NFL Draft Profile: Ali Gaye, Defensive End, LSU Tigers

#11
Pos: EDGE
Ht: 6055
Wt: 263
Hand: 0948
Arm: 3428
Wing: 8018
40: 4.75
DOB: 11/29/1998
Hometown: Edmonds, WA
High School: Edmonds-Woodway
Eligibility: 2023

Ali Gaye
LSU Tigers

One-Liner:

A stout edge player with a strong physical profile. 

Evaluation:

Terrific build; lengthy frame, athletic musculature with suitable mass. 4-5 Tech alignments, playing in three-four point stances. Forceful tackler, gets his hands on the ball. Good initial get-off. Best work comes as a bull rusher. Teams may want to isolate him in zone run/rpo schemes, thanks to an inability to change direction. Hesitant in the pocket and backfield. Offers little in terms of pass-rush moves. Basically a pocket pusher or nothing. Too many tackles missed laterally. Can leave himself open to be cut-blocked when surfing on his read. Gaye is a dense edge player that has a Bullrush and upfield move to threaten pocket depth. As an athlete, there’s not a lot of juice, bend, or speed. He can also be moved off his spot at the POA making his overall usefulness as an edge questionable at the NFL level. 

Grade:

7th Round

Background:

The road to the NFL is not always a clear one. Born November 29th, 1998 in The Gambia, Ali Gaye moved to the United States at the age of 12. A 5’5” soccer player when he moved to Lynnwood, Washington, the young athlete played basketball and wrestled in middle school. In the eighth grade, Gaye decided to play football as an “experiment.” He continued playing football at Edmonds-Woodway High School. By the end of his freshman season, Gaye had grown 50 pounds and five inches. He claims he began taking football seriously as a sophomore. Despite his late start, the Edmonds-Woodway star had a stellar football career. After being named All-Wesco 3A/2A South three times, Gaye was a bona fide college recruit. 247Sports Composite Rankings listed the Gambia native as a three-star recruit. The same service named him the 627th-ranked player nationally, the 26th-best strong-side defensive end in his class and the 9th-overall recruit from the state of Washington in his year. That said, Gaye’s path to the league would only become more convoluted. The talented defensive end committed to the University of Washington but did not score well enough on his SAT to attend the school. Gaye has publicly stated that his grades in high school were below what he is capable of due to his transition and adaptation to the US learning system. Rather than give up on football, the promising defender attended Arizona Western College in 2018. That season with the Matadors, he played in 11 games and recorded eight tackles. Unfortunately, Arizona Western discontinued its football program after that year. The team’s head coach accepted a position at Garden City Community College (GCCC) and invited Gaye to make the transition with him. After transferring to GCCC, the late bloomer made an immediate impact. He posted 44 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, one sack, one forced fumble, one pass breakup and two blocked kicks. He was also named to the 2019 All-Jayhawk League First Team. What’s more, the gifted pass rusher claimed that he did better than ever academically at GCCC. In recognition of his stellar season with the Broncbusters, 247Sports Composite JUCO named Gaye the 19th-overall JUCO prospect in the nation, the 2nd-best JUCO strong-side defensive end in his class and the 7th-ranked JUCO player from Washington. After committing to LSU, Gaye was forced to undergo an uncertain offseason due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, he thrived. In his first season with the Tigers, the breakout star played in 10 games and recorded 32 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss, two sacks, one forced fumble, seven pass breakups and one interception. A testament to his improvements in the classroom since high school, Gaye was named one of the July 2021 Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes Student-Athlete of the Month. The subject of an impressive story, the standout defensive end has only received high praise from his high school and JUCO coaches. He comes across as humble, kind and grateful in interviews.