2020 Offensive Line Prospects

The NFL is in the middle of an offensive line crisis, but this year may very well be the one to resolve it. There are a lot of talented offensive linemen available in this year’s draft, particularly among the tackles. We could easily see five go in the top twenty of the first round. After those five it’s a pretty clear dropoff, but these five could very well prove to be top tier starters for the next decade.

Andrew Thomas, OT, Georgia

Thomas is the least impressive athlete of the five tackles I studied, but that says more about the other players than it does about him. He is a very good athlete himself, testing above average in just about every test at the Combine. And more importantly, he is the most technically skilled of all these tackle prospects, the only one I feel comfortable saying can step in at left tackle of an NFL team on day one and be an above average player. I typically do have a bias towards high ceiling players, especially at the top of the draft, figuring you can find replacement level starters in later rounds but real stars rarely come outside the first. Offensive line is possibly the one exception, where the sheer dearth of talent in the modern NFL makes basic competence so much more valuable.

Thomas is a pass protecting machine. His drops are flawless and consistent, and no matter how the play develops from there he is almost never out of balance. He reacts inside with ease to cut down counter moves, and he plays with excellent awareness, his active eyes and stable base making it almost effortless to transition between defenders as they run a stunt in front of him. His punch is strong enough to force almost any rusher wide, and when they try to bend around him he is clever and strong enough to twist them down to the ground.

There are only a few small concerns I have with him in pass protection. The first is how he handles power. He can be knocked backwards by an initial surge, and while he anchors well after that, it leaves him with little room to work with. Elite pass rushers in the NFL possess both power and a secondary burst to surge past him, and he may never be an elite protector who truly erases the most versatile rushers in the league.

The other issue I have is also his biggest problem in the running game. While he strikes well with his initial punch and has the power to overwhelm people if he stays engaged, his ability to latch on to defenders is lacking. He doesn’t sustain blocks particularly well, and on long developing plays athletic defenders can essentially run around him. He is usually able to buy a reasonable amount of time for any normal play, and this is something he can work on over time. It certainly wouldn’t dissuade me from selecting him in the top ten of the draft.

Mekhi Becton, OT, Louisville

Even on a field surrounded by the biggest and most athletic people in the world, Becton stands out for his size and athleticism. He stands 6-7 and weighs 364 pounds, and he can move with that weight too. Watching him is as much fun as I’ve had watching any offensive lineman I’ve scouted, as several times I burst out laughing watching him toss a grown man through the air like a bag of potatoes (is it racist that I wrote this just after watching him play Notre Dame?) And it’s not just defensive backs and linebackers he does this to either. With a single arm he can send a defensive end stumbling up the field helplessly as the running back coasts through the lane opened up behind him.

Pass rushing against Becton isn’t impossible, but it’s certainly a headache. He’s too big for power moves to work, as even if a defensive end gets underneath him he just absorbs the contact with his thick frame. His length and foot speed makes it impossible to run around him with speed as well. He isn’t the quickest lineman when it comes to changing direction, and he can be vulnerable to inside moves. A better punch and some cleaned up technique can help him erase this hole in his game.

Becton is going to take some time. He can probably start from day one if you need him to, but there will be some rough moments, and whatever team drafts him will likely have to give him a little extra help in passing situations. The mental part of the game needs a lot of work too, as he often gets a bit mechanical with his footwork, running into empty space rather than adjusting his blocks for where the defense is actually aligned. If he doesn’t develop these parts of his game, he could very easily become a cautionary tale about putting too much stock in what a player looks like in shorts and a t-shirt. But if he does, he can be an overwhelming force with few matches in the NFL.

Jedrick Wills, OT/OG, Alabama

Another absolutely freakish athlete, Wills has moments where he looks like the complete picture as an offensive lineman. When he stays on balance and gets his punch on target, it’s basically over for the defender. He has the strength to drive him backwards both during and after initial contact. He has hands that latch on and sustain blocks through the whistle. He has fluid hips and feet that allow him to flip around and seal the defender away from the play.

That’s what happens when everything goes right. But it doesn’t always go right, of course. The first problem with Wills is his punch. As good as it is, it doesn’t always come in on target, and once he misses with this initial contact, he doesn’t have the quickness to recover. He seems to struggle whenever he has to react to what’s happening in front of him, rather than dictating it himself. He doesn’t handle double moves from pass rushers very well, and even when he starts in good position, he can run into trouble when the defender has space to play games with him.

These are real issues that will affect him as he moves to the NFL, but they’re also issues that can be resolved with development. And even if they aren’t, there’s always the fallback option of moving him to guard. He honestly profiles even better to guard than he does to tackle, where his 6-4 height is merely average rather than slightly undersized. In tighter areas he’s well equipped to absorb the power of larger defensive linemen, and he has the strength to clear lanes in the running game. At tackle he could develop into an above average player. At guard he could be a star from day one, and that versatility gives him value in the top half of the first round.

Josh Jones, OT, Houston

Jones is another smooth, athletic lineman who fits all the prototypical measures of an NFL tackle. He didn’t test as well as some of the others on this list, but he moves phenomenally well on the field, and there is nothing that makes me think he won’t be similarly excellent at the next level. He’s risen through this process thanks to a strong performance at the Senior Bowl, and now most people have him pegged as a top twenty prospect, which is around where I have him as well.

