2019 Offensive Line Prospects

The more I watch this offensive line class, the more excited I get. There are no clear future stars like Quenton Nelson a year ago, but there are a lot of potential above average starters who will flash off the board over the second half of the first round. This class boasts a wide variety of styles, who will be used in a wide variety of schemes, and who present a particularly tricky challenge for those of us trying to organize them into some coherent ranking.

Andre Dillard, T, Washington State

Dillard is a tremendous athlete, and I have him ranked as high as I do based on upside that gives him the best chance of any offensive lineman in this class of becoming a future All-Pro player. His footwork is incredible, and it translates to sensational skill in pass protection. He can drop as deep as he needs and can mirror the opposing rusher to handle inside moves. He will vary his pass set depending on the alignment of the defense and the play that is called, and he usually makes the correct decision. Even when he does lose at the point of contact, his upper body strength and his feet are enough to allow him to recover to erase the defender’s advantage before the quarterback can be bothered.

The biggest issues Dillard has are in the running game, though they occasionally translate to pass blocking as well. He gets into trouble when he tries to play aggressive, either coming downhill or attacking a rusher off the edge. His punch is strong but not particularly accurate, and on occasion he will load up and fire his arms only to strike at empty air. This gives the defender the opportunity to get into his chest, and from that point it becomes a race to see if he can get his feet back under him to absorb the power rush. More often than not he can, but his margin for error will shrink in the NFL.

Dillard’s athleticism is always an ace in the hole to fall back on, and it will allow him to be effective even as the rest of his game develops. Right now I wouldn’t trust him on an island against any pass rushers with decent hands, but this is a part of the game he can work on an improve over his first couple years in the league. The top ten may be too rich for someone with still working on crucial parts of his game, but any point after that would be an excellent pick for a lineman who can contribute immediately and has the potential to develop into a real star.

Dalton Risner, G/T, Kansas State

There are a lot of flaws in Risner’s game for him to be a top lineman in this class. He doesn’t generate much power when he attacks downhill in the running game. He doesn’t move well in space, and his recovery ability is lacking. The biggest hole in his game is at the most important part, which is pass protection. He’s a bit slow on his drops, and he doesn’t pack much force in his punch, leaving him susceptible to be beaten around the edge. He tries to counteract this by setting straight back rather than attacking at an angle, but this just leaves him vulnerable to inside moves and power rushes. He does a good job protecting his chest and keeping from being bull rushed backwards, but when he sets straight into the quarterback’s lap he leaves himself very little room to work with.

Risner’s saving grace is his hands. He has an incredibly strong grip, and once he locks on to the defender across from him the play is pretty much over. He doesn’t have the leg drive or footspeed to overwhelm or perfectly mirror defenders, but his ability to control them with his hands gives him the strength to make up for it. He is excellent at sealing running lanes, and as long as he can win the initial engagement he can succeed as a pass blocker as well.

He may still have long term prospects at tackle, but I believe Risner would be better served in the near term by moving to guard. In the middle of the line his issues playing in space will be less glaring, and his ability to consistently win with his hands will give him the ability to become an elite player very quickly. Even if he never pans out as a tackle, I think his upside at guard is worth a mid to late first round selection.

Cody Ford, G/T, Oklahoma

Like Risner, Ford is probably best suited to begin his career at guard. Though he has good feet for short area lateral movement, he struggles to get good depth on a traditional tackle pass set. His punch is inconsistent, able to stymie rushers at times and completely absent at others, and pure speed rushers will give him a lot of trouble if he remains on the edge. He’s better than Risner at reacting to inside moves, but he still isn’t great in space, and keeping him in a tighter area will better utilize his strengths.

Ford is huge, even for an offensive lineman, and he has the power to go with it. As a run blocker he can completely collapse the line in front of him, driving a defender far away from the hole to give the running back plenty of space to work with. His hands aren’t as good as Risner’s, but they are still well above average, and when he does use them it’s tough for an opponent to do anything. He has excellent awareness for identifying complex defensive schemes, though he doesn’t always have the mobility to do something about it. I think he could probably serve to lose some weight in the NFL, get down to a playing size more around 315 rather than the 330 he played at in college.

