Growing up in a tough neighborhood, in the swamps of Jersey, Vinny Curry was tempted to run with the wrong crowd. Instead, the former prop 48 casualty  walked out of Marshall University this past December not only with a college degree, including minors in criminal justice and sociology, but also with the respect of his coaches, like Fred Tate, who described Curry as "the finest kid I've ever coached." By all accounts, Curry is a model student athlete, as a unanimous team captain and mentor to younger players, who never missed a workout. He passed up the opportunity to leap to the NFL after the 2010 season to try to help Marshall win a conference championship, and because he wanted his mother, who was battling cancer to see him become only the second person in his family to earn a college diploma. Sadly, his mother passed away during the 2011 season. Curry, looking for a way to honor her memory, dedicated the game against Rice, played only one day after the funeral, to her, vowing to record a sack on the game's first drive. Curry not only kept his promise, but finished the game with 9 tackles, 3.5 sacks, 4 tackles for loss, 1 recovered fumble, and 1 forced fumble that set up the game winning touchdown.

    At 6'3" 266 pounds, Curry is slightly undersized for a defensive end, but he possesses a muscular, athletic body, with a frame that could carry an additional 15-20 pounds. His wingspan and hand size are middle of the pack for the top twenty-five college defensive ends, and, although Curry looks the part of an elite athlete, he merely has above average physical tools, and lacks top level speed, agility, and stamina. At the scouting combine, Curry couldn't take part in the bench press, due to an injured wrist, but his other test scores were disappointing to say the least. His 40 time of 4.98 seconds placed him in the bottom 25% of defensive ends, many of whom were carrying 20-35 pounds of additional weight. In tests designed to measure explosive ability, like the vertical leap and broad jump, Curry scored in the bottom 40%. And, as a guage of quickness and change of direction talents, his 4.40 second shuttle time was beaten by 65% of defensive ends at the combine.  To his credit, in game film, Curry appears to have more impressive physical skills than his raw workout numbers would suggest. He's quick both in space, and as an edge rusher. He displays better than average closing speed when tracking a ballcarrier or quarterback. And he utilizes flexibility and balance, staying low, when working around an offensive tackle. It may be that, unlike many young players, Curry gets the most out of his talent, maximizing his abilities. He is neither a workout warrior nor an elite specimen; however, sometimes raw numbers are not a completely accurate measurement of one's athletic potential.

    Although, at times, it may appear that Curry lacks explosiveness off the ball, in fact, what he struggles with is snap anticipation and initiating movement. Curry is often the last lineman, on either team, to move; however, once he gets his body in motion, he displays genuine burst and short area quickness. On occasions when Curry gets off the ball on time, he attacks the opponent aggressively, and is significantly more effective. Diagnosing plays is also not one of his strengths, as he is not always able to locate the ball, and, as such, will often take steps in the wrong direction, before having to re-direct. Versus the pass, he doesn't sense screens intuitively, and, when stunting to the inside, he can have trouble finding a rush lane or the quarterback. His below average recognition skills would make a switch from DE to OLB difficult. Curry does display excellent range, making tackles at all three levels, as evidenced by his 94 tackles in 2010, an truly impressive number for a lineman. Curry's best attribute may be his relentlessness. His passion for the game translates on the field, where he refuses to be left out of a play, often pursuing a ballcarrier 40 yards downfield. In 2011, he forced an incredible 7 fumbles, many by chasing down a faster player, and stripping him from behind. Though, at times his aggressiveness causes him to overpursue, he makes far more big plays than he surrenders.

