First Step: Diaby displays good first step quickness due to be above-average athletic traits. He’s able to create plenty of natural upfield drive with his athleticism and playing from a loaded stance helps him generate this natural speed. He can false step at the line of scrimmage on hard counts from the offense but is usually pretty clean with his initial movements.
Bend: Diaby has plenty of bend to work with in both his hands and ankles. He plays a lot of four-technique defensive end and has to work his way outside which narrows his rush angles while also causing his pads to rise. When operating from a six-technique, Diaby shows plenty more bend around the edge and has an easier time cornering tackles.
Hand Usage: Diaby left a lot of meat on the bones in regards to his hand usage. He’s great with the stack and shed against tight ends due to his hand placement with quickness. When playing to the strong side, Diaby appears to panic with his hands when attempting to disengage from opponents. He struggles to generate a ton of hand force when engaging with opponents, seldom does he manage to knock players back with initial force. Additionally, Diaby has plenty of room to improve with his pass rush set.
Pass Rush Plan: Diaby has a lot of room to grow as a pass rusher but has the potential to do so due to his above-average athleticism. Diaby is often played at a four-technique and fails to rush consistency having to work around the offensive tackle. His hand technique isn’t fully developed enough in order to negate the hands of the offensive tackle. Despite this, his hand usage rushing from an outside track is a little more robust. He can use speed-to-power to drive his opponents back and his arm length allows him to pull of the rip move. His quickness allows him to be able to deploy the spin move at the top of his arc with inconsistent success.
Motor/Effort: Diaby’s motor should never be in question when watching his tape. He plays through the whistle consistently and tries to be the first one to the ball carrier. Lastly, what he lacks in size/strength he makes up for with physicality versus his opponents.
Lateral Mobility: Diaby displays above-average lateral agility, showing quick bursts of speed after his first initial step off the line of scrimmage. He does a good job using his lateral agility to eat up space in the stunt/twist game. Additionally, he’s great at changing of direction skills on quarterback rollouts and when ball carriers redirect their track in the backfield.
Run Defense/Anchor: Diaby displays solid run defense due to his quickness in his lateral movements and use of hands when engaging with defenders. Diaby carries a dense lower half but lacks elite strength to set a physical edge to the strength of run plays. Additionally, Diaby struggles to read keys from the offensive line and instead gets caught looking into the backfield at the quarterback. Despite this, he can maintain consistent leverage against tight-end double teams due to hand placement and maintaining consistent pad level.
Athletic Ability: Diaby is an above-average athlete that win with upfield quickness and lateral agility around the edge. His body type is typical of the NFL edge rusher, displays great height and arm length for the position.
Strength: Diaby has a dense lower half but still has average strength. He can hold his own against tackles when at an angle but struggles to maintain leverage at the point of attack versus drive blocks.
Versatility: Louisville tries to drop Diaby inside and over the tackle in their front however he shouldn’t be asked to play there in the NFL. He has the quickness to play stand-up edge at the next level and put his hand in the dirt as five-technique. Diaby would ideally fit into a front that is predicated on constant pressure to the quarterback.