Ford can be an excellent guard, but there are limitations to the scheme he can be used in. He has plenty of experience pulling around as a lead blocker, but it wasn’t always pretty. Despite his size, he can be pushed backwards at times when he lets opposing rushers into his chest, a bigger issue if he moves to the interior of the line. He has the skills to handle this, but he needs to get better using his hands to win as a pass blocker. And if he can slim down and add some mobility, he definitely has more upside than Risner. I’m skeptical that he will ever reach it, but if he does he has the ability to be either a quality tackle or one of the best guards in the league.

Jonah Williams, T, Alabama

Like Risner, Williams is a prospect defined by a single elite trait, in this case his punch. Williams has one of the best punches I’ve ever seen, capable of not just stopping a rusher but knocking him backwards off of his rushing lane entirely. This combined with good footspeed and deep drops makes him pretty much impossible to beat with speed around the edge. For this reason I am a bit surprised that some people have suggested drafting him and moving him to guard. His greatest strength is his ability to stymie a pass rusher in space, and for that reason I can’t imagine putting him anywhere other than tackle.

Williams is a great athlete, and his quickness translates sporadically into other parts of his game. He can get his hips swung around to seal off running lanes, and he can react back inside after his initial drop to cut off a pass rusher’s counter. The problem is that these parts of his game aren’t nearly as consistent as his initial attack on the edge. At times he can look too mechanical on his drops, oversetting and giving himself no hope of cutting off an inside move across his face. He won’t give up sacks around the corner, but he will surrender a handful driving through his inside hip.

Experience can smooth some of this out, and I think he’ll eventually develop into an above average tackle. He needs to add strength, and he needs to get better at recognizing and reacting to the play as it develops in front of him. I don’t think he’ll ever be exceptional in the running game—he doesn’t have the power or the downhill explosiveness of the players listed above, and defenders can regularly slide off him after his initial contact—but protecting the passer is much more important. And as hard as it is to find linemen who can do that these days, I’d even take someone flawed like Williams in the first round.

Jawaan Taylor, T, Florida

As a run blocker, Taylor can be overwhelming. He has a rare combination of both lower and upper body strength, which allows him to turn a defender up top and then drive him backwards from underneath. He fires aggressively downhill, and he clears out space for his running backs to waltz through. He’s best at the point of attack, but he’s mobile enough that he usually has no problems cutting off defenders from the backside.

The one place he runs into trouble as a run blocker is also something that troubles him in the passing game. After the initial contact is made, Taylor has a habit of stopping his feet and just trying to hold back the rusher with his upper body alone. His grip is strong, but when he doesn’t move his feet his hands often get dragged outside the frame of his body, leaving him vulnerable to play killing holding penalties. This can be fixed in the NFL, but it will take some time, as will most of his game. His technique isn’t great, and he’ll find it much more difficult to overpower NFL defenders than it was in college.

The biggest area Taylor needs to improve is in pass protection. He takes an excellent first couple steps, showing good awareness to adjust his drop to the situation and the opposing rusher. But he doesn’t use his hands nearly enough, and he often merely sits there and catches the pass rusher. This can lead him to be bull rushed, and it makes him vulnerable to inside moves when he leaves that much space for the opposing pass rusher.

Taylor requires more work than most of the other top prospects, and that should drop him to the end of the first round. But with his combination of power, instincts, and athleticism, I would bet on him getting there eventually. Unlike Risner and Ford though, his struggles with his hands make me worry that he might not be able to settle in at guard while developing his other skills. Tackle will be his long term home, and I think it would be a mistake to treat it any other way.

Garrett Bradbury, C/G, NC State

There is a diminished value for players who have no path towards playing tackle in the NFL, which knocks Bradbury down past some overall less talented and less polished players. To be an interior lineman worthy of a selection in the top half of the first round you have to be really special, and Bradbury isn’t that. He is small for an offensive lineman, standing only 6-3 and weighing only 306 pounds. There are limitations to the schemes he can play in that will make some teams shy away from him. But he is also a sensational athlete, and in the right system can become one of the best centers in the league.

