| Editor's note: Throughout the season, Pro Football Weekly will run a
continuing series of articles spotlighting top prospects for the 2002 draft. 
It was test day in the Syracuse weight room, when players attempt to lift as much
weight as they can to gauge their level of strength and find out how much they improved
from all of their sweat and labor in the summer.
Dwight Freeney watched one of his teammates fail to power-clean a bar loaded with four
Olympic plates on each side. Freeney walked over to the bar, gripped it not knowing how
much weight he was lifting and successfully performed the lift, setting a Syracuse record.
When he was finished, he turned around and asked strength coach and pro personnel
liaison William Hicks, "How much was that coach?"
It was 380 — 50 pounds heavier than Freeney had ever power-cleaned before. Hicks
was not surprised — he rarely sees Freeney fail to perform a lift.
"Dwight’s one of those kids who has a mindset not to lose at anything,"
Hicks said. "So he’s already decided he’s going to get it before — it
doesn’t matter what’s on the bar. We kind of laugh sometimes — he’ll
lift it and then want to know how much it was. If it’s on the bar, he can lift it.
There’s not much that will beat him."
And there are not many offensive tackles in college who can contain him, despite his
small stature (6-1, 255) for a defensive end. Freeney has registered two sacks in seven of
12 games this year. According to Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano, Freeney is the
"best pass rusher in the nation."
Not many defensive players are mentioned as candidates for the Heisman Trophy, but
Freeney’s name continues to surface in the race. He has broken Syracuse’s sack
record and leads the nation with 17.5 sacks.
If he does not get to a quarterback before his release, Freeney is often a step away,
punishing the quarterback after his release. Freeney has recorded 24 QB hurries and forced
eight fumbles this season.
After playing Auburn, QB Jason Campbell learned why the Heisman buzz has been stirred.
"He was everything they said he was," Campbell said. "He’s
extremely quick off the line. I was surprised to see him that much — practically
every play of the game."
Like Campbell, scouts have been impressed with Freeney’s quick first step. Rather
than listening for the quarterback’s cadence, Freeney relies on his sense of sight to
get a jump on offensive linemen. He says the secret to his quickness is keying on the
football.
"I just try to visualize the ball moving before it moves and once it moves,
I’m going," Freeney said. "I try to move more on the tip of the ball and
less on the ball actually moving. Some guys just wait until the whole ball moves. I just
look at the very tip, a very small point on the ball, and once that moves, I’m
gone."
When Hicks thinks of Freeney, the first word that comes to mind is
"explosive," and Hicks believes it is a result of Freeney’s high intensity
in the weight room.
"He has tremendous power," Hicks said. "If you just watch him in the
weight room, it kind of jumps out at you because everything he does is fast. There are a
lot of guys that can lift large amounts of weights, but the bar may move slowly. It’s
not necessarily how much Dwight lifts, it’s the way he lifts it. Everything is very
explosive. It’s very similar to his first couple of steps. It looks like he got shot
out of a cannon."
All that has been able to slow Freeney in his career have been two freak injuries
— a tendon injury in his right hand during his sophomore year and spleen injury his
junior year — and Miami OLT Bryant McKinnie — who at 6-9, 335 has not given up a
sack in his Miami career.
Miami frequently uses its running backs in pass protection and employs seven- and
eight-man schemes to protect Miami QB Ken Dorsey, who has been sacked only once this
season.
Freeney, 21, was not able to do much against Miami, making one tackle in the
Orangemen’s 59-0 loss, but he has made an impression on Miami offensive line coach
Art Kehoe, who had the task of devising blocking schemes to stop Freeney from penetrating
the backfield.
"He’s tearing up the Big East again," Kehoe said. "He’s got
the whole package. He was dominant as a freshman when Syracuse went to Michigan. The guy
is only like 6-0, but he runs a 4.5 and benches a house. He throws guys on their
backs."
To be precise, Freeney has been clocked at 4.42 in the 40-yard dash. He bench-presses
more than 500 pounds, squats more than 700 pounds and has power-cleaned 385. At 255
pounds, his vertical jump was measured at 37.5 — a better leaping ability than most
defensive backs.
