The Big Board
| Ranking | Name | College | Height | Weight | Footwork | Hand Usage | Playing in Space | Biggest Concern | Summary | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greg Little | Ole Miss | 6'6 | 325 | Good foot speed and decent knee bend allowing him to keep his weight over his frame and allowing him to generate power without having to sacrifice balance. | Uses hands well to keep defenders away from his frame and locates hands well in the run game, but can sometimes reach for blocks rather than waiting for defenders to get into his reach and could do with keeping his elbows in more as a run blocker at times. | Moves well in space but could do a better job of locating defenders in space. | Can he put all the skills he shows together consistently at the NFL level? | Shows all the skills you want in a tackle, just not all at once all the time. | Late 1st Round |
| 2 | Andre Dillard | Washington State | 6'5 | 306 | Good foot speed and keeps weight over his frame well, but could do with bending his knees more in order to lower his center of mass to both increase his power delivery and to limit his vulnerability to power moves. | Uses hands well to keep defenders away from his frame and shows good hand positioning inside. | Moves well in space and does a good job of locating defenders. | Can he work on improving his knee bend to lower his center of mass? | Very good pass protector with good hand usage as a run blocker, but high pad level limits his power and can lead to issues against bull rushes. | Late 1st Round |
| 3 | Mitch Hyatt | Clemson | 6'5 | 306 | Good foot speed with decent knee bend but could do with keeping his back straighter to improve his balance. | Uses hands well to keep defenders off his frame and locates hands effectively but could be stronger in terms of sustaining blocks. | Wasn't really asked to play in space much but moved reasonably well. | Can he work on playing within himself more in terms of his balance? | Decent athlete and technically well rounded player but likely a career RT. | High 3rd Round |
| 4 | Jawaan Taylor | Florida | 6'5 | 340 | Very fast if somewhat frantic feet but needs to bend his knees more in order to lower his center of mass and needs to avoid loading weight onto his back foot as that allows for inside penetration. | Does a good job of keeping defenders away from his frame but struggles locating hands at times. | Moves well in space but ability to locate defenders is fairly mediocre. | Can he get his foot speed and balance to work together? | The ceiling is there, but there is a reasonable amount to do in terms of technique. | Mid 3rd Round |
| 5 | Tytus Howard | Alabama State | 6'6 | 308 | Good foot speed but need to show more consistent knee bend in order to improve his power output and to limit vulnerability to power moves. | Does a decent job of keeping defenders away from his frame and locates hands well at times, but needs to keep his elbows in more consistently. | Moves well in space and locates defenders effectively. | Showed technical improvements during the Senior Bowl, but is he continue to develop at that pace? | Good athlete with promising technique but in need of some refinement. | Late 3rd Round |
| 6 | Jonah Williams | Alabama | 6'4 | 297 | Decent foot speed but needs to bend his legs more and keep them further apart and also has a real tendency to load weight onto back foot creating issues dealing with inside moves. | Uses hands well to keep defenders away from his frame and does a decent job of locating hands but needs to be more patient and not reach for blocks. | Moves well in space but struggles locating defenders at times. | Can he get his footwork under control or would he be better suited to playing inside? | Good college player but could struggle against better rushers, potential guard conversion. | High 4th Round |
| 7 | Chuma Edoga | USC | 6'4 | 295 | Decent foot speed but needs to bend his knees more, especially as a run blocker, and has a tendency to load weight onto his back foot. | Uses hands well to keep defenders away from his frame but needs to show more consistent location and avoid dropping hands after initial contact in pass protection. | Moves well in space but is fairly mediocre in terms of locating defenders. | Can he improve his knee bend? | Does a lot of nice things, but could do with a year to develop further. | High 4th Round |
| 8 | Isaiah Prince | Ohio State | 6'6 | 306 | Decent foot speed and generates a lot of power with his lower body as a run blocker but needs to bend his knees more and tendency to get weight out in front of his feet could be highly problematic. | Does an ok job of keeping blockers away from his frame as a pass protector and locates hands quite well | Wasn't really asked to play in space. | Can he work on his balance and pad level in a meaningful way? | Does some nice things, but value depends a lot on ability to work on balance and play height. | Late 4th Round |
