Name: George Karlaftis

School: Purdue

Year: Jr

Position: Edge

Measurables: 6’3 ¾”  266 lbs

Stats: 

General Info:

Born in Athens, Greece he moved to West Lafayette, Indiana in the 8th grade. He started playing football soon after at West Lafayette High School. Karlaftis was a consensus four-star prospect coming out of high school. He finished his senior season with 106 tackles, 56 tackles for a loss, and 17.5 sacks. The former boilermaker Competed in track and field as a Sophomore and Junior in the shot put, where he was back-to-back state champion. He played in the Army All-American Bowl in 2019 earning Defensive Player of the Game. Karlaftis signed with Purdue out of high school and enrolled early in January of 2019. He started all 12 games and finished the season with 54 tackles, 17 tackles for a loss, 55 pressures, and 7.5 sacks. He was named 2nd team All-Big Ten and First-team Freshman All-American. In the shortened 2020 season he played in only three games due to a combination of COVID and injury to his lower left leg. He finished the season with 4 tackles, 2 tackles for a loss, 8 pressures, and 2 sacks. Karlaftis was also an Academic All-Big Ten and second-team All-Big Ten player in 2020. He returned for the 2021 season and played all 12 regular-season games. Karlaftis collected 41 tackles, 8 missed tackles, 11.5 tackles for a loss, 54 pressures, five sacks, and 3 forced fumbles. Opted out of Music City Bowl to prepare for the draft.

Positional Skills:

Strengths

Karlaftis has lined up on left and right sides, also in both 2-point and 3-point stances. He shows to be an Easy bull rusher with a powerful upper and lower body with no problem converting speed to power. He shows strong hands-on film. Karlaftis also shows great technique with his hands to shuck blockers off him. The young man born in Greece looks explosive off the snap when he can time up the snap. Coming off the snap he comes out low and bends at the knees giving him leverage over blockers. The former Boilermaker does have a solid rip, stab, shuck, and swim moves. He shows quick feet on film and can change direction with ease. His bend is average. When rushing the passer his motor runs white-hot.

Weaknesses

Defending the run doesn't seem to be of particular importance to him, especially plays away from him. Karlaftis does not do a good job of closing the gate on backside runs. He just stands there and there have been instances of a running back cutting back to his side and going past him. He lacks an effective spin move, he has tried it here and there and it does nothing. His explosion off the snap does tend to vary from snap to snap. Sometimes he flies off the ball and other times looks like he is running in sand. This could be due to him trying to time the snap. Karlaftis tries to bend the edge too often and doesn't do a good job of countering and gets shoved past the pocket. He has struggled with double teams.

Fit with the Packers:

Karlaftis is not a great fit. He is probably a better fit as a 4-3 defensive end. His bend, speed, and length are all average to slightly below average. He can’t drop in coverage at all. He also seems more comfortable in a 3-point stance. Could see snaps as an inside rusher on passing downs due to his strength, although he didn’t do that at Purdue. For a Junior, his hand technique is very well developed and he has shown a good amount of developed pass rush moves because of that he does not have a very high ceiling.