Isaiah Foskey 2023 NFL Draft profile: Scout report for the Notre Dame EDGE
Isaiah Foskey, a four-star recruit in 2019, barely saw the field as a Notre Dame freshman before flashing in year two as a rotational player (5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks). In 2021, he recorded 52 tackles, 10 sacks and six forced fumbles as a full-time starter for the first time. Last season, he bettered his numbers to 13.5 TFLs and 10.5 sacks, making him a second-team All-American.
Isaiah Foskey, Notre Dame
6-foot-5, 265 pounds; Senior
Positives
+ Versatile, hard-nosed run defender who regularly shoots his hands at the numbers of the guy across from him and forces the pads of big offensive tackles to pop back, thanks to the shock in his hands
+ Plays with active hands near the point of attack to work off blocks and get initial contact on the ballcarrier
+ On front-side drive blocks in particular, he ends up making some tackles on the back cutting up the A-gap, by quickly pulling the tackle to the side
+ When matched up with tight ends on the front side of wide zone, he can string out those plays while staying square to the blocker and being able to come off for the tackle when it’s time
+ You see Isaiah Foskey get involved on a lot more plays than he probably should, jumping to the opposite side of blocks and getting the wrap – continues to work and chase after the ball, even if it’s out of the picture
+ Shows no hesitation accelerating into a pulling guard, with the anchor strength to keep that lane plugged and force the ball-carrier to bounce or look for cutbacks
+ Has plenty of experience as an off-ball linebacker going back to 2021, taking on linemen in the hole, shedding and wrapping up running backs on early downs
+ Put up numbers in the 90th percentile for edge defenders in the 40-yard dash (4.58) and broad jump (10-5), and his speed in pursuit for a 260-plus pound athlete is freaky
+ Has a lot of experience dropping out into the flats from edge alignments, but also sinking down the seams as a middle backer
+ Has some serious juice off the ball and uses his hands as real weapons, attacking the frame of blockers
+ Two-hand swipes and chop-downs in particular work well for him to swat down the reach of tackles
+ Watching the Cincinnati game from ’21, those OTs didn’t have the foot quickness to deal with his speed and were caught leaning into him up the arc
+ If guys expose their chest against Isaiah Foskey, he will attack it and test their ability to anchor
+ Packs an effective long-arm and then off that, he’s quick at swiping down the outside hand of the tackle, once that guy tries to reach out/lean into him
+ Even when tackles have him squared up and the initial move doesn’t land properly, Foskey provides the continuous leg- rive to keep riding them into the QB’s space
+ Was routinely used as an add-on rusher from off-ball alignments on control rushes and as a quasi-spy
+ I even saw him line up in the B-gap and wrap all the way around the opposite edge a couple of times in 2021
+ Racked up 65 total pressures across his 595 pass-rushing snaps combined over the last two seasons
Negatives
– Too often gets his head stuck in the chest of blockers and doesn’t have vision on the ballcarrier ... You’d like to see him keep one arm free more regularly
– In general, he plays too tall and limits his ability to own his space in the run game
– Once his angle on the initial outside rush is cut off, Isaiah Foskey doesn’t have the quick reactionary skills at this point to still give tackles trouble other than trying ride them backwards
– On way too many of his rushes, he allows tackles to square him up and get him to settle for bull-rushes, showing some ankle tightness and not being able to give a little shake, in order to create an angle and reduce the near-shoulder to the blocker
– More of a spot-dropper at this point, not showing the peripheral vision to attach to targets eventually – at least for teams considering playing him more off the ball
Overview
Isaiah Foskey certainly lost plenty of shine as a prospect last season, looking at what he was looked at compared to the summer. I’m not sure if that’s totally fair, because his numbers all-around were slightly better, other than just not creating the turnovers he did the year prior. I was never in on him as a first-rounder, but I do think a guy with that kind of speed, length and force in his hands is very intriguing.
He didn’t take advantage of his chance to stand out among a rather underwhelming EDGE group at the Senior Bowl. His ability to convert speed-to-power stood out a couple of times early on, but other than that it was pretty quiet for him, and he really had to fight for his space in the run game.
Even so, I love his tenacity and he already excels at using the momentum he creates to break the anchor of pretty strong tackles. Where I’m intrigued with him is how much more flexible he can become in the lower half to run the hoop more efficiently, to make him a more viable speed-rusher. I’m fine with Foskey as a mid-Day Two selection.
Grade: Late second / early third round
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