2021 NFL Draft: Christian Barmore bludgeons his way to top of IDL class

Numbers don’t tell the story

The numbers don’t effectively illustrate Barmore’s impact. He had five total tackles, with two for a loss and a sack. He finished the season with six sacks in his final six games, taking his tally for the year to eight to go with 9.5 tackles for loss.

However, his influence extended well beyond a few plays in the backfield. Barmore was a nightmare for Ohio State to deal with, consistently pushing the pocket and getting in the face of Justin Fields, whose ability to hang in the pocket under pressure from the first-team All-SEC defensive tackle was extremely admirable.

Barmore demonstrated tremendous power, which gave Ohio State center and likely early draft pick Josh Myers no end of problems, and supplemented that with intelligent hand usage, with swim and arm-over moves clearly already parts of his pass rush repertoire.

It is Barmore’s quickness, though, that continues to be his standout trait, enabling him to immediately get pass protectors playing catch-up and shoot the gaps in the run game.

Some of Barmore’s best work against Ohio State came against the run. He disengaged and shed blocks with impressive ease while excelling at finding the football, ensuring it was tough sledding for a Buckeyes run game robbed of the services of Trey Sermon after their first play from scrimmage.