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Detroit Lions Podcast | Bish & Brown: Offensive Tackle Preview for the 2024 NFL draft
Welcome to the Detroit Lions Podcast Bish & Brown Show! Today in an extra special bonus episode, Scott and Russ are making their thoughts known about the draft’s offensive tackle prospects.
It’s an interesting class at tackle. There are quite a few players who could fit what the Lions and GM Brad Holmes look for in Detroit.
When they’re done with an hour of that they give you to more prospects of the week at the wide receiver spot. These profiles are powered, as always, by Restore.
Who has the best offensive tackle duo in the AFC West? Here’s now they stack up.
Protection. It can mean a lot in today’s game where quarterbacks are increasingly asked to stand in the pocket and scan the field while the receivers routes develop.
Some quarterbacks can get away with less than ideal protection if they are elusive. But even the best are at their best when they don’t have to improvise or deliver the ball before their preferred target breaks open.
And, remember, tackles must be able to run block as well. That means leading their man outside on an inside run, sealing the edge for and outside run, or getting to the second level on pitches and screens.
Let’s take a look at who is best set up for success at the tackle spots.
The New Orleans Saints’ Ryan Ramczyk was ranked the No. 11 offensive tackle around the NFL, but 4th-best at right tackle. Have we already seen his peak?
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More than a few New Orleans Saints have griped about Ryan Ramczyk after a down year in 2022, but the Saints’ right tackle is still very highly regarded at Pro Football Focus, where Gordon McGuinness ranked the top 32 offensive tackles in the NFL. Ramczyk has done well for himself since being picked in the first round out of Wisconsin and converting to a different position after starting his career at left tackle, and PFF ranked him the No. 11 offensive tackle around the league, writing:
We’ve probably already seen the peak of Ramczyk’s career, but the 29-year-old’s floor is still likely a top-five right tackle in 2023. Across six NFL seasons, his PFF pass-blocking and run-blocking grades have yet to drop below 70.0.
Among his fellow right tackles, Ramczyk placed behind Lane Johnson (No. 2 overall), Tristan Wirfs (No. 7), and Penei Sewell (No. 10). It’s tough to argue with Johnson and Wirfs, and Sewell is already playing as well as entrenched veterans so early in his own career. It’s not entirely a bad thing that Ramczyk is ranked lower than others when his competition is performing at such a high level.
But that’s not to say there aren’t things he can improve upon. Ramczyk’s durability has become a concern with shoulder, elbow, and knee injuries stacking up and limiting his practice availability during the season. Those ailments have also limited him to just 936 and 653 snaps on offense in each of the last two years. He needs to prove he can stay on the field and be an asset for this offense. Whether he’s preparing differently in the offseason or taking more precautions in training, this is something that should be an area of focus for Ramczyk and the Saints medical staff over the summer.
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Here’s a look at some of the offensive tackles the #Chiefs could consider adding in each round of the 2023 NFL draft.
Offensive tackle remains a big need for Kansas City Chiefs in the 2023 NFL draft.
The addition of Jawaan Taylor only fills one vacancy among starters with Orlando Brown Jr. and Andrew Wylie both finding new teams this offseason. The team could keep their fingers crossed that Lucas Niang stays healthy and can contribute opposite Taylor, but they’re highly likely to make an addition during the course of the draft.
There are plenty of intriguing prospects littered throughout this draft class, from the surefire selections on Day 1 to the developmental prospects that could be acquired much later. The coaching staff seems to be keeping their options open in terms of need on the left side or the right side.
Here’s a look at some of the players the Chiefs could consider adding in each round of the 2023 NFL draft:
We continue our 2022 season previews with the offensive tackles
The 2022 season is less than a month away and it’s time to get excited Vikings fans.
In a similar vein to how fans felt when Mike Zimmer took over for Leslie Frazier, the excitement is palpable for the beginning of the Kevin O’Connell era.
While the team prepares for the season, we are doing the same at the Vikings Wire. We will be producing previews breaking down both each position and the team as a whole.
Today, we continue with our preview series by talking about the offensive tackles.
Quarterback Preview
Running Back Preview
Wide Receiver preview
Tight End Preview
Ranking the AFC West offensive tackle duos
Offenses rely heavily on the pass protectors in order to be able to execute their plays. If the edge rushers get into the backfield, it doesn’t matter how open the receivers get, the quarterback isn’t getting the ball to them.
The common theme in the AFC West seems to be quality left tackles, with less talent at the right tackle spot. You’re only as strong as your weakest link, after all.
After some troubles early in his career, Bolles has become one of the best tackles in football. He was second-team All-Pro a season ago and was still among the highest-rated tackles this season. Meanwhile, Billy Turner has quietly played pretty well at right tackle, giving up just three sacks last season.
Brown headed to his third straight Pro Bowl last season, his first with the Chiefs since they acquired him in a trade with the Baltimore Ravens. He gave up just four sacks last season. On the other side, Niang has taken ahold of the right tackle job and performed pretty well over nine starts last season. The 2020 third-round pick gave up just two sacks from the right side.
