Green Bay Packers film room: Breaking down fourth round pick Vince Biegel

Trait #3: Great Hand Usage

Biegel is also an effective pass rusher and defender in the trenches because he does a great job utilizing his hands to control linemen and create separation from blockers.

Watch on this pass rush against Northwestern how after he explodes off the line Biegel extends his arm to knock the tackle off balance.

Biegel gets his hand into the lineman’s chest, showing good arm extension, which keeps the tackle from getting his hands on him. This allows Biegel to control the tackle on his way to the quarterback.

Here’s another rush from the Northwestern game that highlights a similar thing. This time, Biegel rushes from the right side, and like the last play, he gets up under the lineman’s shoulder pads and extends his arm to knock the tackle off balance.

Biegel was only a split second away from hitting the quarterback. Even though he didn’t get the sack, the play does showcase how well Biegel’s uses his hands to get into the tackle’s chest and knock the lineman off balance.

This gives Biegel a huge advantage as an edge rusher. When a lineman outweighs him by 60-70 ponds, Biegel has to win with speed, leverage, and hand technique. These past two plays show how effective he can be when he establishes leverage and uses his hands to keep the lineman off balance.

This next play shows another way Biegel wins with his hands. Against Michigan State on third down, Biegel is quick off the line, but the tackle anticipates Biegel’s speed and oversets to the outside. Biegel counters with an effective swim move and quickly gets past the tackle to pressure the quarterback.

Biegel does a nice job here using his hands to slap away the tackle’s arm and then turn him with a swim move. It’s a smart pass rush because he sets up the tackle to the outside with his speed, but then counters with an inside move.

Here’s one more pass rush, but this time it comes against Minnesota. Initially, Biegel plays the run as he watches the quarterback motion to hand the ball off to the running back.

As he keeps his eyes on the ball, Biegel does a nice job getting both hands into the tackle’s chest to control the point of attack. However, once it’s apparent the play is a pass, Biegel disengages from the tackle and turns the corner to pressure the quarterback.

Biegel plays with almost perfect technique on this play. He extends his arms, maintains leverage, and then rips and dips to disengage around the edge and hit the quarterback, which affects the pass.

However, like his first-step quickness, his ability to shed blocks with his hands also aides him as a run defender.

The following is another play from Biegel’s game against Minnesota. He plays with violent hands, which allows him to disengage from blocks and make plays against the run.

Biegel does a great job here slipping the fullback’s block, and then crashing down to make the stop at the line of scrimmage.

Here is another similar type play against Western Michigan. Biegel quickly fires his hands to toss the tight end aside and tackle the running back from behind.

There are a lot of plays like this from Biegel’s film. He’s a very sound run defender on the edge and his quick hands enable him to frequently disengage from blocks and keep clean against the run.

Biegel’s hand technique is superb for an outside linebacker coming out of college. This combined with his speed off the edge make him a very effective edge defender.