OL Scouting Notebook - Senior Bowl Review & Combine Preview

The 2022 Senior Bowl is in the rearview mirror, the Combine kicks off in a few weeks, and the draft is a little over two months away. I was in Mobile this year to get a close view of this year’s crop of OL prospects and came away with a bunch of observations that we’ll get to shortly. First, I want to take a big picture look at how this class compares to last year’s, share some Senior Bowl notes, and discuss the recently released Combine invite list.

The 2021 & 2022 OL Classes

This OL class is shaping up to be comparable to last year’s in terms of overall talent and depth. There’s a trio of tier one, bonafide first round picks at tackle and a deep group of potential interior starters in the middle rounds. We tinkered with our grading scale at Bleacher Report leading up to this season, so it isn’t an apples to apples comparison between my grades for this class and last year’s. Although we can still get an idea of how it stacks up by looking at round grades.

Last year I graded 58 offensive linemen. I’ve graded 43 so far this year.

2021:

• 36 round 1-4 grades

• 26 round 1-3 grades

• 15 round 1-2 grades

• 7 round 1 grades

So far in 2022:

• 29 round 1-4 grades

• 25 round 1-3 grades

• 12 round 1-2 grades

• 5 round 1 grades

This class has a big three at tackle in Ikem Ekwonu, Evan Neal, and Charles Cross. Two other tackles with early second round grades round out the top five in Central Michigan’s Bernhard Raimann and Northern Iowa’s Trevor Penning. Chances are one of if not both of those last two guys wind up being drafted in the first round, but I see them in a different tier than the first three names. They have further to go with their technique than the big three, making them less likely to be reliable starters early in their careers. I also have Minnesota’s Daniele Faalele and Penn State’s Rasheed Walker with late second/fringe third round grades. You can read my full scouting reports on all of them in our latest big board here.

Last year, I saw the tackle group as having a big four with Penei Sewell, Rashawn Slater, Teven Jenkins, and Christian Darrisaw, each carrying first round grades. There were three pure tackle prospects that I had graded in the second round in Florida’s Stone Forsythe, Notre Dame’s Liam Eichenberg, and Texas’ Sam Cosmi, with a few tackle/guard options with mid-to-late second round grades (Alex Leatherwood, Brenden Jaimes, and Brady Christensen).

This year, I have two interior prospects with first round grades in Tyler Linderbaum and Zion Johnson, one high second round grade for Texas A&M’s Kenyon Green (he is likely going in the first), and two late second/fringe third round grades in Oklahoma’s Marquis Hayes and Virginia Tech’s Lecitus Smith. I will be higher on those last two players than most, especially Smith. I saw a lot of Nate Davis in his game, showing starter level play strength and finishing ability that should allow him to be a plus run-blocker early in his career.

Last year, I had three first round graded interior line prospects in Landon Dickerson, Alijah Vera-Tucker, and Creed Humphrey, with two second round grades for Ohio State’s Wyatt Davis and Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Quinn Meinerz.

I still have a couple of dozen OL in the 2022 class to put a grade on and write-up. Most of them will likely fall in the day three (rounds 4-7) range, but there is always a chance for a few of them to get a round 1-3 grade as well. I will have more updates coming here and over at Bleacher Report almost on a weekly basis from now through the draft, so stay tuned for those.

Senior Bowl notes

I was focused on the offensive line during the two days of practice we were allowed to be there in-person, and I studied all three days of practice on film afterwards. Heading into the week, I had grades and reports written on 23 of the 24 guys there with an article ranking them 1-24, so I was more prepared than I had ever been in my previous handful of trips to Mobile.