Jalen Green
Football - DT
College
James Madison University
Height
6' 1''
Weight
245 lbs
Hometown
Baltimore, MD
Draft
Football - 2024
Projected
Round 6
Jalen Green is a defensive lineman from Baltimore, Maryland and played his high school football at Our Lady of Good Counsel where he lettered in football and basketball. He is the all time sacks leader for Good Counsel with 38.5, and also set the single season record with 13.0 sacks in his senior season. He was graded as a 3-star recruit by Rivals.com and committed to play football at James Madison over offers from Army and Virginia.
In his first season with the Dukes, Green played in 14 games off the bench. He made 11 total tackles including 2.0 TFL and 0.5 sacks. He missed the entire 2020 season due to injury, but came back in 2021 to play 13 more games off the bench for JMU. He made 14 total tackles including 2.5 TFL, 2.0 sacks, and a forced fumble.
Green’s breakout season came this year in his first season as a starter. He played the first 9 games of the season, starting all of them. He made an impressive 50 total tackles with 21 TFL and 15.5 sacks before injuring his knee and missing the remainder of what was on track to be a historic season for him and JMU. He had surgery in November.
Green’s quickness, versatility, and ability to locate the ball will make him a coveted late round asset on draft day. He has tremendous quickness off the edge, which helps him to set the perimeter very well when both rushing the passer or stopping the run. He gets good jumps off the snap and bursts past his blocker in order to make sacks and TFL. He also has the ability to drop back from the pass rush to play zone coverage when needed. His quickness allows him to keep up with ball carriers and pass catchers in the flat.
Green, however, lacks some physical strength, making him a bit of a tweener, oversized for a linebacker, and undersized for a defensive lineman on edge rusher. Because of this, he does not always have the strength to effectively fight through blocks by larger offensive linemen and relies on his quickness and burst to get around the edge. But if the lineman matches his burst, he will have a rough time reaching the backfield.