| 9 | Dalton Risner | Kansas State | 6'5 | 300 | Foot speed is ok but not amazing and really needs to bend his knees more and avoid loading weight onto his back leg but generates good power with his lower body even if this sometimes comes at the expense of body control. | Locates hands well and does a decent job of keeping blockers away from his frame in pass protection. | Moves well in space and does a good job of locating defenders. | Can he fix his lower body issues? | Decent run blocker and functional as a pass protector but lower body is a mess. | High 5th Round |
| 10 | Max Scharping | Northern Illinois | 6'6 | 315 | Pretty good foot speed but could do with bending his knees more and avoiding loading weight onto his back leg. Power isn't great. | Does a good job of keeping defenders away from his frame in pass protection but arms get far too wide as a run blocker. | Moves well in space but isn't great at locating defenders. | Can he work on keeping his arms narrower? | Movement skills are appealing but hand usage needs work. | High 5th Round |
| 11 | Bobby Evans | Oklahoma | 6'5 | 299 | Ok foot speed and generates a lot of power wit his lower body but knee bend is really very poor creating all kinds of other issues. | Doesn't do a great job of locating his hands and arms get far too wide at times. | Struggles moving in space and locating defenders. | Can he bend his knees and control his arms? | Does some nice things as a run blocker but lack of knee bend is potential game-wrecker. | Late 5th Round |
| 12 | Yodny Cajuste | West Virginia | 6'4 | 316 | Very fast feet but control is sometimes lacking and knee bend is quite poor with weight often loading onto the back foot. | Arms get too wide as a run blocker and struggles locating hands inside but does a decent job of keeping defenders off his frame. | Unremarkable in space. | Would his footwork issues be helped by a move inside? | Vaguely athletic but body control is a real concern. | High 6th Round |
| 13 | Dennis Daley | South Carolina | 6'6 | 324 | Decent foot speed and generates a decent amount of power but needs to bend his knees more and balance appears to be a real issue. | Flashes occasional hand usage but needs to be far more consistent in almost every regard. | Wasn't really asked to play in space. | Can he fix his pad level and balance issues? | Decent run blocker but likely limited to being a depth swing tackle. | Mid 6th Round |
| 14 | David Edwards | Wisconsin | 6'7 | 315 | Decent foot speed and generates a lot of power but knee bend is almost non-existent leading to pad level and balance issues with weight loading onto the back leg. | Flashes hand speed and location but needs to be more consistent in both regards. | Moves quite well in space but struggles locating defenders. | Can he bend his knees? | Flashes potential but lack of knee bend will keep him off the field until fixed. | Mid 6th Round |
| 15 | Calvin Anderson | Texas | 6'5 | 300 | Ok foot speed and knee bend with decent power generation but tends to load weight over back leg and attempt to counter this with back bend leading to all sorts of balance issues. | Fairly unremarkable in terms of ability to keep defenders away from his frame and hand location struggles likely due to balance issues. | Struggles moving in space and locating defenders. | Are his footwork/balance issues at all fixable? | Might have some depth value but a lot to fix here. | Mid 7th Round |
| 16 | Kaleb McGary | Washington | 6'6 | 325 | Decent initial foot speed but doesn't bend his knees well and looks uncomfortable when asked to twist his hips. | Struggles to keep defenders away from his frame due to wide arms, especially as a run blocker. | Decent movement in space and does an ok job of locating defenders. | Can his knee bend be worked upon? | Does some ok things but lacks basic athletic skills to deal with NFL rushers, might be a developmental prospect at guard. | Mid 7th Round |
| 17 | William Sweet | North Carolina | 6'6 | 313 | Decent foot speed but knee bend is very poor and balance is a concern. | Wide arms create issues both locating hands and keeping defenders away from his frame. | Doesn't move well in space and struggles locating defenders. | Is there enough here for bottom-of-the-roster development? | Foot speed will cause some interest but there's not much else to work with. | Undrafted |
| 18 | AT Hall | Stanford | 6'5 | 306 | Limited foot speed and loads weight onto his back foot with limited knee bend with weight getting well ahead of his frame as a run blocker. | Struggles to keep defenders away from his frame and hand location is poor. | Decent moving in space but ability to locate defenders is mediocre. | Can footwork issues be fixed? | Has some value as a camp body but upside is very limited barring unforeseen skills. | Undrafted |
| 19 | Martez Ivey | Florida | 6'5 | 309 | Generates good power but knee bend is very poor with limited foot speed. | Struggles locating hands both as a pass protector and a run blocker. | Struggles moving in space and doesn't locate defenders effectively. | Can his power be enough to get a look at guard? | Has power, but not much else. | Undrafted |
| 20 | Brock Ruble | Toledo | 6'8 | 319 | Struggles for foot speed with limited knee bend and narrow base creating balance issues. | Flashes decent hand usage but consistency is lacking, especially as a pass protector. | Doesn't move well in space and struggles locating defenders. | Can his footwork issues improve with coaching? | His hand usage has some promise but his lower body is very, very poor. | Undrafted |
