Film Review: What the Giants are Getting in OLB Ryan Anderson

How much of an upgrade is Ryan Anderson over Kyler Fackrell? Nick Falato has the lowdown.

The Giants agreed to terms with Ryan Anderson, a 2017 second-round selection out of the University of Alabama. Anderson has 86 career tackles, 7 for a loss, and six sacks. Anderson joins Ifeadi Odenigbo as the off-season additions at the EDGE position--I’m sure they’ll be more in the draft.

Anderson isn’t athletic, and he isn’t long - he has sub-32” arms. To be honest, I thought the selection of him by Washington back in 2017 was an incredible reach. Nevertheless, I feel he’s an adequate 26-year-old addition who can be effective on run downs, and he can drop into hook and curl/flat zones, especially to the boundary since he has athletic limitations.

Ryan Anderson is No. 52.

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Anderson plays with natural leverage since he’s only 6’2 and a compact 253 pounds. His lack of length is a major issue in many areas, but he still has good play strength that he displays on the EDGE.

He takes on former Giants’ tight end Rhett Ellison (85) in the clip above and does a great job disposing of a poor blocking attempt by shocking with his hands, exploding low to high, and then using great upper body strength to shed.

He does well in a lot of these base situations against blockers who aren’t long or overly strong, mostly tight ends.

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Anderson does a good job defeating tight end’s blocking attempts if they’re not one of the elite blockers in the league at that position. He’s crafty and quick with his hands and uses the club/swim combination here well to completely force the tight end to whiff.

Anderson uses his inside arm to subtly knock the inside arm of the tight end downward, forwarding his momentum just enough so he can quickly hit a swim move with that same inside hand to fully disengage. After that is completed, Anderson crashes the rushing lane and makes a tackle.

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Here Anderson displays good key & diagnosing ability to shoot in between tight ends in an overloaded front. He takes a very good angle to not allow the outside tight end to reach his chest while driving through the blocking attempt and tackling the running back for a loss. Anderson isn’t overly athletic, but he does a solid job reading plays and reacting well off the snap.

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He does something similar in this play here; he beats the tight end inside and crashes down the line of scrimmage, but this time he loses his balance, and the tight end is able to take advantage of that by shoving him to the deck.

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The ability to shoot interior gaps is a fine trait to have, but taking on lead blockers in an effective manner, whose job is to kick you out of position, is an even better trait to possess.

The Bears are running lead power with a fullback and backside guard pulling to Anderson’s side. Anderson recognizes the play design and clogs the rushing lane by eliminating the fullback.

He charges in low and brings a high level of physicality to the fullback while not allowing any hole to materialize. This is a very good play by Ryan Anderson.

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Anderson physically goes low and takes out the backside pulling guard in this power concept to not allow the blocks to fully take their form. He blows up the continuity of the offense’s play. Another very physical and intriguing play from Anderson.

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Anderson is given a free release with a wide-angle against a tackle who attempts to jump set him. One of the things I like about Anderson as a pass rusher is the power in his hand use, and this is a really bad rep from the tackle, but you can see the force he comes down with while engaging that inside chop move.

The tackle allows him to turn the corner and can’t stop him from getting up the arc; Anderson does well to turn the corner and force Aaron Rodgers to fumble (12). It’s not overly quick or flexible at all, but it got the job done.

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He uses the same chop to rip move in the clip above which may be his best pass rushing play in his career. He locates the outside arm of the tackle and swats it downward while gaining an edge up the arc; he’s able to use short choppy steps to turn the corner on a tackle that didn’t handle the chop move well.

He gets fully around the tackle and turns a tight corner to get enough of the quarterback to sack him. Sadly, many of his other sacks were coverage sacks or opportunities where he was unblocked…

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A lot of Anderson’s production in this area comes from plays like the four we see above. He’s not a pass-rushing specialist.

Pressures

A lot of his pressure are on extended plays from coverage, almost like a green-dog blitz type of situation--he’s not consistently defeating NFL tackles and winning up the pass-rushing arc. He has 39 career pressures since 2017, and not all of them are like the videos you’ll see below, but a solid amount of them look like this…

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He does well with his timing to dart towards quarterbacks when there aren’t any receivers in his zone. He does have some solid reps on tape where he’s using his hands well to put himself in an advantageous position, but the athletic juice isn’t there…

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The tackle tries to play a game of cat & mouse with Anderson up the arc, but Anderson doesn’t bite. He does a solid job getting his inside hand to initiate contact, but the tackle breaks that contact; Anderson then uses his outside arm to swat the tackle’s outside arm away, giving him a corner to turn without using a lot of lower body flexion. Anderson is able to turn the corner and get a hit on Carson Wentz (11).

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There seems to be a bit of a miscommunication between La’el Collins (71) and Ezekiel Elliot (21), who does a solid job chipping Anderson, but Collins doesn't protect the inside. Anderson does a very good job noticing this mid-rep and hitting a nice inside spin move into an alley to get a big hit on the quarterback.

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Anderson uses a nice double swipe and is able to get around the EDGE here to technically earn a pressure on Mitchell Trubisky (No. 10).

He’s quick with his hands here, and he does a good job on this rep winning--but the burst and explosiveness aren’t quite there, and that will forever be a detriment to his ability to consistently rush the passer in the NFL.

Coverage

Anderson was dropped into coverage 77 times in 2019. I don’t think he’s overly fluid, and he’s not very natural with that task, but he’s capable of executing that assignment to the boundary side of the field. I believe it’s a slight step downward from a Kyler Fackrell who did a solid job in that role.

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He’s quick to close on the catch point and make a hard tackle against Zach Ertz (86). Ertz is open because Anderson’s assignment in zone is to play the curl to the flat, so he has to respect Dallas Goedert’s (88) route up the seam initially.

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I get it; it’s against a receiver here, but this isn’t a great showing from Anderson in zone mainly because he has help from the crosser, and he should have anticipated something coming from the backside.

These types of plays happen a lot in the NFL, but having less than average athletes in space isn’t ideal. It’s more than evident that changing direction in space isn’t a great quality of Anderson’s, and the mishap with awareness isn’t great either.

He’s capable of dropping into coverage, but it is a liability that offensive coordinators are going to attack.

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Falato’s Free Agency Film Room

• What the New York Giants are Getting in QB Mike Glennon
• What the New York Giants are Getting in Edge Ifeadi Odenigbo
• What the New York Giants are Getting in WR John Ross
• What the New York Giants are Getting in RB Devontae Booker
• What the New York Giants are Getting in LB Reggie Ragland
• What the New York Giants are Getting in WR Kenny Golladay
• What the New York Giants are Getting in CB Adoree' Jackson

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Final Thoughts

Anderson is a physical run defender who takes on lead blockers well and plays with natural leverage. He defeats tight end blocks easily and brings a lot of physicality to the line of scrimmage. He’s also a sound tackler who plays with good play strength in this area. 

He doesn't offer much upside as a pass rusher, but he brings good football awareness on when to adjust and counter up the pass-rushing arc. He’s not fluid in coverage, and he has athletic limitations, but he can be asked to drop to the curl/flat to the boundary on some occasions. 

Anderson is a better run defender than Kyler Fackrell but slightly worse as a pass rusher and in coverage. He’ll compete for snaps with Ifeadi Odenigbo.  

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