Okung, T. Williams at head of offensive line class
INDIANAPOLIS -- This year's group of offensive tackles might not inspire movie manuscripts to rival The Blind Side, but there is a solid group of first-round prospects trying to convince NFL scouts they can protect a franchise quarterback.
Eight offensive tackles were selected in the first round two years ago, from Miami taking Jake Long with the first overall pick to Houston selecting Duane Brown at 26. While this year's class isn't quite in that league, six or seven could potentially hear their names called in the first round this April.
Russell Okung (Oklahoma State) and Trent Williams (Oklahoma) are the top-rated seniors at the position by NFLDraftScout.com after having almost parallel careers. The Texas natives were four-year contributors for Big 12 programs in the Sooner State and ended up teammates on All-American teams after their senior season.
Their games, however, are not all that similar. Okung is a solid left tackle prospect with good footwork and 36-inch arms, though he fights criticism from scouts about his nastiness and strength on the edge. Meanwhile, many scouts believe Williams is best off on the right side (where he played his first three seasons in Norman) because of his pure strength as a run blocker. Williams considers himself a protector of the blind side at heart, saying, "It was little weird moving to the right than it was moving to left [as a senior to replace Minnesota second-round pick Phil Loadholt]."
Okung was his typical solid self in 2009. He said he doesn't recall bad plays and didn't want to "speak them into existence."
Williams, however, couldn't hide some of his mistakes early on, especially when he watched quarterback Sam Bradford get injured by a BYU linebacker blitzing to his inside in the season's first game. But his ability to mirror quicker defensive ends improved throughout the year, and said training camp will be the time to "start proving [his doubters] wrong."
Southern Cal senior Charles Brown is viewed as another future NFL starter. After spending three games at tight end his freshman year, coaches asked him to shift to tackle because he "couldn't separate from linebackers." Although he wasn't particularly happy about it at the time, Brown is clearly ecstatic now about where the decision has led him.
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Scouts love to see that tackles were once tight ends, as they tend to have excellent athleticism. Considered a bit undersized, Brown weighed in at 6-feet-5, 303 pounds on Thursday and believes he could add extra weight if needed. He wouldn't necessarily need to add weight if he plays in a zone-blocking system similar to USC's.
Underclassmen Anthony Davis (Rutgers), Bryan Bulaga (Iowa) and Bruce Campbell (Maryland) just added to the depth to an already fair tackle class when they declared for the draft in January.
Davis is a likely top 10 pick because of his size, elite agility and length. During his media session Thursday, he said he wanted to be a Walter Jones-type left tackle where teammates trust he can get the job done against elite pass rushers without help.
Teams do have concerns about Davis' work ethic and ability to maintain his weight. He came to Rutgers at 366 pounds, but played at 315 in 2009 and weighed in at 323 on Friday.
Does he worry about regaining the weight?
"Oh no. When you are losing the weight it's like you hit walls," Davis said. "To get back up to 360 I would have to force-feed myself."
He was demoted to the second team in preseason practice last year after weighing in it 320 pounds instead of the 315 set by coaches. Davis was also benched for the first quarter against Army last October for being late to a team lunch.
Bulaga, on the other hand, had a hard time holding onto weight during his senior season because of what his doctors say was a case of Thyroiditis. He struggled against Michigan's Brandon Graham while trying to return to health, and NFL teams noticed. But when finally fully healthy after a month of preparation for the bowl game, he dominated Georgia Tech All-American defensive end Derrick Morgan. That game may have earned Bulaga a top 10 selection -- assuming teams are not worried about a relapse of the thyroid issue.
Iowa linemen have had a long history of performing well at the next level, and playing for former NFL offensive line coach Kirk Ferentz certainly doesn't hurt.
"When you work with a guy like coach Ferentz, you're just going to naturally get ready [for the pros]," Bulaga said. "He runs a pro-style system. He runs pro camps, he runs pro practices -- from the standpoint of run blocking, how stuff is done in the NFL is very similar to how we do it at Iowa."
Although Campbell will likely be a first-round choice because of his 6-7, 310-pound frame and long 36-inch arms, he did not even gain all-conference recognition from league coaches and scouts are concerned about his spotty footwork and inconsistent effort.
He didn't make it into the press room Thursday, probably due to the long medical exam process, but he had better impress teams in the one-on-one interviews (as well as in drills and testing) if he wants to be a first-round pick.
In that tackle-heavy 2008 draft, Virginia guard Brendan Albert was projected as an NFL tackle when selected by the Chiefs with the 15th pick. A player potentially making a similar change is former Idaho All-American guard Mike Iupati. Although he struggled at his first reps outside at the Senior Bowl against Graham (like Bulaga and just about everyone else over the past couple of seasons), Iupati is confident in his ability to move outside at the next level. Scouts are also thinking he could make the shift because of his 6-5, 331-pound frame, nimble feet and length (his arms measurement just short of 35 inches).
If any one of these future NFL starters could match Michael Oher's movie-script life, it's Iupati. His family was relatively well-off in American Somoa, but they decided to leave to stay with his aunt and uncle in California -- in their garage. Over time they built a strong foundation in Anaheim, Calif., and then Iupati found his way to WAC also-ran Idaho (who made a bowl game for the first time in 11 years this season) as a non-qualifier. He lit up eyes of scouts during his three years as a starter, earning a top preseason grade and playing up to it all season long.
Buffalo, Kansas City, Oakland, Seattle and Washington are all looking at tackle talent in the top 10, while Dallas, Green Bay, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and others will take a hard look at these prospects' size and athleticism through the rest of the first round.
This perfect storm of team needs and available talent, much like that occurring two years ago, could mean another bountiful first round for players often called "the big uglies."
Chad Reuter is a Senior Analyst for NFLDraftScout.com, distributed by The Sports Xchange.