| 21 | Jackson Barton | Utah | 6'7 | 310 | His foot speed could be worse but knee bend is very poor, struggles to generate power and balance is terrible. | Struggles to locate hands as both a run defender and a pass protector. | Doesn't move very well in space and struggles locating defenders. | Is there anything in his play to make a team see an upside worth working towards? | In need of a lot of work, and even then it's a long shot. | Undrafted |
For me, Little and Dillard are a fair way ahead of the rest of the tackles in this class, and while nobody in this class is perfect, both would be sensible options at 16 if they fall that far and the Panthers don’t look to move back. Both show good foot speed with good weight distribution and generally good hand usage; Little could do a better job of keeping his weight over his frame at times – which seems to stem from his reaching for blocks slightly outside his reach, something which should be coachable and which led to some issues with inside moves. Crucially, however, he shows all the skills needed to play left tackle in the NFL but, similar to DJ Moore last season, it’s just a matter of getting him to be more consistent in his technique.
Dillard has even better hand usage as a pass protector but needs to show more consistent knee bend as he does get quite high at times, which creates both a vulnerability to power moves and which limits his ability to create push in the run game. For both players, prospective teams will want to get a feel for how capable of continuing to improve with NFL coaching they are, and this is likely what will determine who will be the best player of the two, but both are capable of offering an immediate upgrade for the Panthers with the ceiling being that of high-quality NFL left tackles.
There is then a fairly significant gap to the next player, and at this point there is something of a split between immediate impact and potential. Mitch Hyatt is a fairly well rounded player and while he could do with improving technically in a couple of areas, he could likely give a team a base level of play from day one, even if he doesn’t have the potential to be as good as some of the players below him.
By contrast, both Jawaan Taylor and Tytus Howard could be very good NFL tackles down the road, but both are in need of some technical development – with Taylor needing a fairly significant amount of work getting his slide corrected and Howard needing to show improvement in his hand usage. Both players could be good starters down the road, but there are likely going to be a few speed bumps – with coachability being a significant factor.
One player who I have a lot lower than most other boards is Jonah Williams, as while he does do a number of nice things there are some real concerns with him on tape, most of which I’ve outlined in a much deeper look at the Alabama tackle. Against better athletes, he struggles covering speed rushes without making sacrifices in terms of play height and balance; some have suggested that he might be best suited to a move inside to guard, and this could well be true, but even there, he would need to work on widening his base and keeping his weight over his feet rather than leaning heavily into blocks – and the idea of drafting an offensive lineman in the first round whom you would immediately have to switch positions is less than palatable.
Take a look at this rep, which is…not great. I’m not as confident as other scouts that Williams is a can’t-miss prospect – the bad reps make up a lot of what matters for an offensive lineman – 90% of your reps can be good, but if you allow rushers to blow by you 10% of the time…..
The only other player who could be an interesting option on the second day is Chuma Edoga, he has received some interest following a strong showing at the Senior Bowl and shows some good skills, but he needs some technical work on his slide and needs to be more disciplined in how he uses his hands in pass protection. While he likely wouldn’t start right away, given that Daryl Williams will once again be a free agent next offseason, he could be an option in the third if they don’t address tackle before then.
There are some other prospects the Panthers might look at, especially as the draft goes on, but most are either in need of significant development or are unlikely to have the upside they’re looking for. Some are quite high on Dalton Risner, and while he does do some good work at times, his slide will likely be exploited by better athletes and a move inside to guard would need further technical work. Similarly, Cajuste and Edwards have some nice athletic traits but are in need of significant technical development and while Kaleb McGary does do some nice things, in my opinion, he is a longshot to succeed at tackle in the NFL.
There isn’t one elite tackle in this draft class, but there are a pair of really good ones with a number of interesting options the Panthers could explore in the third round if they look to go elsewhere – like the rather large holes at edge rusher and free safety – through the first two rounds.
