2015 Offensive Line Prospects

After spending last week breaking down the two most difficult positions in the draft, I thought I’d return to something more in my wheelhouse. This year lacks premier talents on the offensive line, but there are a few quality starters to be found in the first couple rounds. There has been a trend in recent years towards smaller, more athletic linemen, and a lot of these players fit that mold, athletes with high upside and little polish. Most of those players are farther down in my rankings, as I prefer linemen who I can count on to be reliable starters and safe picks.

Andrus Peat – Stanford

Peat is the premier prototypical left tackle to be found in this draft. He has tremendous size at 6’7” and 313 pounds. He has excellent footwork and technique, more than making up for the athletic advantages the other top tackles have over him. The measurables are all there, and after watching his film I am genuinely curious why he isn’t being discussed as a potential top ten pick.

Peat is a capable, if unspectacular run blocker. He doesn’t create much movement down the field, but he can be a mauler when asked to pull off a simple down block. His excellent feet allow him to easily seal a defender off, and his strength prevents him from being knocked backwards. He could probably stand to play a little lower and to use his hands better, but he does what is asked of him in the running game.

Where he really shines is as a pass blocker, specifically in his initial step. The first step is the most important part of playing offensive tackle, a lateral drop to get into position to cut an edge rusher off from the quarterback. For many tackles this is a very mechanical motion, practiced to the point of inflexibility. This is not the case with Peat. He adjusts his drop depending on the alignment in front of him, dropping further when there is someone out wide to cut off edge rushes. He does a fantastic job getting deep while still keeping his balance on his front foot, anchoring himself to absorb potential inside moves. His initial step is the best of any lineman in the draft, and it makes him almost impossible to beat off the snap.

If there are flaws to pick in Peat’s pass protection abilities, they’re to be found at the back end of his drop. He plays a bit too upright, and he prefers to catch rushers rather than attacking. Both of these leave him open to a bull rush, though he wasn’t particularly vulnerable to that in college. His bigger issue was with speed, a result of his feet sometimes coming to a stop at the top of his drop. His recovery skills are impressive, and in most cases he was able to get himself going again before this became an issue. But against top edge rushers, the sort he will face on a weekly basis in the NFL, he was beaten around the corner a bit more than you would care for from a starting left tackle.

Peat’s upside is intriguing, even if he will probably never be a Pro Bowl left tackle. But he is one of the safest picks in the draft, at a position where simple competence is worth so much. He will likely be available as a steal sometime in the second half of the first round, and I think it would be only a minor reach if a team grabbed him somewhere in the top ten.

La’el Collins – LSU

Collins doesn’t have the technique and footwork of the top tackle Peat, and he doesn’t have the brute strength of the top guard Brandon Scherff, but his versatility to play either position makes him valuable enough that I strongly considered ranking him as the top lineman in the draft. A stocky linemen with impressive athleticism, Collins is a rare tool for any offensive line, the sort of player who would be perfect for several teams looking for general upgrades along the front.

I am considering Collins as a tackle for this exercise, since that is the ideal future position for him. He has excellent feet as a pass blocker, taking an aggressive initial step towards the rusher and engaging a safe distance away from the quarterback. He doesn’t always keep his feet moving after initial contact, but when he does he can move laterally to absorb any secondary pass rush moves. His bulk allows him to anchor extremely well, preventing rushers from driving him backwards and cutting off many inside moves.

Collins is less polished technically in the running game, but he has all the tools to be one of the best in the league. He gets excellent position with his hands, leveraging beneath a defender’s shoulders and lifting him up so he can drive him backwards. His hips are very mobile, allowing him to swing around after engagement to seal the defender off. At times he can be exposed by leaning too far forward and getting off balance, but most of the time his strong hands keep him engaged up to and through the whistle. No one in this class finishes blocks like Collins, and it is a regular occurrence to see him throw his man onto his back as the play winds down.

The biggest concern for Collins as a tackle is his lack of length. He is only 6’4” tall, and though his long arms make up for some of this shortfall, he will still have trouble containing the fastest rushers around the edge. Physically he looks more like a guard, and if he finds himself forced to move inside in the NFL it won’t be a huge loss. He’ll need to become stronger if that is his long term role, but I trust that an NFL training staff will be able to manage this. Collins’s versatility makes him one of the safest picks in the draft. Even if he fails as a tackle, he will still be able to contribute as an above average guard for years to come.

