Personal Background

• First-Team All-Big 12, 2018
• Honorable-Mention Big 12 Defensive Lineman of the Year, 2018
• First-Team All-Big 12, 2017
• Transferred from Louisiana-Monroe to TCU in 2016, sat out season due to NCAA transfer rules
• All-District and All-Area honors in track and field in high school

Courtesy of TCU Football.

Injury History

• No significant injuries reported.

Production

• Five TFLs in his last 27 games, 18 in 2018
• Five sacks in each of his two seasons at TCU
• Forced five fumbles since 2017, recovered two, and scored one fumble return TD

Film Reviewed

• Ohio State (2018)
• Oklahoma (2018)
• California (2018)

Combine Measurements and Testing

• Height: 6’3”
• Weight: 250 lbs
• Hand: 9”
• Arm: 33 5/8”

 

• 40-yard dash: 4.62 sec
• Bench: 23 reps
• Vertical Jump: 40”
• Broad Jump: 134”
• 3-Cone: 7.02 sec
• 20-yard shuttle: 4.27 sec

Strengths

• Banogu is a lean athlete with average length who possesses excellent lateral agility, explosiveness, and speed. He changes directions well and plays with a nice closing burst.
• He uses that athleticism to contribute and succeed on slants and stunts and can shoot gaps to defeat offensive tackles inside.

• Although he played primarily from a two-point stance, he has a good get-off and upfield burst when rushing with his hand on the ground.
• Has the flexibility and bend to turn the corner and win on the outside.

• Coming from a well-coached scheme in TCU, he displays solid-to-good mental processing skills. He maintains discipline in his assignments on option and misdirection plays. He also reads and reacts to screen passes quickly and has the speed and pursuit skills to catch up to ball carriers from behind.

• Flashes a good punch/strike for a man with his frame when he uses proper timing and hand placement.

• Shows competency with push-pull, stab, and rip moves when he uses them.
• Able to retrace his steps with the closing burst to catch QBs from behind.
• Has the hip fluidity and speed to drop into the flat and carry running backs up the sideline.
• Will compete with angle and reach blocks when he’s able to dig underneath run blockers.
• Capable of holding his ground against cut off blocks when using a low pad level and wide base.
• Able to stack and shed TEs in the run game.

Weaknesses

• Doesn’t convert speed to power well. Opponents easily shut down his momentum.

• Has difficulty recovering or restarting his rush if contacted in the chest first.

• To unlock his potential as a rusher, he must better combine his athleticism with refined and more frequent hand usage in one-on-one situations. Right now, most of his wins come from being a part of line slants or stunts.
• Easily gives ground to combo blocks and double teams.
• Lacks the play strength and bulk to consistently anchor or set the edge in the NFL. Will struggle against the majority of average blockers unless he can slide or bounce around them. This opens him up to being moved out of the way.

Overall

The former Horned Frog often played along the edge in Gary Patterson’s scheme and excelled as a chess piece in the coach’s various pressure packages. He surpassed many of the athletic benchmarks at the NFL Combine that teams look for in a pass rusher. In short, he’s a quick-twitch and explosive prospect, but he’s not a powerful one. His lack of bulk and play strength could limit his ability to see the field his rookie year.

Banogu’s best fit is as a situational, stand-up edge defender in a hybrid or multiple-look defense that uses numerous stunts and pressures to confuse protection schemes. He’ll likely struggle early on against the more talented player pool of the NFL if tasked with beating offensive tackles one-on-one. His road to a team’s 53-man roster is as a special teams contributor and bottom depth rusher his rookie season. By his third year, he could develop into a regular backup. The McKinney, TX native has the ceiling to become a starter, but he must add considerable strength and seriously improve his overall hand usage to achieve that.

Ultimately, the Louisiana-Monroe transfer is a toolsy prospect with enough holes in his game that teams will wait until day three to select him. He doesn’t have the length or strength to be the classic 4-3 end that a team like the Dallas Cowboys desire. Clubs similar in structure will probably rank him in the fifth to seventh rounds, while those with a more fluid scheme could take him as early as the fourth. For those organizations, he’ll be a player they can win with on special teams or in certain passing situations. But teams with sophisticated pressure schemes that covet speed while not concerning themselves with stoutness against the run could snatch up Ben Banogu in the third round.

 

You can follow Allan on Twitter at @AllanUy22