2021 Offensive Line Prospects

This is a pretty good year to be in need of an offensive lineman. There are a couple of elite prospects at the very top of the class, plus some decent depth to be found elsewhere in the first round. A couple of the players may spend most of their careers playing guard, but if that’s the case they will turn out to be superstar caliber guards.

Penei Sewell, OT, Oregon

Sewell’s athleticism just really doesn’t make sense. He’s 330 pounds, and he moves like a tight end, another of those players who just moves differently from all the others at his position. He’s capable of making reach blocks that most linemen wouldn’t even consider attempting, and he covers so much ground with his pass sets that even the fastest pass rushers don’t have a chance to turn the corner of him. Most important of all, he is always in perfect balance. No matter what he does or is done to him, he is always capable of breaking in any direction in an instant, leaving him perfectly positioned to handle any counter moves a pass rusher might throw at him.

Sewell isn’t just a finesse player either. He has plenty of strength too, and the trick at the next level is going to be learning to harness it. Oregon ran a fairly lateral running game, but when they asked him to lower his shoulder and drive, he was capable of blowing defenders backwards off the ball. His punch is enough to stagger pass rushers, and my only criticism is that he doesn’t use it enough. I think he’s reluctant because his slightly short arms mean that he doesn’t land that punch as much as a typical offensive tackle, which is the only real negative holding him back from being the best offensive lineman I have ever scouted.

Sewell used a wide variety of pass sets in college, and he should have no trouble sliding immediately in as a left tackle for whichever team drafts him. He’ll be a capable starter from day one, and he still has room to grow, as he is only 20 years old. I’d like to see him become more aggressive in general, get better awareness for picking up stunts, and perhaps even add more strength so that when he gets his hands on a defender, they aren’t able to break away. I’m not sure there is a limit for how good Sewell can be, and he should absolutely be one of the first five players off the board on draft night.

Rashawn Slater, OT/OG, Northwestern

Slater doesn’t quite measure up to Sewell in length and athleticism, but he is the clear next-best-thing in this draft class. He’s a very good athlete as well, and with the technical skill to slide in at any spot on the offensive line he should go off the board in the top ten as well. He gets excellent depth on his drops, and he has the lower body mobility to swing his hips around and seal a defender off from the play with ease. He’s a little more vulnerable than Sewell on inside moves, but generally he has the change of direction ability and upper body strength to recover against anything he sees.

The biggest concerns about Slater are his size. At 6-4 he is right at the cutoff for offensive tackle height, and his 33 inch arms are below the typical threshold for a tackle. For this reason some people think his long-term home may be at guard, and if that’s the case he will be a phenomenal guard, particularly in a zone running scheme. He has decent power as a run blocker, but he is especially gifted at blocking on the run, with phenomenal ability to reach defenders on a frontside gap and the agility to swallow linebackers at the second level. He’ll get called for holding a bit more often than you’d like, but it’s worth it for his ability to latch onto defenders and prevent them from even being a factor in the play.

As good as he’d be at guard, I think Slater should be given a chance at tackle at first. At times his arm length is an issue, when pass rushers can get inside his chest and go for a bull rush. He’s decent at anchoring to absorb the contact, and more importantly he has plenty of tools at his disposal to prevent that from happening. He has a wide variety of approaches to pass protection that he rotates through over the course of the game, the most useful of which is a one-armed jab that catches pass rushers off guard with the power to disrupt them before they can even get on him. He plays much longer than he actually is, and if he can continue to refine this technique there’s no reason he can’t be a top notch pass protector at the tackle position.

Alijah Vera-Tucker, OT/OG, USC

As with Slater, there are questions about where Vera-Tucker will find his home in the NFL. He played only one season at tackle in college, and he was inconsistent in pass protection. He has the athleticism to play on the outside, but there are questions about his length as well, and he isn’t as far along in harnessing his athleticism as Slater is. He gets good depth on his initial drops, but his balance becomes shaky as the play wears on. He’s able to run speed rushers up the field as he needs, but he is consistently vulnerable against inside moves. 

With more reps on the outside, I think Vera-Tucker could develop into a decent starting tackle. He has the athleticism to play the position, and just needs more time to figure out his footwork. The larger challenge will be making better use of his hands. He has a decent punch when he can land it, but short arms are an issue again, and he seems reluctant to trust himself to land the desired blow. This means he spends a lot of time catching pass rushers rather than actively trying to engage them. When he does get his hands on, he latches very well, and the play is pretty much over for the pass rusher trying to get to the quarterback.

I think Vera-Tucker will probably play most of his career at guard, and the small upside of him becoming a quality tackle might be just barely enough to get him into the top half of the first round. He’s a powerful run blocker, capable of lowering his shoulder and blowing defensive linemen five yards backwards off the ball. Whatever position he ends up in, he’ll be the fulcrum of his team’s rushing attack. This has value, even if it doesn’t measure up to what a more sure pass protector might be able to provide.

Christian Darrisaw, OT, Virginia Tech

Darrisaw is a good enough athlete, when everything is running on schedule. He covers a lot of ground on his pass sets, and he can get deep enough to cut off speed rushers as they come up the field. Where his athleticism fails him is when the defender comes where he doesn’t expect it. He struggles to react to inside moves, and he doesn’t move his feet very well after his initial pass set is complete. He is rarely beaten off the initial snap, but he doesn’t hold up well on long-developing pass plays.

