Olu Fashanu scouting report: Exploring the Penn State OT's strengths and weaknesses

A top-500 overall recruit in 2020, Olu Fashanu redshirted his first year on campus before seeing action in nine and starting one game the following season. In 2022, he took over as a full-time starter at left tackle.

He immediately earned second-team All-Big Ten accolades, despite getting injured eight games into the season. This past season he was in the lineup for all 13 contests and ended up being a first-team All-American.

Olu Fashanu scouting report

Run-blocking:

• Shows impressive explosion off the ball, to get to his landmarks in the run game
• Effectively reach-blocks five- or pins inside 4/4i-techniques on off-tackle runs the other way
• Rapidly closes the gap to the hip of his guard on the backside of zone concepts, to overtake and allow his teammate to peel off combos early
• Covers up B-gap defenders in concert with his left guard and creates vertical movement fairly effortlessly, while being able to knock them off balance when catching them on an angle, along with a kick-out block to his side
• He’s so light on his feet, to flawlessly transitioning to linebackers after stepping down on the D-tackle and having to adjust his angle on the fly
• Has eye-popping reps directly working up to the second level and engulfing linebackers, particularly allowing the ball carrier to get out to the edge
• Quickly recognizes when there’s no angle to attach on combos and flicks his hips to cut somebody from the backside
• Becomes a rolling train as a puller out to the corner on crack-toss plays, Watching him hustle out to blocking a defensive back in the screen game and actually landing blows is pretty fun

Pass-protection:

• Has the quick feet to gain ground in his pass sets, but will adjust his approach depending on who’s in front of him
• His hands seem to really catch rushers and control reps once he lands them inside the frame of his man, whilst being quickly to re-fit his inside hand into their chest and the elbow in tight if those do get wide momentarily
• Possesses a strong base and stays wide with it, to swallow stabs and handle power rushers – the way he can absorb and negate bull-rush attempts as he sees edge rushers take a more direct path is excellent
• Even if the defender is the lower man initially, he can re-anchor as that space closes towards his quarterback, to not take away that guy’s throwing platform
• Yet he’s also loose enough to flip his hips around and adjust as guys try to work across his face and seem to have an angle on him initially – Rarely oversteps and is quick to put his foot back down to spin moves either way
• Already showcases independent hand usage to bait the hands of rushers, square up rushers leaning to the inside or punching at the near-shoulder, to ride his man past the quarterback when they take a steep angle upfield
• The way he can cover ground against defenders rushing from extra wide alignments or blitzing off the slot, to negate their angle or push them to overshoot the arc is certainly uncommon for tackles
• Improved his alertness for twists up front, being proactive with erasing space to the guard and using his hands to take over delayed loopers
• Didn’t allow a single sack in his career with the Nittany Lions and just 17 other pressures (733 total pass-blocking snaps) – I would’ve charged with half a sack

Weaknesses:

• Needs to be more urgent in establishing that inside foot when the action is going away from him and he should force edge defenders to take a wide path around him
• PFF handed him an underwhelming run-blocking grade of 59.4 in 2022 and barely cracked the 70-mark last season, where he lacks consistent temperament (only one career game where he hit 75+)
• Has to improve his footwork or how he aligns himself once contact is initiated to stay latched onto blocks – measuring in with the smallest hands for an offensive tackle since 1999 (8-and-½ inches) certainly doesn’t help with that
• Gets a little antsy at times when he tries to overextend his reach, rather than letting rushers close that space on pass plays

Other than maybe North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye, I’m not sure if there’s a player people have started to overthink as badly as Fashanu during this draft process. He literally had a couple of poor reps against Ohio State edge defender J.T. Tuimoloau, where he got caught off balance, which is one game I hear being brought up with him in a negative sense.

The one concern I do understand when it comes to his profile is the lack of growth he’s shown, particularly in the run game, after he was looked at as the potential OT1 a year ago already. With his small hands, there may be some limitations at sustaining blocks in that regard, but his future O-line coach can absolutely raise his urgency and work on a couple of footwork nuances to make him effective.

If he drops out of the top ten, I think he’s a steal.

Grade: Top 10