FSU football: Grading our top 10 BOLD predictions for 2022 season
By Kelvin Hunt
Dennis Briggs Will Have 7+ sacks
Here’s what I wrote:
"FSU football received impressive production from the defensive end position for the first time in years last season. That production resulted in a NFL first round draft pick in Jermaine Johnson and a UDFA in Keir Thomas. That production will be difficult to replicate in 2022, but the coaching staff took one of their best defensive tackles and former defensive end, Dennis Briggs Jr, and moved him back to defensive end after recovering from a season-ending injury early in the 2021 season. Briggs looks to be an upgraded version of Thomas, likely bigger and quicker, with an array of pass rush moves. Briggs had seven tackles last season in four games, with three of those tackles in the Louisville game where he got injuried on a dirty play. He lists at 6’4″ and 280 pounds. Briggs should benefit from a stout FSU run defense, which will force teams to put the ball in the air more. He’ll likely get a couple of cheap sacks against the likes of Duquesne and Louisiana. However, quarterbacks like Tyler Van Dyke and Phil Jurkovec are tailormade for sacks to happen. I like for Briggs to get at least seven sacks this season."
Well, I expected more from Dennis Briggs this season, but a couple of things became apparent. He didn’t look quite like the same player we saw before the knee injury last year, and the coaching staff had to move him back to defensive tackle when Fabien Lovett got injured in the LSU game.
Briggs only had 18 tackles, 2.5 tackles for a loss, and two sacks in 12 games. I think I would come up short on this prediction even without the Lovett injury, but now the question is will Briggs stay at defensive tackle for 2023 with Robert Cooper and Fabien Lovett leaving?