Carl Nassib: Road to The NFL

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Carl Nassib’s path to the NFL started as most hopeful’s do. A low level recruit who had to carry a chip on his shoulder throughout his entire professional career.

Nassib was a two sport athlete in basketball and football at Malvern Prep in Pennsylvania. Born from a football lineage (his father was a TE at Delaware and his brother Ryan was a star QB at Syracuse), Carl excelled at both sports, but still received very few offers. Almost resorting to following his dream of graduating medical school, Nassib received a preferred walk-on to play football at Penn State University.

His patience was tested early during his college career as he sat out two whole seasons before putting on 50 pounds of weight. Starting at 228lbs and ended at 272lbs by the start of his junior year. It was then he got his opportunity.

At first he got very little playing time that year and followed that up with a moderately successful year in 2014. Nonetheless, his hard work and patience were about to pay off. He became a full-time starter in 2015 during his redshirt senior season and never looked back.

After notching 10 sacks in just 6 games for the Nittany Lions, Carl was awarded Big-10 DPOY and cemented his status as an NFL prospect. After being selected 65th overall by the Cleveland Browns in the 2016 Draft, and notched a sack to start off his pro career.

Nassib played situationally in his first 2 years, and was unexpectedly waived just one week before the 2018 season. The Buccaneers moved quickly to sign him just one day after his release. What they received was a madman out to prove he belonged in the league and did just that.

During the 2018 season, he set career highs in sacks, 6.5, and TFL’s, 12.5, while giving himself something to build on. Heading into the 2019 offseason amidst Gerald McCoy trade rumors and the recent injury to Jason Pierre-Paul, Nassib knows very well he’s the next man up and will have to bring his game to the next level.

He’s been here before though. Where he wasn’t highly recruited, and for two years watched games from the sideline. Which put a massive chip on his shoulder, and has become an interesting NFL DE.

Expect him to breakout this year, and maybe even flirt with double-sacks. If he does, the Bucs may have locked up one of the more promising, young DE’s in football.

Written by: Joshua Omoregie

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