Freeney’s compact body and incredible strength have NFL scouts comparing him to
former Virginia Tech DE Corey Moore. Scouts believe he will play outside linebacker or
become a rush specialist in the NFL. His size and lack of experience at the LB position
have some talent evaluators questioning how effective he will be at the next level.
"Feeney is pretty damn good," according to one NFL scout. "He’s
explosive, very, very explosive. He can run like the wind. His shortcoming is that
he’s not real tall. He’s like 6-foot, 6-1 — not a real big guy, but
he’s very fast, a very explosive player. And he’s tough. He’ll hold the
point and he’ll use his hands. And he’ll out-finesse you. He’s a smart,
smart player."
While scouts are citing Freeney’s size a concern, Freeney thinks his size helps
him dominate on the football field, like he hoped it would do against McKinnie.
"Being small does have its advantages too," Freeney said. "You’re
under players. You have leverage. And if you have good technique, it’s like trying to
pick up a real heavy block that is real low to the ground without bending over. It’s
going to be difficult to push out of the way and that’s what I’m looking forward
to — trying to stay as low as possible and hope things work out my way."
Another scout said: "I think he will be a third-down rush guy — a defensive
pass rush specialist. I think he has great quickness and speed. He’s explosive off
the snap and that is what makes him a threat on every play. I think he is one-dimensional
because of the fact that I don’t think he has great breakdown ability and change of
direction to be able to be a stand-up, two-point linebacker. So I think he is somewhat
limited in that regard, but I think he can get away with it."
While scouts may be scouring for weaknesses in Freeney’s game, Virginia Tech coach
Frank Beamer saw few weaknesses last year when Freeney sacked QB Michael Vick 4.5 times
while playing part of the game with a lacerated kidney. Beamer made sure Freeney was
double- or triple-teamed every play this year, but Freeney still found his way into the
backfield. He registered a sack, two QB hurries, a pass break-up and three tackles against
the Hokies, but he felt better about freeing up his teammates to sack QB Grant Noel four
times and upset the Hokies 22-14.
"I have been getting that attention all year — double-teamed,
triple-teamed," Freeney said, "but it’s not as frustrating as you may think
because my teammates are making the plays.
If I could hinder the blocking situation and have them roll the protection toward me,
that means everybody else has single blocks. Some guys may not even get blocked. Maybe if
no one is making plays and I was getting triple-teamed, I would be frustrated, but as long
as we win, that’s all that matters."
As a child, Freeney remembers watching another player who was frequently triple-teamed
in the 1986 Super Bowl between the Broncos and Giants. While many players want to be
offensive stars, Freeney grew infatuated with a defensive player whose picture hangs on
his bedroom wall in Bloomfield, Conn. — New York OLB Lawrence Taylor.
"Just the way Lawrence Taylor played — he caused havoc," Freeney said.
"People had to account for him on every play. He would make tackles on the opposite
side of the field. He would be on one side and make a tackle on the other. People would
double- and triple-team him, and they still couldn’t stop him for years. That’s
something I would like to do."
Like Taylor, Freeney has developed a reputation for his relentlessness and is one of
four college players — along with Oklahoma LB Rocky Calmus, North Carolina DE Julius
Peppers and Florida DE Alex Brown — who are finalists for the 2001 Lombardi Award
given to the country’s best lineman.
Hicks believes no one is more deserving of the award than Freeney.
"His attitude and work ethic is very similar to Torry Holt — a (wide
receiver) I had at North Carolina State who is doing very, very well in the pros right
now," Hicks said. "Torry’s work ethic and his effort to continue to improve
— not be satisfied with where he is, is very similar to how Dwight is. I’ve
never been fortunate enough to coach a defensive lineman like Dwight, who is as explosive
and as fast. I mean, Dwight’s speed puts him up there with safeties and defensive
backs and he’s a 255-pound defensive end."
Whether it’s getting to the quarterback, completing a lift in the weight room or
exceeding expectations in the NFL, don’t put any limits on what Freeney can do.
"If you look at me number-wise, height-wise, weight-wise, I guess you can say
(I’m undersized to play defensive end)," Freeney said. "I don’t have a
problem with that, but if somebody just gives me an opportunity to get out there and prove
myself, that’s about it. They may say I can’t play end, but I see no reason why
I can’t."
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