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Since 2000, there have been 35 interior offensive linemen selected in the first round of any draft. And generally speaking, if you’re going to select a guard or a center in the first round, you’d better be pretty sure — the player had better be not only ding-proof, but he’d also better have some serious upside. Not only must he have near-total command at the position; he’d also better be able to clearly demonstrate the ability to take the unfinished parts of his game and take them to an NFL-acceptable level.
Of the 35 first-rounders among guards and centers since 2000, there’s one Hall of Famer (Steve Hutchinson, selected by the Seattle Seahawks with the 17th overall pick in 2000), a few now-retired players who could see themselves enshrined over time (Logan Mankins, Maurkice Pouncey, Nick Mangold), and current players who are now on a Canton track (Quenton Nelson, Zack Martin, Alex Mack).
The first-round guards and centers who don’t work out are generally the ones whose athletic traits are overcooked by evaluators at the expense of the nuances of the positions. At any position, you don’t want to talk yourself into the idea that you can take a “raw clay” player and turn him into something he never was in college. It’s a dangerous idea, especially when every position is harder to master at the NFL level.
In the 2022 class of interior offensive linemen, there are two or three I could see going in the first round, because they have the attributes you want at the position, and they’ve developed those attributes to the point where you can see it on tape over and over. Then, you can look at the things that don’t quite work yet and make your own calculations as to whether he fits what your head coach, offensive coordinator, and position coaches want to do schematically. The players further down the list may have more glaring weaknesses, or they’re less scheme-transcendent, but they’re still good enough to make their offensive lines better.
Depth at these positions is key, because guard and center aren’t positions where you’re going to overdraft guys a lot. So, you can get a Wyatt Teller or a Corey Linsley in the fifth round, a Shaq Mason in the fourth round, and you can get a David Andrews as a priority free agent.
The Miami Dolphins of the early 1970s had among the greatest offensive lines in pro football history, and only one player on those lines (right tackle Norm Evans) was drafted — by the Houston Oilers in the 14th round of the 1965 American Football League draft. But two guys from those lines (center Jim Langer and right guard Larry Little) are now in the Hall of Fame.
These are the positions where the names at the bottom of the list might wind up outperforming the names up top, so it’s crucial to scout it all the way down.
Here are our top 11 interior offensive linemen in the 2022 NFL draft.
(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions unless otherwise indicated. All testing data comes from the 2022 scouting combine, with percentile per position, courtesy of MockDraftable.com).
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