Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar breaks down the 11 best offensive tackle in the 2022 NFL draft class.
If you want to know the hit rate for the top offensive tackles in any draft class, consider this. Since 2010, there have been 44 players taken in the first round who were designated as offensive tackles in their draft classes. Just eight have at least one First-Team All-Pro selection. Only 14 have been selected to at least one Pro Bowl. Three (Isaiah Wilson, Tennessee Titans, 2020/Andre Dillard, Philadelphia Eagles, 2019/Derek Sherrod, Green Bay Packers, 2011) have not been primary starters in the NFL.
For every Trent Williams, Tyron Smith, and Ronnie Stanley — the guys who immediately and consistently define their offenses with their excellence — there’s a Jake Matthews, Nate Solder, or Luke Joeckel (players who have great moments, but tread water more than anything else), and there’s certainly at least one Ereck Flowers, Ja’Wuan James, or Andrew Thomas (the players who wind up making you wonder what everybody in the room was thinking).
This is not to specifically malign the players who do not succeed at the NFL level, despite having what some shot-caller in some front office determined to be first-round talent. It’s more to say that being a great left or right tackle in the pros is really, really hard to do. Different offensive systems require different things from their tackles, but for the most part, you’d better have aggressive hands, excellent, light feet, the mentality to dominate, the agility to take on the NFL’s best speed-rushers, and the intelligence and reaction ability to deal with blitzes and stunts.
Those are the basics. From there, the hope is that you’ll continue to excel despite any physical limitations. Maybe your wingspan isn’t what the NFL wants it to be. Maybe your upper-body strength isn’t exactly an advertisement for your college weightroom. Perhaps your college coaches didn’t teach you this or that technique that would help you in the NFL, and you have to hope that your NFL coaches will see these things and make them better.
Sometimes, you’re able to transcend these things. More often, you’re not.
This year’s offensive tackles appear to be part of a class that is top-heavy and deep. But there’s no guarantee that any of them will become true dominators at the NFL level, no matter how much they may have owned the defenders they faced in college.
Here are the top 11 offensive tackles in the 2022 NFL draft, the attributes that best indicate their transitions to the NFL, and the things that might get in the way.
(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).
