Scouting Profile: Demetrius Knight - LB - South Carolina
Sales Pitch: Fluid mover in space with a well-rounded game. Older prospect who might get dinged for average explosiveness but should be a functional starter.
*Gold Numbers Indicate NCAA T-25 for 2024*
Scouting Report
Demetrius Knight is a former 3-Star recruit from the state of Georgia. He spent his first four seasons at Georgia Tech, largely as a rotational player, before transferring to Coastal Carolina where he was a 1st Team All-AAC linebacker. Knight spent one year at South Carolina, his 6th in college, finishing second on the team in tackles and receiving an All-SEC honorable mention.
Knight is a fluid athlete with a compact frame and good arm length for the position. An experienced player, he displays good mental processing and instincts. He is quick to read and react to pulling lineman in the run game and sorts through traffic efficiently. He does an excellent job tracking ball carriers paths and meeting them in the hole. Knight is a slippery run defender with the contact balance to dip around linemen in traffic and leverage his gap. Even when contacted, he uses his length and upper body strength to separate and disengage. He is a sound tackler, both in the hole and in space, bringing his pads and arms to wrap up and drive ball carriers back. Knight has loose hips that allow him to quickly open up and gain depth on zone coverage drops. He does a good drop tracking QBs eyes to take away easy access throws, and displays a solid awareness for space when in underneath coverage and isn’t prone to busts.
Knight is a solid athlete but lacks the burst or short-area twitch of top end players at his position. If he is wrong as a run defender, he lacks the closing speed to recover and fill his gap. When in pursuit he displays average long speed, and NFL athletes will out run him to the corner. Knight is an aggressive run defender who is quick to trigger downhill, but it borders on overeager. At times in backside pursuit he will be too quick to attack and open up rushing lanes. The main area Knight’s lack of burst hurts him is in coverage. He lacks the speed to be a consistent man coverage player at the next level and will be the subject of targeted mismatches. His average burst also hampers his ability to close out of zone coverage and make plays on the ball.
Knight profiles as a MIKE backer in a zone heavy scheme. An older prospect without any elite traits his ceiling is relatively modest, but he does enough things at an above average level to stick as a starter. Knight projects as a Day-2 pick as a high IQ, high floor linebacker.