The 2021 Clemson football spring practice sessions have come to a close and we won’t hear much from the Tigers again until later this summer when freshmen move-in and they begin going through preseason camp.
With several months until the start of the 2021 Clemson football season, we are left to think about what ‘could be’ in the fall and one area we are most excited about is the defensive line.
In the spring game last weekend, the Clemson defensive line forced a total of 10 sacks and both defenses combined for 17 tackles for loss.
On the defensive line, we saw Bryan Bresee, Xavier Thomas, Tre Williams score sacks for the White Team and we saw Ruke Orhorhoro come away with two sacks for the Orange Team.
This Clemson football defensive line has a chance to be even better than the Power Rangers, though it’s hard to believe
No one is going to argue that the line that featured Austin Bryant, Dexter Lawrence, Christian Wilkins and Clelin Ferrell was one of the top groups to ever come through the program and may very well be the best defensive line unit we’ve ever seen.
They won a National Championship and they were absolutely dominant on the way there, ending their careers with a 44-16 blowout of Alabama.
Fast-forward just three years later and we’re saying that the Tigers could have something similar in store.
The amount of experience returning on this line is not as great as what we saw with the Power Rangers, but the depth could be greater.
You’ve got a starting unit that consists of two future top-10 picks in Bryan Bresee and Myles Murphy. Outside of those two monsters, you’ve got former 5-stars KJ Henry and Xavier Thomas who are both looking to make a name for themselves, as well as veteran Justin Mascoll at the defensive end position.
Inside, Clemson returns Tyler Davis- who very well may be a first-round pick before it’s all said and done- and the Tigers have begun to build depth with names like DeMonte Capehart, Ruke Orhorhoro, Darnell Jefferies and others.
The overall point? You have five, maybe six guys on this defensive line who could be first-rounders at some point in the near future. You’ve got the experience and you’ve got the depth. That’s something that the Tigers simply couldn’t say at this time last year.
The end result remains to be seen, but it will be interesting to see what this defensive line group is able to accomplish and if they’re able to be compared to that elite unit of ‘Power Rangers’ from back in 2018 when it’s all said and done.