Slater’s first rep with Young on his side was an inside run play, so Young wasn’t his focus. Instead, Slater went quickly to the second level and just bombed linebacker Malik Harrison. Slater’s nasty athletic temperament shows up over and over on his tape, and this is but one example. He’s great at climbing to linebacker depth, re-positioning if he has to, and setting the edge wherever it needs to be set.
On the very next play, watch how Slater uses a good functional kick-step to stay in line with Young. Slater won’t make anybody forget Joe Thomas with his ability to protect the pocket arc with movement, but it’s good enough. Slater has to scramble a bit with his hands to match Young’s timing, but in this instance, he’s got the power to get away with it.
Slater’s rep against Young with 12:16 left in the first half is where we can start to dispense with concerns about his arm length. Why? Because Slater has a great adaptive strategy — he’s already learned to get his arms out quickly and aggressively, and plant his hands on the defender tor leverage and power. Young tries to checkmate him by slipping out of the block, but that’s just not going to happen. Slater will occasionally drop his hands too quickly, and that leads to pressure, but it’s a fixable issue.
As far as Slater’s movement skills in space and his ability to keep his head on a swivel… yeah, no worries there, Occasionally in this game, Northwestern would put a tight end directly on Young and ask Slater to back up to the pocket with a “molly” block (the same kind of thing NFL teams started doing in the early 1980s to counter Lawrence Taylor’s furious rush), so understand that Slater can get things done all over the place.
But it was this block with 8:43 left in the first half where I started to get giddy about Slater’s transition to NFL left tackle. As I said before, you just don’t see a lot of offensive linemen physically dominate Chase Young like this at any position, at any level.
(Also: Phooey on your arm length concerns).
“I do see myself as a tackle,” Slater said last October. “I think I’ve put out some good film of my strengths. But at the same time, I do have that versatility – I can play all five positions on the offensive line. I played guard in high school and I’ve never played center, but I believe I can learn it.”
I’m sure he could, but he shouldn’t have to. Were it not for the presence of Oregon’s Penei Sewell, who I believe possesses a skill set you see from a left tackle maybe once or twice in a decade, Slater would be my OT1 by a considerable margin.
If I were to make an NFL comparison for Slater at this point in his development, two players come to mind: Patriots left tackle Isaiah Wynn, and Buccaneers right tackle Tristan Wirfs. Both players are strength monsters with the functional agility and adaptive efficiency to get things done at the edge of the offensive line at the highest altitude, and there’s no doubt in my mind that the NFL team that selects Rashawn Slater can benefit from those same attributes — if that team is so inclined.