps three guys in to block him. Hopefully this is something he can learn to overcome,. I never saw him teleport during the games I watched, so that may be something he works on to get ready for the draft.
Conclusion George Karlaftis Draft Stock
George Karlaftis may not be a speed rusher, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t an elite pass rusher. I couldn’t help but smile when watching him break offensive linemen with an aggressive use of his hands and power. And I was smiling while I was watching film of him destroying my alma mater. That’s how good this dude is. He’s a top-10 talent in my view who can be a consistent pro bowler at the next level.
NFL Comparison: JJ Watt
The name I am reminded of when watching Karlaftis is JJ Watt. That’s high praise, but it’s praise he has earned.
Author: Joe Loncarich