In the early stages of his NFL career Jones will be most effective as a run blocker. He would be particularly good in a zone scheme, though he has the skills to play in other systems as well. He’s not the most overpowering player in the world, but his footspeed allows him to reach blocks many other linemen wouldn’t even attempt, and his strong hands latch on and give him the ability to control the defender. He’s very good at letting the defender’s momentum carry him away from the play, but he also has the functional strength to twist him and seal him off from the running lane if that is what is required.

Jones’s skills will translate well to pass blocking, but he will need a lot more reps before he is ready to be a reliable presence on the outside. He very rarely used a traditional pass set at Houston, doing a lot more lateral slides as the quarterback ran bootlegs behind him. When he did do a straight drop back, his athleticism showed up with good balance and positioning. He doesn’t have much of a punch, and he gets in trouble sometimes when he tries to forcefully disrupt the pass rusher, overextending and leaving a lane to streak past him. He’s much better just sitting back, using his hands to keep space between him and the rusher, and then trusting his feet to keep him in good position.

Tristan Wirfs, OT/OG, Iowa

Wirfs looks like what you would get if you tried to carve the ideal tackle from clay. He’s 6-5 and 320 pounds, with long arms and quick feet. He can overwhelm people with power, and he can make breathtaking plays running out in space as a lead blocker. He excelled at the Combine, and if you put together a tape of just his best plays in college, it would be as impressive as any lineman I’ve scouted. All of this alone is enough to make him a first round selection, even if I’m not sold by what I actually saw from him on film.

I’m not sure I can point to one big thing that’s missing for Wirfs. It’s mostly a lot of little things that come and go over the course of each game. His initial pass set is good, and when he attacks with his punch he can stop a rusher in his tracks. But most of the time he sits too far back on his heels, and this leaves him vulnerable to a lot of different attacks. Despite his 320 pound frame he can be blown backwards by power moves, and as light as he is on his feet, he doesn’t seem to use it in pass protection. He doesn’t move side to side with the same grace that Jones does, which opens lanes on either side of him for the rusher to drive through. His hands latch on really well, but if his lower body can’t keep up with his upper body this just means his arms end up yanked outside his frame, exposing him to a lot of potential holding calls.

Like Wills, I think Wirfs may be better suited to a long term future at guard. His struggles handling power still concern me there, but I think he might do a better job keeping his weight anchored when he isn’t falling back in a tackle’s pass set. At the very least it will get him closer to the defender, putting him in position to be more consistently aggressive. Whoever ends up with Wirfs has a very talented athlete to mold, and his ceiling is probably higher than anyone I have listed above him except for Becton. But if you put these five players out on a field right now he would be the one that worried me the most.

Cesar Ruiz, C/OG, Michigan

Ruiz had a phenomenal combine, and that likely cemented him as the top interior lineman in the draft, and possibly as a first round pick. I didn’t watch enough interior linemen to comment on the first piece, but I do know that the latter is a little rich for my blood. For an interior lineman to be worth a first round selection he has to be a sure thing, and while Ruiz is a phenomenal athlete with moments of excellence on the field, his inconsistency bumps him down into the second round in my eyes.

At his best Ruiz can be an overwhelming force in the running game. He fires off hard and fast, and he has a punch that wins quick leverage over an opposing lineman. When his hands lock on, he doesn’t let go, and he has the strength to twist a defender’s shoulders around and seal him off from the play. He uses this same technique in pass protection. His hands fire out, and he twists the rusher out of the way, driving him to the side and clearing a comfortable lane for the quarterback behind him.

That’s Ruiz at his best, but he isn’t always at his best. He struggles some with awareness in pass protection, and once he’s committed in a direction he doesn’t have the lateral quickness to slide to the side and pick up a late rusher. When someone does gain leverage on him, this same issue prevents him from recovering. He doesn’t ever get moved backwards, but he can end up with his feet out of position, which leads to his shoulders being turned and a lane opening up past him. Better technique can clean this up, but until it does he’ll have a few ugly lapses each game, and even more against the league’s top interior rushers.

Tyler Biadasz, C/OG, Wisconsin

Biadasz moves very well, most of the time. He is at his best pulling around as a lead blocker, a skill that is very rare to find in a center, especially one of his size. At 6-4 and 314 he has both the weight of a strong interior lineman and the frame to fill out even further. If he can add bulk, maintain his mobility, and polish up some of the other parts of his game, he has the potential a couple years down the road to develop into a high quality starter.

This potential is why, early in the process, I saw him pegged as a potential first rounder. Everything I’ve seen since has him more reasonably listed in the third or fourth round. As valuable as he is as a puller, he struggles when making more traditional run blocks. His first step isn’t particularly fast, and he can give up quick penetration to a backside defender shooting into his gap. He can be knocked back by initial contact as well, though he usually recovers to get his feet back under him. Once that happens he is scrappy with his hands, never really latching on but constantly fighting to establish and re-establish position. As the play develops he can leverage this to turn the defender away from the hole, but he rarely wins the initial skirmish.

It's hard to get a read on him as a pass blocker. Wisconsin plays with very tight splits, and on almost every play he had at least some help from one of the guards beside him. He doesn’t get moved back easily in pass protection, but his feet are a lot more immobile than I would expect. As quick as he is pulling around in the running game or charging downfield to maul defenders at the second level, I suspect this is more a technique issue than anything else. If he can learn to keep his feet chopping laterally, he should be able to stay in front of most pass rushers he will face in the NFL.