Brandon Scherff – Iowa

By this point most analysts seem to have accepted that Scherff’s future is at guard, a consensus that took far too long to reach. Scherff played left tackle at Iowa and found a lot of success doing so, but the things he struggled with revealed very serious issues projecting to the next level. He simply doesn’t have the lateral quickness or the length necessary to succeed as an edge blocker in the NFL, and now that everyone has accepted that we can focus on his strengths rather than his weaknesses.

Scherff is the prototypical mauler on the inside, a big, physical guard who will overwhelm defenders and shove them out of the play. His strength in the weight room is the stuff of legends, and it translates to the field. When he can get a defender squared up, there is very little that defender can do. He strikes with precision and strength on his punches, and his hands are like black holes. Once a defender is sucked in, there is no hope of escape.

As good as his hands are, Scherff’s feet are every bit as bad. He doesn’t turn his hips when he engages with a block, giving the defender lanes to fall on either side in order to make tackles. Scherff is slow reacting when he has to move from one block to another, and he is hopeless when he tries to move sideways. These limitations absolutely killed him as a tackle, and they will present only a smaller problem once he’s moved inside. His lack of agility will always hold him back in pass protection, and whoever drafts him will have to hope that repetitive technique work will at least make him serviceable.

Currently most mock drafts have Scherff projected to go in the top ten. That is a mistake, reaching for a player with limited upside at a position of minimal value. This year’s guard class is weak, and Scherff is definitely the best guard in the draft. But picking him anywhere in the top twenty will be a serious reach. If a team is set at both tackle positions and desperately needs a guard only, I could understand taking Scherff. But for anyone else, I think they would be better off investing in Collins’s versatility.

DJ Humphries – Florida

The top three linemen are all relatively safe bets, but after that things become a muddled. There are a lot of talented athletes available along the line in this draft, athletes who carry high upside and high risk. Of the linemen in this group, Humphries offers the most appealing combination of risk and reward.

When he’s on, Humphries shows the ability to be the best tackle in the draft. He is overpowering in the run game, collapsing the defense and driving his man several yards past the line of scrimmage. His initial punch is powerful enough to bend defenders over backwards, and he moves with a low center of gravity that allows him to stay balanced and avoid being knocked backwards. His feet are phenomenally quick, and even when he makes a mistake he can usually recover before it becomes a problem.

The issue with Humphries is the occasional disappearance of everything I praised above. His punch is powerful, but it is also inaccurate and occasionally forgotten. He has a habit of catching pass rushers in his chest, and his hands will often shoot harmlessly over a defender’s shoulders. His feet can recover quickly, but he is sometimes slow in reacting, staying moving in one direction while the defender goes the other. It doesn’t help that he is slow off the ball and gives ground too easily, minimizing the room he has for error.

These issues pop up frequently in pass protection, making it a risky prospect to draft him with the intention of installing him as a left tackle. A year or two down the road, when he irons out the flaws in his game, he could be the best lineman to come out of this draft. But the risk he carries makes him unworthy of anything more than a late first round pick.

TJ Clemmings – Pittsburgh

In this group of raw but athletic offensive linemen, Clemmings is without question the rawest and the most athletic. He was a defensive end only two years ago, and he is the only lineman I looked at who has no experience playing left tackle. He played on the right side at Pitt, and he will play on the right side in the NFL. Long term he might have the potential to move to left tackle, but I think his skills are better suited on the other side.

As you can probably guess from my description of him as a right tackle, Clemmings is better as a run blocker than a pass blocker. He has potential in pass sets, but he can still be a bit mechanical in his drops and doesn’t always keep his feet moving once he makes contact with the defender. When he keeps good footwork and balance, he is almost impossible to beat. His arms are incredibly long, and he is quick enough that it is difficult to beat him around the edge. He will sometimes overextend and leave himself vulnerable to secondary moves, but more experience will clean up these shortcomings.

As a run blocker, Clemmings is as impressive as anyone in the draft. He engages with his hands and creates fantastic separation with the defender, giving him the ability to turn them with just his upper body and drive them back away from the line. He could stand to get better at turning his feet to seal his man away from the play, and he is sometimes a bit too slow out of his stance.

