Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver is one of the players who’s been talked about the past year or so as a potential top-five pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.
A dynamic interior lineman, he’s certainly worthy of that kind of consideration from a talent perspective. However, Albert Breer of The MMQB reports the jacket incident between Oliver and Houston coach Major Applewhite isn’t helping him as far as this process is concerned.
According to Breer, the incident was a big deal because Oliver already carried “a bit of rep in this regard.”
“According to scouts, Oliver has been widely seen as high-maintenance, and as a guy who’s gotten things his way a lot (his high school defensive coordinator, A.J. Blum, was hired as his position coach two years ago) since arriving on campus as the first five-star recruit in program history. Bottom line: We’ll be talking about this very public run-in again in a few months.”
NFL teams will certainly grill Oliver over the incident, and if there are serious questions overall about his attitude and demeanor, they’ll hit him hard about all that as well.
The junior defensive tackle has tallied 51 tackles, including 13.5 behind the line, and three sacks this year.