2021 NFL Draft: Top 10 edge rushers 

#9 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Carlos Basham (Wake Forest)

6’ 3” ½, 280 pounds; RS SR

Carlasham

The cousin of now-Cowboys defensive end Tarrell Basham, Carlos is now much more coveted thanks to playing at a Power Five school and his athletic skill-set, but he once was only a three-star recruit himself.

After a redshirt year and being more of a rotational player his freshman season, he has been one of the key members of Wake Forest’s defense, recording 150 total tackles, 33.5 of those for loss, 19.5 sacks, five passes defensed, seven fumbles forced and a scoop-and-score in 33 games as a starter. For that he earned first-team All-ACC honors and was named third-team last season, despite playing in only half their games.

Basham routinely gets a good jump on the ball, he has great agility to redirect after working upfield, to get to the ball-carrier when left unblocked and he will hold his ground in the run game. The amount of natural power to shove blockers out of the way is special and he yanks pads to the side routinely, to wrap up running backs.

He’s just a very unique mover with really impressive flexibility and the ability to torque his body every which way, to go with sudden hands to get around blockers. You see him squeeze through the play-side shoulder of the blocker on zone runs routinely, where he can really twist those pads to almost give no surface area for blockers to grab, as he shoots through the gap on, combined with an arm-bar or rip move.

Yet, Basham can also drive guys backwards if they are hell-bent on trying to cross his face. From the backside, he rides guys down the line on hinge-blocks and he can deal with pullers multiple ways – you see him put guards on their asses on traps, but then work around them almost like no linebackers could, with the way he dips and redirects, to still take down the ball-carrier. He has pretty crazy short-area quickness for a guy his size and when he is in full-on chase mode, his pure speed is also highly impressive.

In the pass game, Basham flashes those instant wins with quickness and length, often times using a nice cross-chop combination. Around the edge, he rushes with god tilt and then can take offensive tackles for a ride by attacking their chest and packs a very effective up-and-under maneuver when those guy overset, which he follows up with the high swim to clear the hands.

However, what makes him so interesting to watch is that ability to move his upper and lower body separately, to go with the absurd balance, to get knocked around and twist himself, but not lose his footing somehow. And he has the ankle flexibility to be pushed past the quarterback and be able to corner back underneath, plus the closing burst to take away angles to the sideline as they scramble and he comes off those blocks.

Basham can line up inside quite a bit on passing downs, all the way to a zero-technique, where he gives centers issues by how quickly he can transition into a secondary move. He also does a great job sniffing out screen passes and you see him really fight through the reach of blockers on rollouts.

At the Senior Bowl, Basham’s power jumped out right away, owning the point of attack and driving tight-ends backwards in the run game, but it was the way he beat up linemen in one-on-one with those quick-twitch moves to get by right away, which really blew me away.

I don’t want to totally knock Basham for it, because that’s what his coaches taught him to do against all the wide zone runs you see in the ACC, but so often Basham completely disregarded contain responsibilities, in favor of crossing the blocker’s face and going way around them, at times a good five yards into the defensive backfield.

However, he did that against many other run schemes as well and no NFL team will ask him to use that kind of technique. So we just haven’t seen him play a lot of assignment-proof run defense and that transition will be a major one. As a pass-rusher, there is just too much lateral and wasted movement in front of blockers for Basham, with many of his moves not being very effective.

He has to learn how to rush under better control and with more of a plan overall. Basham rarely came off the field for the Demon Deacons, but looked tired because of it and didn’t bring it every single snap. I don’t think he always plays up to his size and strength, trying to be more of a finesse pass-rusher for the most part.

Carlos Basham is one of the more interesting prospects on the defensive line. Depending on the system and how NFL people look at him, he could really play anything from three-technique to a strong-side defensive end.

His flexibility and balance are just so unique and he was already a very productive player, despite not knowing how to fully use that skillset to his advantage yet. Playing the run in a more classic way and being asked to uphold gap integrity will be a challenge, but the power is certainly there. I like him as a project 4-3 defensive end in the middle of day two.