There is no one in this class better at moving in open space and getting to the second level. Clemmings is a smooth athlete, with a ceiling as a Pro Bowl player and a floor as an average guard. It was very close between him and Humphries, and ultimately the only thing that separated them was polish. Clemmings probably has slightly higher upside, but he has a lot more work to do if he’s going to reach his potential.

Jake Fisher – Oregon

Fisher is another offensive tackle with an impressive athletic profile, someone who looks solid on the field and even better on paper. Coming out of Oregon he has a lot of experience working in space, but he also showed success in more traditional, heavy traffic areas. His athleticism jumps off the screen, and with some work on technique he can be an NFL left tackle.

Fisher has excellent strength to go along with his speed, particularly in the upper body. His initial punch is devastating, knocking defenders backwards and giving him the ability to create significant movement in the running game. He has the ability to finish his blocks just with his upper body, twisting and throwing defenders to the ground to get them out of the play. He is a better run blocker than most of the offensive tackles in the draft because of his ability to overwhelm smaller defensive players.

If he is going to succeed in the NFL, he will need to make major improvements with his footwork. His hips are inflexible, and he sometimes stays too square to the line, giving up rushing lanes that shouldn’t be available. He has trouble sealing a defender off once he’s engaged, and he can’t move quickly enough side to side to stay in front of quicker pass rushers. Stronger hands could solve some of these problems, but after his initial punch he really doesn’t show the ability to control the player across from him.

I don’t think Fisher is ready to start right away, and if he is it would only be at right tackle. Long term he might be able to pack mass onto his frame and move into guard, but I think his length and his athletic ability are too inviting to dismiss him as a tackle. He’s a project probably best suited as a second round pick, though it wouldn’t be ridiculous to see him sneak into the first.

Ereck Flowers – Miami

 

Flowers is big, strong, and immobile. He lumbers around the field, 329 pounds on a 6’6” frame, searching for someone dumb enough to stumble into his path. When it’s a simple matter of blocking the man in front of him, Flowers can drive a defender into the ground. He is overpowering in the running game, a nasty finisher with the strength to push people around.

He is also desperately lost as a pass blocker. He takes a big, aggressive kickstep which, combined with his long arms, allows him to cut off most outside rushes. But once he’s made this initial step, he doesn’t have the footspeed to react back inside. He rarely engages with his hands, and he gets shoved around with far more ease than you would ever expect to see from a 329 pound man. At the heart of all these troubles is a fundamental issue with balance. He is almost always standing too upright or leaning too far forward, robbing himself of the ability to shift laterally or anchor into the ground.

The talent and the size are there, and I guess I can see why some people consider him among the top tackles in the class. But once he steps out of the trainer’s room and onto the football field, he doesn’t measure up to the other premier linemen. I see him as a second round prospect who will likely go in the first to a team that has convinced themselves that they can clean up his issues.

Cedric Ogbuehi – Texas A&M

The talent is there for Ogbuehi, just not taken advantage of. He is one of the most gifted offensive linemen available in this draft, and prior to his final season at Texas A&M he was being talked about as a potential top ten pick. A miserable year and a torn ACL have dropped him down into the second round in most projections. This seems drastic, but based on what I saw on film I’m not sure if it’s even enough.

Let’s start with the good. Ogbuehi has excellent feet, quick and constantly moving beneath him. He relies on short choppy steps that prevent him from becoming overextended or leaning too far one direction. This gives him the ability to react instantaneously to an opposing player’s moves, and it shows up as excellent recovery ability when he is beaten. This is very fortunate, since his technique leads to him being beaten quite often.

Ogbuehi prefers to drop straight back rather than attacking towards the outside. This allows him to absorb inside moves without much trouble, but it also limits his ability to cut off speed rushers from reaching the quarterback. He might be able to make this work if he used his arms to create separation, but on most plays I’m not certain Ogbuehi realizes he has arms. He prefers to catch pass rushers in his chest, surrendering ground and control on a consistent basis. When he does use his arms they end up very wide, wrapping defenders around the shoulders in clear holds that should be called several times a game.

On the whole, Ogbuehi is an ugly player who needs to completely overhaul his technique before he can play in the NFL. Athleticism and footwork will only get him so far, and if a team tries to rush him into the starting lineup they will get their quarterback killed. Ogbuehi has fallen all the way to the second round, but I think he needs to go even further. I’d probably be willing to take a flyer on upside in the third round, but anything before that is simply laughable.