Grissom could be a steal for the Patriots

Last year, the Patriot's secured one of the best steals of the draft selecting Aflonzo Dennard in the seventh round, especially now considering he will not miss any on-field action due to his altercation with a police office during the end of his time at Nebraska.

The Patriots signed South Florida DT as an undrafted free agent

As Mike Reiss discussed yesterday, he believes they may have found another steal yesterday in signing undrafted defensive tackle Cory Grissom, who played college ball at South Florida.

Here is the analysis of Grissom from his NFL.com draft profile:

ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS True nose tackle with girth in his midsection and through his lower half that he uses to hold up single blocks and double teams off the snap. Strong legs. Has a powerful punch when attacking his man off the snap, and also possesses the strong upper body and heavy hands to move opponents to either side to get to the ballcarrier while keeping himself square to the line. Occasionally swims past a drive-blocker or pulls a leaning guard forward to slingshot around him into the backfield, showing a bit more quickness than most linemen of his size and build in order to pressure quarterbacks into unloading the ball. Moves well laterally, and stays square to the line of scrimmage.

WEAKNESSES Won’t be making many plays outside the box or in the backfield due to a lack of closing speed. Will get lazy and stand up off the ball, and lose leverage. Injury history.

NFL COMPARISON Aubrayo Franklin

BOTTOM LINE Injuries have been an issue for Grissom during his career, but he worked hard to return for the start of his senior season after breaking an ankle in spring practice. When healthy, he looks like a mid-round pick as a space-eating nose tackle with enough quickness to win a gap to wrap up running backs get into the sight of quarterbacks.

Clearly there are a number of issues, mainly injury related, that prevented the 6'1, 306 lb. Griffin from being selected in the draft. If he can live up to his potential, he joins a group of young D-lineman capable of causing problems for QB's and running backs at the line of scrimmage.

@LiamPCunningham
@PatriotsLife