Through the first half of the season, Will Heldt led the Clemson Tigers with four sacks and 6.5 tackles for a loss of yardage. While that would put him on pace for eight sacks and 13 tackles behind the line of scrimmage in a 12-game season, Heldt has gone awfully quiet for the Clemson pass rush in recent weeks. Keep in mind that Heldt had a pair of sacks in both the Georgia Southern and the UNC games.
Although Heldt is still widely seen as a high-end NFL Draft prospect, his lack of productivity of late, particularly in the quarterback-sacking department, is a cause for concern for the Clemson defense. Over the last three games, Heldt has eight total tackles, half of one for a loss of yardage. He may not have played much against Charleston Southern, but he was not much of a factor at Cal or with Miami.
In short, now is not the time for Heldt to go into a midseason swoon in the pass-rushing department. This Clemson defense is at its best when the team's greatest players at all three levels are firing on all cylinders. Ashton Hampton has become Clemson's top performer in the secondary. Sammy Brown always gets his over at linebacker. Clemson needs Heldt to remain the driving force for its pass rush.
Will Heldt needs to overcome midseason swoon to remain a top draft pick
On the season, Clemson has 14 sacks in six games. That is slightly better than two sacks per game. While that is a pass-rushing effort Tom Allen can certainly work with, the Tigers are not going to survive their six-game run of only Power Four teams the rest of the way without more bite on defense. Because Hampton is not a ballhawk and Brown is not a sack artist, they need Heldt to wreak havoc.
To be frank, there is a non-zero chance that opposing offenses are game-planning against Heldt. This would explain why other edge rushers such as London Merritt and Caden Story have come alive in recent weeks. In an ideal spot, all three of them are playing off each other to make this Clemson defense even harder to contain. Of course, Heldt is the one who has to unlock everything for them.
Because of how tall he is, Heldt sticks out like a sore thumb whenever he is out there on the field for Clemson. Whether it be the long hair or the body chiseled out of marble, he does look like a Greek whenever he is situated between the hash marks. The question now is if Heldt can bring his best against the best competition Clemson has left. This is when he can earn himself quite a bit of coin.
No, this is not about being a total ad-libber just to accumulate sacks outside of the scheme of the defense. Heldt does not seem like a freelancer by any means. He is a total team guy. Frankly, he is probably happy to see his teammates flourish around him; he just needs to start getting his own again. By getting even one sack on Ethan Grunkemeyer on Saturday, Heldt could set himself off.
All it may take is one sack to get Heldt going because it seems as though all of his come in bunches.
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