I don't know, it just doesn't look that impressive to me. He doesn't look explosive in the least. He looked good in the camps, strong first step, but in the game against extremely inferior competition, he doesn't jump off the page as an athlete. Again, it's hard to project a stand-up DE to a linebacker.
You do realize he's basically playing outside linebacker at 270 lbs., right? And he doesn't project to a linebacker, he's basically playing OLB in their defense but will be on the line for us.
Synopsis of his defensive plays in order:
1. Pushes over a 130 pound RB, gets sack.
2. Untouched, sack
3. Finally touched by 180 pound OT, doesn't beat his man but QB runs into him b/c pressure from other side
4. Kind of touched, misses sack
5. Untouched, sack
6. Kind of touched by 5'4", 140 pound RB, sack
7. Untouched, sack
8. Untouched, sack
9. Untouched, sack
10. Untouched, tackle
11. Touched by 180 pound OT, quick pass, no chance to make a play
12. Touched, QB rolls to the other side, no chance to make a play
13. Touched, QB rolls his way, gets a QB hurry
14. Untouched, made a good play here, gets a QB hurry
15. Kind of touched, gets QB hurry
16. Kind of touched, gets QB hurry
17. Untouched, gets QB hurry
18. Touched, doesn't make a play of any kind, just overruns the pocket
19. Touched, gets QB hurry
Those are the first 5 minutes. Anytime he was even touched, literally someone brushed jerseys with him, he almost never got a sack. 90% of his sacks are when no people even attempted to guard him or get in his way. The heaviest lineman he saw was maybe 240 pounds, and the average lineman was maybe 200 pounds.
I'm not playing the whole bad competition card to say he isn't good. Maliek Collins played against bad competition, but he was 300 pounds and was the fastest player on the field. He was chasing down running backs and throwing O-lineman across the field. He would take on double, triple teams, brush them aside, and go make a tackle. You could tell he was the best athlete on the field because he was. Newell looks different (in a good way) than the kids he was playing with, he just doesn't look like M. Collins did where it was so obvious.
I'm not tearing the kid down, I think he is a really solid player and could become a contributor in time, but if he is our headliner commit than I would be pretty disappointed with the top half of this class. If he ends up being the 5-7 best commit, then that would be a really solid class.