His hands are very good, and they help cover up some of the deficiencies of his footwork. He has a very strong punch that can stop pass rushers in their tracks, and he latches on to keep them from going anywhere after the initial contact is made. The problem here is that he tends to play high, and when his punch arrives off target or skips off a smaller pass rusher’s shoulders, he is basically dead in the water. He can get his shoulders turned by inside leverage, and he is vulnerable to bull rushes putting him back into the quarterback’s lap.

It’s a similar story in the running game. Darrisaw isn’t going to blow anyone off the ball, but he can pull off impressive reach blocks in a zone running scheme. He also struggles to react to defensive linemen who move laterally off the snap, and at times he can be left swiping at space while a lineman cuts behind him into the backfield. He does enough well that I think he’ll probably be a decent starting tackle, but never a dominant player. He’s worth a pick at the end of the first round, but he doesn’t have the upside to go in the top twenty.

Samuel Cosmi, OT, Texas

If Cosmi can figure out what he’s doing at tackle, he could be one of the best in the NFL. If he can’t figure out what he’s doing, he could be out of the league in five years. He has the athleticism and fluidity to match the top tackles in the class, plus some of the length they lack. He also has regular lapses on the field that are difficult to watch. Sometimes he’s dominant, and sometimes he’s unplayable. He could go either direction in the NFL, or could remain frustratingly in the middle.

Cosmi is a headache to try to pin down because he is so inconsistent, not just from game-to-game but from play-to-play. Everything you could expect to see in an offensive line prospect you get watching Cosmi, both the good and the bad. Some plays he dances with perfect footwork on the edge to bar a pass rusher from the quarterback. Other plays he seems to stumble just getting into position and leaves lanes wide open on either side of him. Some plays he will strike a defender, latch on, and bury him into the ground. Other plays it’s like his arms are sticks of butter sliding off anything they come in contact with. He’s capable of blasting defenders back in the running game. He’s also capable of getting blown off the ball himself and destroying a play in the backfield.

The towering ceiling here still makes Cosmi worth a pick at the end of the first round, even if there’s a pretty good chance he will never become even a capable starter at the NFL level. He’s already 22 years old and spent four years at a major college football program, so he’s had the opportunity to develop already. The fact that he hasn’t suggests that this inconsistency may just be who he is, but it’s hard not to be tempted by the rare ability he possesses.

Teven Jenkins, OT/OG, Oklahoma State

Of all the players I studied in this year’s class I don’t think there was any with as wide a divergence between how they played on film and how they performed in their workouts than Jenkins. Jenkins tore up his Pro Day, performing like he belonged in the same conversation with Sewell, Slater, and Cosmi in terms of pure athleticism. Yet on the field he looked like the least athletic of the linemen I studied. He doesn’t change direction well in his pass sets, he is often off balance, and he doesn’t cover much ground when playing up to the second level.

Before his Pro Day I was willing to write Jenkins off as not athletic enough to play on the outside, and likely someone destined for a guard position in the NFL. He certainly has the makings of a good guard. He’s a brutal run blocker, with the best combination of strength and nastiness in this year’s class, regularly driving defenders completely off the screen when he can get his hands on them. His hands are strong as well, and when he gets ahold of someone, there really isn’t much that can be done to break away, both in the running game and as a pass blocker.

The athleticism made me reconsider him somewhat, but I still think the two most likely outcomes for Jenkins are as a below average tackle or an above average guard. He’s as erratic as Cosmi in pass protection, but without the natural fluidity of movement to suggest there’s something more there he can harness.

I have some concerns with his pass protection at guard as well, particularly his vulnerability to letting his base get too wide and being driven backwards by a bull rush. This is something that can be smoothed over with practice if he moves to a position that has him in space less, but I’m worried that he may spend the early part of his career flipping back and forth between positions and never really getting comfortable in either. My prediction for his future will depend a great deal on which team selects him. If he’s drafted by a team comfortable with their tackles who wants to make him a guard right away, I can probably justify him being worth it at the tail end of the first round.

 

Jalen Mayfield, OT, Michigan

Mayfield is effective enough in pass protection when things don’t get too complicated. He gets good depth on his initial pass set and isn’t ever beaten off the snap of the ball. His positioning allows him to keep his body between the pass rusher and the quarterback, and he anchors well to avoid being knocked backwards. As long as he stays square, he’ll keep the pocket behind him clean.

Mayfield will be effective against the majority of NFL pass rushers, and I think he’ll be a solid starter once he adjusts to the speed of the professional game. His problems will come against the above average pass rushers in the NFL, all of whom have the versatility to attack him with more than just a traditional up the field rush. He doesn’t have the agility to react inside after his initial pass set, and even in college he was routinely beaten across his face to the interior. Good pass rushers can get beneath his hands and turn the corner on him as well, though he grapples well enough that he’ll probably avoid giving up too many clean sacks.

Mayfield’s limitations in space make me think he might be more comfortable as a guard, though he doesn’t flash any particularly impressive tools I look for at that position either. He’s just okay as a run blocker, and never really generates any push down the field. I think in the end the best place for him will be as a right tackle, for a team with a left tackle they can trust on an island so they slant more of their pass protection to Mayfield’s side. He might be able to eclipse this ceiling if he can develop his infrequent but effective punch to disrupt edge rushers, but in the end I don’t think he has a ceiling high enough to justify a pick before the second round.