As a rookie first-round pick, Slater headed to the Pro Bowl. That says all you need to know about his talent level. There is some uncertainty on the other side, but Pipkins looked fairly good in two late-season starts — giving up no sacks — that if they decide to go with him, they could feel confident in doing so.
Miller can hang with the best in the division at left tackle. There’s no question about that. But there are serious questions about the other side. Leatherwood has been lining up there throughout the offseason after playing himself out of a job four games into last season. It’s no certainty he continues to be the first-team right tackle, but the fact that he’s been lining up there so far says there aren’t any great options there.
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Raiders are about to add $20 million in spending cash and there are still a lot of great right tackle options on the market
We tend to think of free agency having a couple of waves that happen back in March. But there’s another wave that is building strength as we speak. This one crashes on the shore on June 1.
This offseason the Raiders made a few cuts, some to save cap money, some to simply let go of unproductive players. A couple of those cuts left a scar — specifically the releases of Cory Littleton and Carl Nassib.
But in order to limit the bleeding in the short term, they gave those players a post-June 1 cut designation. This means that after June 1, a large portion of the dead money they left behind is moved to next year’s cap, which in turn frees up that money right now.
It’s no small amount, either. The Raiders will see their available money under the cap go up nearly $20 million after June 1 — $19.75 to be exact — raising it from the current available amount of around $5 million to over $25 million.
One position of great need for the Raiders this offseason which they have not sufficiently addressed is offensive tackle — right tackle specifically. And, as it turns out, there are actually still a lot of solid starting options out there, presumably waiting for this day so teams will have the funds to offer them a suitable salary.
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Here’s a look at some of the offensive tackles the Chiefs could take in each round of the draft.
Offensive tackle is the one position with the most glaring need for the Kansas City Chiefs. That comes after the team decided to release veteran starters Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz, who were both in the final years of their contracts and recovering from injury.
The team failed to make any significant moves in free agency to address either position, but they’re not without options on the roster. Mike Remmers, Kyle Long, Andrew Wylie and Lucas Niang have been floated as options by the team.
With a half-billion invested in starting QB Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs would be wise to invest some more draft capital in getting him some proper protection. They could be looking to make those investments as early as the first round, but throughout the draft as well.
Here’s a look at some of the players they could consider adding in each round of the 2021 NFL draft:
There’s reportedly not much consensus around the league in terms of offensive tackle rankings.
The Kansas City Chiefs still have a clear need at the offensive tackle position after missing out on some top players in free agency.
The 2021 NFL draft class is considered to be loaded with offensive line talent at the tackle position, but opinions on the different players within the draft class are polarizing, to say the least. According to NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah, personnel executives agree that this is a good draft class for the offensive line, but he says the rankings around the league are, “all over the map.”
Now, it’s not prolific to say that different teams value players differently. Obviously, scheme fit and other things come into consideration. That’s usually a given in any year of the NFL draft. But to have such variance in rankings around the league that the No. 3 OT for some teams is No. 7 for other teams, well that seems rather unique and it presents a big challenge for Kansas City.
Most NFL personnel execs really like this OL class but the rankings are all over the map. The 3rd OT for one team might be the 6th or 7th for another.
— Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) April 12, 2021
Jeremiah noted that No. 1 and No. 2 for most teams are near-universal with some combination of Oregon’s Penei Sewell and Northwestern’s Rashawn Slater. The Chiefs would have to manufacture a big trade-up in order to land either of those players. From there, that’s where the rankings get tricky.
Part of it stems from the fact that there’s a strong belief that some of the top tackles would do better at guard at the next level. Jeremiah used Alabama OT Alex Leatherwood as an example, saying that some teams see a top-40 pick, while others value him in Day 3.
Make Alex Leatherwood a guard and allow him to #prosper pic.twitter.com/BbvOCgRRaP
— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) April 13, 2021
The bottom line here is that Kansas City has to go into the draft knowing what they want, but also knowing what every other team wants out of the tackle position. That’s not always the easiest thing to do, especially when you have some new first-time general managers and some teams that make some questionable draft decisions.
I also keep coming back to what Veach told reporters ahead of the free agency period.
“Really from rounds one through three, one through four and they’ll go quick even if there are numbers there,” Veach told reporters of offensive linemen in early March. “By the time you blink your eyes, you’ll get into the middle or late round two, all those numbers that you saw that we joke about every year, ‘wow there’s so many linemen’, but when you take 31 or 32 every year, by the time you get to 31, they’re all gone. That’s just the way it works, but just want to share from a numbers standpoint, I think the offensive line is really deep. . . .”
Given the variance in offensive tackle rankings across the league, it really makes you wonder if the Chiefs won’t be more aggressive going after the player they want. That could mean trading up or targeting a player at the end of the first round who might be considered a “reach” by the media. Whatever the case, Brett Veach certainly has his work cut out for him when it comes to landing some blindside protection for Patrick Mahomes.
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Shane Carter of Longhorns Wire listed his top offensive tackle prospects in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Offensive tackle is a premiere position that every team needs that you can never have too many of. Luckily enough for NFL organizations this year, not only is it a deep position in this draft, but we could end up seeing day one starters selected as late as the fifth round. Continue reading “2021 NFL Draft: Ranking the top 10 offensive tackle prospects”
