How South Carolina defensive lineman JJ Enagbare is pitching himself at NFL Combine
Shane Beamer leapt into Kingsley “JJ” Enagbare’s arm for an embrace.
South Carolina’s towering defensive end/linebacker promptly spun his head coach in a circle as the Gamecocks celebrated a Nov. 20 win over Auburn at Williams-Brice Stadium this past fall.
“He kind of just jumped up in my arms,” Enagbare said through a smirk. “We kind of twirled around. That’s probably my favorite moment.”
Enagbare and Beamer brought plenty of joy to South Carolina this fall. A 7-6 debut season for the first-year head coach has fans clamoring for the 2022 season. Enagbare, meanwhile, has caught the attention of NFL scouts with his mix of size and versatility that projects to a handful of different positions at the next level.
Despite perhaps lower-than-expected numbers during his final year in Columbia, Enagbare is still slotted to be the first South Carolina player off the board in the NFL Draft next month. Until then? He’s hoping his showing at the NFL Combine puts him in the first-round discussion.
“Just be me,” Enagbare told The State of what NFL teams have asked of him this week in interviews so far. “Pretty much come out here, compete during drills and hopefully I will try to put myself out there as a first-rounder.”
Outside prognosticators predicted the Gamecocks defense would be a major issue in 2021. USC lost cornerback Jayvee Horn and safety Israel Mukuamu to the NFL. The secondary looked, at least on the surface, as though it’d be pieced together with duct tape given its few experienced returners and a handful of lesser-known transfers.
Enagbare and his running mates quickly put the kibosh on those prognostications.
South Carolina finished the season with a Southeastern Conference-best 24 forced turnovers last fall. Defensive coordinator Clayton White’s unit also finished first in the league in passing defense and sixth in total defense.
“If we could just hang in there and get games to the fourth quarter, we’d have an opportunity to win games,” Beamer said in November of why he thought USC could get bowl-eligible in his first year. “And you’ve seen that with games that we’ve won in the fourth quarter.”
USC has made a habit out of developing elite defensive talent over the past decade-plus. If Enagbare sneaks into the first round, he’d become the fourth former Gamecock in the past five years (Along with Jaycee Horn, Javon Kinlaw and Hayden Hurst) to be taken on Day 1 of the draft. USC has also produced seven defensive NFL draft picks since 2019.
Enagbare, though, enters the draft process as a bit of an enigma. He was forecast as a likely first-round pick during the offseason, but his stats in 2021 didn’t quite live up to those lofty expectations. He finished the season with just 2.5 sacks and seven tackles for a loss — good for 51st among SEC defenders.
Stats aside, the metrics love the Georgia native. Pro Football Focus rated Enagbare as the best pass rusher in the conference and No. 3 nationally among edge defenders who played on at least 20% of their teams’ possible snaps. He also ranked third among SEC edge rushers with a defensive grade behind only Alabama’s Will Anderson Jr. and Kentucky’s Josh Paschal.
The Athletic’s Dane Brugler slotted the former South Carolina pass-rusher No. 46 overall in his two-round mock draft in January. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. doesn’t even have Enagbare listed as a defensive line prospect, but does rank him as the No. 4 outside linebacker in the class.
Enagbare told The State on Thursday he’s met with somewhere between 15 and 20 teams since arriving in Indianapolis earlier this week.
“Not too many people get to come out here,” he said. “The other guys (past USC defenders) set the stage, set the standard for me. Definitely trying to match them, keep that going for the next generation.”
Having arrived in Columbia under former coach Will Muschamp, Enagbare was quick to share his admiration for the man that brought him to South Carolina. Under Beamer, he helped a defense that profiled like a problem become a force.
Should he find his way into the first round or, more likely, the second round, he and Beamer may enjoy one more joyful embrace.
