Rating the offensive linemen

Like any mother who picks up the phone one day and hears her son on the other end of the line, blubbering about how all of the older kids are picking on him, Shirley Samuels can vividly recall that moment of reckoning and recollect her deep-seeded concern for her 18-year-old baby.

It was early August 1995 and Chris Samuels, a true freshman offensive lineman at Alabama, had exited the practice field for yet another day with his head all but handed to him by a cadre of talented Crimson Tide pass rushers who had spent the sweltering afternoon by blistering the rookie blocker with their overwhelming quickness.

Fearing he might never pick up the pace, Samuels instead picked up the phone in his dorm and informed his mama he would probably he coming home soon. Maybe work on the fishing boats or oil rigs during the day, he figured, and then take some night school courses.

Back home in Mobile, Ala., already late for the Bible study class she leads twice weekly, Shirley Samuels listened intently and, with tears in her own eyes, tried to console and counsel her son. And then after about 15 minutes of self-pity from Chris, a 260-pounder whose soft-spoken ways had always belied the reality he was a bit of a neighborhood bully, Shirley Samuels had had enough.

In a stern voice, the matriarch of the Samuels clan and the beloved pastor of A Time and Season Church ordered her son to do something that ran contrary to all of her religious beliefs, but which she knew was necessary for him to survive that first summer in Tuscaloosa.

The Reverend Shirley Samuels told her son to quit turning the other cheek so darned much.

It would be the stuff of Hollywood, of course, to suggest that Samuels immediately hustled onto the practice field the next day and instantly went from scrubdom to stardom. The transformation, under the watchful gazes of then-Alabama coach Gene Stallings and offensive line mentor Danny Pearman, took a little longer than that. But not much longer.

Just as she recalled that August day in 1995, Shirley Samuels can just as easily conjure a memory of the conversation she had with Chris two autumns later, when he phoned to inform her that he had been promoted to the starting lineup only four games into the '96 season.

Next Saturday her son will add another memorable page to the scrapbook Shirley Samuels has so diligently kept when he is the first offensive lineman selected in the NFL Draft.

Less than five years after that redshirt freshman season he rated as "worse than pathetic," and a summer in which he longed for his mother's deep-battered chicken and Southern-fried wisdom, Chris Samuels will be either the second or third player selected overall, headed to Washington to serve as bodyguard to Redskins quarterback Brad Johnson. In time, it figures to be NFL defensive ends who will be doing the crying, trying to get around a leftside pass protector who has allowed only one sack the past two seasons.

Leave it to Shirley Samuels to assign another Biblical passage to her son's rapid ascent.

"You know what they say about how the first shall be last and the least shall be first?" she asked rhetorically a few weeks ago. "Well, my son, he's a prime example, isn't he?"

In a draft that could feature as many as five offensive tackles in the first round, Samuels is at the head of a deep class of blockers. Those same feet that nearly hustled him out of Tuscaloosa as a scared and physically dominated 260-pound freshman have carried him into an elite class. He is not, despite the hyperbole emanating from the Redskins war room, in the same echelon as Tony Boselli, the Jacksonville Jaguars stud left tackle and the second player taken overall in 1995. But his ability to ward off upfield pass rushers and also uncoil in the running game and knock people off the line of scrimmage have drawn favorable comparisons to several of the tackles selected in the past 10 draft classes.

Scouts say Rams standout lineman Orlando Pace plays a game similar to Chris Samuels.(Allsport)

A prominent talent evaluator from one of the two scouting combines that assess prospects for NFL teams rated him nearly as good as Baltimore tackle Jonathan Ogden. Rams offensive line coach Jim Hanifan, arguably the best line mentor of the past quarter-century, likened him to St. Louis left tackle Orlando Pace. And Green Bay line coach Larry Beightol, citing Samuels' status as "a legitimate blue-chip guy who will play in a lot of Pro Bowl games," allowed he is the lone tackle prospect in this draft capable of having an immediate impact.

Such high praise neither moves nor motivates Samuels, a low and slow talker who doesn't turn into a mauler until he straps on his helmet. Off the field, he is good-natured and disarming almost to the point of distraction, but can be prodded enough to lower his guard and acknowledge that, yeah, he is pretty good.

Queried during the combine sessions about the quickest pass rusher against whom he lined up in the SEC the past three seasons, he feigned introspective meditation for about 30 seconds before declaring there really was no one who gave him much of a problem.

"The truth is," Samuels said, "I can't even recall the last sack I gave up."

Alabama coaches purport that, in over 900 snaps last season, Samuels wasn't even culpable for so much as a quarterback pressure allowed. That may be a bit of a stretch, the kind of bragging every college coaching staff is guilty of as the league draft approaches, but there certainly is no denying Samuels' advanced abilities in the coveted craft of pass protection.

Florida's Alex Brown, arguably the best speed-rusher in the conference, managed a paltry three tackles and zero sacks working against Samuels in a regular-season matchup Oct. 2. Then in the SEC Championship Game at the Georgia Dome, the two met again, sort of. By the unofficial statistics of this columnist, who attended the game intent on watching through his binoculars the much-anticipated rematch between the two players, they went head-to-head only seven times. Apparently convinced Brown would have no better success against Samuels in the second outing, the Florida staff moved their renowned defensive end to the opposite side. On those occasions when he flipped back to his more normal position and went against Samuels, he was invisible. It was that performance, Redskins personnel director Vinny Cerrato told SportsLine.com, that really catapulted Samuels up draft boards around the league.

Said Cerrato, who pushed hard for the team to consider Samuels even early in the draft evaluation process: "There are a lot of good tackles in this draft, guys with whom you could line up and feel pretty good, but Chris is in a class all his own."

His brilliance over a long period pushed Samuels high into the first round. The likelihood there are only about 10 legitimate tackle prospects in this draft, however, will help elevate some of the other blockers. Among the likely first-round tackles are Stockar McDougle (Oklahoma), Chris McIntosh (Wisconsin), Adrian Klemm (Hawaii) and Todd Wade (Mississippi). Even unpolished tackles like Marvel Smith (Arizona State) and Michael Thompson (Tennessee State), two terrific athletes but raw blockers, could sneak into the bottom part of the first round.

Teams typically eschew guards as first-round prospects, but Travis Claridge (Southern California) and Cosey Coleman (Tennessee) could benefit from a draft that is highlighted by good depth at several positions but which has only 15-20 players with legitimate first-round grades.

Said Jack Bushofsky, personnel director for the Carolina Panthers: "You had five quarterbacks and four cornerbacks in the first round last year, and those positions might provide only two first-rounders in this draft. Someone has to take their place and that someone will be (offensive) linemen."

In another life, Samuels, one of the few blockers who has been clocked at under five seconds in the 40-yard dash, wouldn't mind entering the NFL as a tight end. He's quick enough, he once boasted jokingly to still play that position or even fullback, and Samuels regularly warmed up at Alabama by running sprints and drills with the linebacker corps. For now, though, he is content to allow the transformation from freshman blocking dummy at Alabama to rookie starter in the NFL to reach the 180th degree.

"Yeah, it's been quite a turnaround from that day when I was so confused and depressed I wanted to just chuck it all and go home," he said. "I guess when they call my name as a first-rounder, it'll really hit me just how big the change has been. I'm sure my mom will remind me of the tears. But this time, we'll have a good laugh over it."

Coming Sunday: The defensive line prospects.