Andrew Vorhees 2023 NFL Draft profile: Scout report for the USC IOL

Andrew Vorhees, USC

6’6”, 325 pounds; RS SR

One of the top-500 overall recruits back in 2017, Vorhees already started the final nine games of his true freshman season at right guard as an early enrollee. He remained a fixture at that spot the following year, before missing all but two contests with an ankle injury in 2019. As a redshirt junior, he switched over to the left side and stayed there until the final four weeks of ’21, when he moved out to tackle. In 2022, he was able to settle back at LG and improved from third to first-team All-American in his sixth season at USC.

+ Gym rat with just under 3500 career snaps, including more than 400 each at LT, LG and RG

+ Shows an advanced understanding for angles and body-positioning in the run game

+ Operates from a wide base and generally plays under control

+ Vorhees is very good at landing the backside hand underneath the near arm-pit of defenders and initiating the momentum to ride them down the line – And he continues to work them that way

+ Really gets his hips around and puts his frame in the way of D-tackles on the backside of lateral run concepts

+ Just has that knack for using the momentum of D-linemen against them and taking advantage of them getting off balance

+ Frequently digs D-tackles out of the gap in concert with the center of tackles next to him and makes sure the down-lineman is secured on combos before working up to the backer in a controlled fashion

+ When he’s the one to set up pulls by either guy next to him, he makes sure to flatten his angle and erase that space to defenders lined up a gap over

+ Routinely was utilized as a puller, where particularly wrapping around and taking out linebackers in the lane was something he excelled at

+ Can really take steam off interior rushers with his punch and ride them off track as they try to get around him

+ Slowly gives ground and anchors down against bull-rush attempts, while still allowing his QB room to step into the throw

+ You rarely see him lose balance on those reps because of the way he keeps his cleats in the ground

+ Active with re-fitting his hands and keeping guys from working the most direct paths

+ Once he can grab cloth, it looks like Vorhees’ hands are glued to interior rushers, not letting them escape

+ If linebackers are mugged up in the gap but don’t actually comes on the rush, Vorhees doesn’t get antsy, but extends to put a hand on that guy if possible and stays ready

+ Provides a forceful help-hand and keeps defenders from being able to gain leverage in the gap between him and his teammate, allowing that guy to square up the rusher

+ Keeps his head on a swivel if potential assignments slant away or drop out

+ Never allowed more than two sacks in a season with the Trojans, and over the past two years, he held opponents to 28 total pressures across 990 pass-blocking snaps

– Dips his head and comes in wide with his hands too often, which limits his ability to fully activate his lower half and try to overpower interior linemen at the point of attack

– More of a plodder and the more space he has to cover, the less comfortable he appears with locating targets and looking like he has easy athleticism

– Getting up to linebackers, you don’t see him shoot his hands or hips through the target to create momentum or snatch them up

– His hands can slip a little high and well-schooled defenders can push them up in pass-pro

– Will already turn 25 years old at the end of this upcoming season, which he most likely won’t be able to participate in at all due to tragically suffering a torn ACL running the 40 at the combine

If not for suffering that knee injury in Indy, Vorhees would’ve had a good chance of going some time on day two. Now, with just three seasons of contractual control, when he’s already a sixth-year prospect, he will probably have to wait a little bit longer. However, the fact that he decided to still do the bench press the very next day when he moved over there on crutches and banged out a combine-high 38 reps, is the type of stuff you can directly pump into the veins of O-line coaches around the league. He’s technically sound, gritty, has those vice-grip hands, and has the mental fortitude to get the job done in any type of offense. He’s just not a great athlete and maybe wouldn’t be as successful in a system that asks him to operate in space with regularity.

Grade: Early day three

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