Bradbury is at his best in the running game, specifically blocking in a zone scheme. He doesn’t have a great deal of power, but he has elite lateral mobility that allows him to cover a lot of distance moving down the line. He can reach and seal defenders outside of him, or he can ride with them down the line of scrimmage to leave a hole behind him. He takes phenomenal angles to linebackers on the second level and never looks out of control as he engages in space. And though he’s at his best in a zone running game, he is well above average in other run blocking schemes as well. He has the mobility to pull and lead the ball carrier on a run to the edge, and he gets good push on double teams before breaking off to deal with a linebacker.

I’m a little more worried about him as a pass blocker. His mobility shows up here as well, as he uses his impressive footwork to keep himself constantly between the rusher and the quarterback. But he doesn’t always win with his hands, and with short arms it is far too easy for rushers to get into his chest. He can be worked backwards to collapse the pocket, and while he does a good job latching on to keep the defender from breaking free for the sack, it can still disrupt the quarterback. He can obviously improve on this some in the NFL, but I think a lot of his limitations are purely physical, and they will keep him from ever becoming as good a pass protector as he is a run blocker.

Greg Little, T, Ole Miss

When everything works right for Little, he’s as good as any tackle in this class. He has good size and decent mobility, with long arms and the physical strength to overwhelm defenders. When he delivers his punch with timing and accuracy, he sends the opposing pass rusher stumbling helpless up the field, giving himself all the space he needs to finish things off. He can be similarly dominant coming downhill in the running game, where his bulk and flexible hips allow him to swallow defenders and seal off the running lane behind him.

Of course, the fact that he is this far down on my list goes to show just how few and far between these moments are. He has a devastating punch, but too often it comes in off target, or simply isn’t used at all. When he does try to punch, he tends to throw everything into it, stumbling off balance when he doesn’t connect and opening an easy lane to the quarterback. When he doesn’t, he leaves his chest exposed to a rusher who usually has no problem converting speed to power and driving him back into the quarterback’s lap.

Most of Little’s flaws have to do with technique and effort, which is why I think he’d still be excellent value as a developmental project in the second round. The one concerning exception is his occasional struggle with lateral change of direction. At times he looks like an excellent athlete, but at others he will stumble trying to react downhill to a pass rusher’s inside move. This could be an issue of technique as well, but it’s frequent—and damaging—enough that I can’t dismiss it out of hand. There’s a lot of potential here, but there’s a lot of risk too, and I would be most comfortable taking him if I could afford to stash him on the bench for a year or two.

Yodny Cajuste, G/T, West Virginia

I’ve spent a lot of time in the sections above talking about the “punch” that these linemen have when taking their pass sets. Well, Cajuste is an interesting prospect in this respect, because he really doesn’t have a punch. When he does try to attack pass rushers with his hands he leaves himself off balance and exposed. So more often than not he chooses not to attack. Instead he drops back, sits on his heels, and uses his hands defensively, swatting away an incoming pass rusher to keep his chest clean and keep himself under control.

This strategy doesn’t always work. Fast rushers can beat him around the edge, and players with good hand technique can outfight him and take control of his chest. He doesn’t have the footspeed to mirror defenders in space on the edge, and he’s vulnerable to inside moves. He can recover enough to get a piece of the pass rusher and push him slightly off his rushing lane, but by that point it is often too late to prevent the quarterback from being disrupted.

I was not particularly interested in Cajuste, until I started considering him as a guard rather than a tackle. The punch is less important on the interior of the line, and as long as he can continue to use his hands to protect himself he can hold up against most power rushers. He has good leg drive as a run blocker when collapsing the line, though he struggles playing in space heading up towards linebackers. All of these are flaws that likely won’t go away, but they can be hidden by a position change, and I think he’s worth a flyer in round three.