The Minnesota Vikings might have found a gem in Oklahoma LB Brian Asamoah in the third round of the 2022 NFL draft.
An explosive player at the linebacker position, the prevailing thought about Asamoah was that he would need a year or two to be fully ready for a starting job in the National Football League.
After a couple of preseason games, it’s clear that he is closer to being ready than we initially thought.
During Saturday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers, I identified five plays that show where Asamoah currently is and why Vikings fans should be excited about his future.
Patience
In the running game, especially against wide zone, patience is key. If you get too aggressive on the backside, the running back can cut it back and get deep into the second level quickly.
Asamoah does a great job of both staying patient and clean which allows him to flow with the play and keep his head on a swivel.
He sees the backside cut lane open up and instead of making a beeline straight for the ball carrier, he maintains gap discipline before helping make the tackle.
Many times Asamoah can get too aggressive so this is really nice to see.
Explosive downhill
This is where the real excitement begins with Asamoah.
When he sees something in front of him, there is an explosive element to his game that is unmatched by any other linebacker the Vikings have had in recent memory.
Brian Asamoah II was drafted with pick 66 of round 3 in the 2022 draft class. He scored a 8.89 RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 270 out of 2419 LB from 1987 to 2022. https://t.co/O76H7GoZSU #RAS #Vikings pic.twitter.com/2GVXaLq4Rd
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 30, 2022
He identifies quickly that it is an inside run, sees the hole open up in the line and attacks it aggressively. Asamoah meets the running back in the hole and sticks him with a perfect head-up form tackle.
This kind of quick trigger and recognition is not something Asamoah has with any form of consistency yet, but it’s a trait that he has which can be built upon.
Quick trigger
As we saw in the play above, when Asamoah sees something happening in front of him, he knows how to pull the trigger quickly.
Here, he is playing in zone. Keeping his eye on the quarterback and off to the right, he stays patient in his drop. While monitoring the situation around him, Asamoah identifies that the running back in the flat is about to get the ball.
The real impressive thing about this rep is the patience that Asamoah shows before he attacks downhill. This is not something he has any form of consistency with yet, but the steps are there to continue growing.
A little too aggressive
The other side of the coin with Asamoah is that he gets too aggressive at times and plays out of control.
In this play, he’s playing a simple drop zone. A stick concept lulls Asamoah into attacking the slot receiver who he was not in charge of guarding. In doing so, the tight end gets a stick-and-nod concept right past him.
Over time, Asamoah will have to control his aggressiveness to prevent getting beat over the middle. As he learns his craft, teams will try to attack the middle of the field and capitalize on that element of his game.
Controlled in zone
In the above clip, Asamoah was too aggressive in zone coverage. This clip shows the potential he has.
Coming at Asamoah is a front side slant and a back side choice route that the back angles in. The idea here is to get the linebacker to commit to the slant opening up the middle of the field for the running back to get some yards after the catch.
In this instance, Asamoah plays it really well. He has the quickness to block the passing lane for the slant and recovers fast enough to get right on the running back when the ball comes his way.
There is a counterargument for this. Teams can try spacing these concepts out more and bait Asamoah to commit to one side and back door a reception on the other. Even though his explosiveness allows him to get away with some things, he needs to be careful that the offense doesn’t take advantage of him.
Projection
Where does this leave Asamoah?
He’s a year away.
With the Vikings having both Jordan Hicks and Eric Kendricks, Asamoah can learn by watching those two and grinding film. The more he understands situations, the better he will become, as the physical gifts are all there.
There is a chance that he doesn’t get there but his current growth gives us hope that he will be a quality starter as soon as next year.