    Versus the run, Curry displays inconsistent leverage, initially exhibiting power and drive. However, the longer he remains engaged with the opponent, the more his pad level rises, and the more ground he loses, though, at times, he is a disruptive, penetrating attacker, able to extend his arms, shed the block, and drive through into the backfield. As a pass rusher, he maintains a lower pad level, exhibiting impressive upper body flexibility, and the capacity to really bend, as he fluidly dips his shoulder and flattens out moving around the corner. However, he often gets so low that the offensive lineman can simply drive him straight down into the turf. Curry also employs solid leverage with a bullrush, often able to drive much girthier opponents back into the QB. His other pet move is the speed rush, coupled with an occasional counter back inside. Here, he's moderately successful, lacking the pure speed to really challenge the corner, and often rushing too far upfield, taking himself out of the play. Lesser used weapons also in the arsenal include a jam, followed by the arm over, and an efficient swim move. In addition, Curry did show promise when moved inside on some passing downs, utilizing quickness and agility versus less athletic offensive guards. As a tackler, he can deliver a punishing blow, though, generally, he's content to make a sure takedown, which he rarely fails to do. In particular, he is extremely proficient at making plays when a dive or lay-out is required. Here, Curry takes a good angle, launches himself, and makes the tackle virtually every time.

    At only 266 pounds, Curry lacks the mass to be a powerful force at the point of attack; however, he displays good strength for his size, able to occasionally drive opponents back, and rarely gets completely washed out of plays. He looks to deliver an initial pop, then use his hands to shed the blocker. In this area, he's somewhat a finesse player, more adept at eluding blocks than stacking and shedding. Though he struggles with cut blocks, generally he's able to work his way through traffic to get to the ball. In particular, he skillfully slides down the line in pursuit, chasing plays down from behind; he's the type of player that teams want to run at, rather than away from. In addition, chip blocks from running backs often leave him as easy fodder for offensive tackles, and he almost never makes it to the quarterback after encountering that two pronged blocking attack. As could be expected, Curry also struggles versus the doubleteam, lacking the substantial foundation to withstand the force of two linemen. Adding 10 to 15 pounds could significantly help here, but the gain wouldn't be worth the loss, if quickness and/or agility were diminished as a result.

    In the end, Vinny Curry is a well respected, highly decorated, proud college graduate, who has the potential to transition from small conference college star to productive NFL player. He plays the game with an unyielding motor and an innate aggressiveness that allow him to be not only a dynamic player, but also a disruptive force on both sides of the line of scrimmage, producing an impressive number of sacks, forced fumbles, and tackles for loss over the course of his career. Perhaps Curry's biggest weakness is snap anticipation, where he consistently is slow to react to the initial movement of the ball. On plays where Curry gets off the ball on time, he produces a positive play for his team on most occasions; however, when he's sluggish at the snap, his success rates drops exponentially. In both instances, he displays good burst, but, when the offensive lineman gets a prohibitive head start, Curry cannot overcome the advantage. As such, he needs to devote a good deal of attention to that area of his game. If he can develop even average snap anticipation and "get off," he would consistently flash that explosiveness that is only visible occasionally right now. As such, and coupled with his work ethic and coachability, a veteran NFL line coach could certainly have something to work with in Curry. Another area of needed improvement is stamina. Curry tended to wear down in the second halfs of games, and as a result, his pad level discipline waned, and he showed a noticeable drop in overall production. In his defense, Curry, as the only star on a mediocre unit, was routinely asked to play 80 or more snaps in some games. In any case, though some players have enough pure talent to be productive while giving 75% effort, Curry needs to be firing on all cylinders to be a difference maker. He will need to develop more stamina if he wants to avoid being just a situational player at the next level. Following his productive senior season, Curry has seen his draft stock go up and down. He had a big Senior Bowl, where he could have been named MVP after posting 2 sacks, a deflected pass, and a QB hurry that resulted in an interception. However, his less than impressive showing at the Scouting Combine took some of the shine off that Senior Bowl performance. On film, Curry is certainly more athletic than those skills tests showed, and it is partly because of this that some have suggested that he could end up as 3-4 OLB in the NFL. But Curry has no experience in coverage, and there are more run/pass reads to be made at OLB than DE, where he already displays questionable play diagnostic abilities. As such, Curry is a better fit as a 4-3 DE, and, assuming he can add some girth and strength, develop a more complete pass rush arsenal, and fine tune his snap anticipation, he has the potential to be a solid NFL starter.