The 2024 NFL Draft is getting close, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the class' best players with scouting reports. Each report will include strengths, weaknesses and background information.
Here's our report on Bralen Trice.
Trice is one of the more intriguing edge defenders in the 2024 draft class. His physical and athletic traits are not ideally what you would want them to be (length, explosiveness). Yet, there are enough flashes of quickness, speed-to-power, high-level competitiveness and play urgency that you believe there is a place for him in the NFL.
Trice is not a flexible, twitchy pass rusher who will clear the arc and then flatten his rush path with a higher-level closing burst to the QB. He does possess first-step explosiveness off the ball with some natural power and active calculated hand usage to play off contact effectively and generate pressure.
Trice’s game is built on power and calculated hand usage to play off contact to beat OTs to the inside and off the high side. There were flashes of lateral quickness, especially with inside counters off the initial high-side challenge, that lead you to believe there are more tools to cultivate. Trice will have a Joker dimension, having shown at Washington the quickness to win inside vs. OGs from 3-technique and 1-technique. It is not a stretch to see him as a standup Joker in sub-fronts.
Overall, there is a lot to like about Trice with his power-hand usage and highly charged competitive playing personality. Still, there will be questions regarding his lack of length, flexibility and bend as an edge pass rusher. Trice must continue to work on pass rush counters since it is not known if his speed-to-power conversion will have the same impact in the NFL, given his weight and short arm length.
In 2019, Trice went to Washington as a three-star recruit and did not play until the 2021 season. In 2022, he was named first-team All-Pac 12 and made some second and third-team All-America lists.
In 2022, Trice occasionally lined up at 3-technique in obvious passing situations. There were some base defense snaps in which Trice aligned off the ball in a stacked alignment.
In 2023, he lined up as a standup joker on third downs. He also lined up as a 3-technique and 4i on third down and was featured as the looper on inside-stunt concepts. There were also third-down snaps when he aligned at 1-technique.
Trice had some speed-to-power pass rush snaps vs. Oregon State in which he got inside RT Taliese Fuaga and drove him back into the pocket. Trice's sack vs. Arizona is a perfect snapshot of what he is as an edge pass rusher. It showed his first-step explosiveness to challenge LT Jordan Morgan with speed-to-power, breaking down Morgan’s technique. Trice got Morgan to open to the inside and then worked underneath to close with burst to the QB.
His sack vs. Texas RT Christian Jones in the national semi-final was Trice at his best. He challenged the high side with his first two steps then countered inside with a club-arm over move. Trice had some strong pass-rush reps vs. highly regarded Texas LT Kelvin Banks, usually beating him to the high side.
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