Top 10 interior offensive linemen in the 2019 NFL Draft

#6 Michael Deiter, Wisconsin

Deiter is a mean physical road-grader in the run game, who rolls his hips into contact and keeps a tight grip on the defender in front of him

Coming to Madison as an All-State selection from Ohio, Deiter set a school record with 54 consecutive career starts split between left tackle, guard and center.

These last two years he received consecutive first-team All-Big Ten honors and was voted the conference’s Lineman of the Year in 2018, as he played left tackle the year before and then stuck at left guard.

Deiter is a mean physical road-grader in the run game, who rolls his hips into contact and keeps a tight grip on the defender in front of him.

I love how he continues to turn his hips and keep his legs moving to create a clear running lane, seemingly feeling where his running back is behind him.

I also just like the way he understands what is needed of him for that specific play, whether that is washing down the play-side or just being an obstacle to take away backside pursuit.

Deiter buries some defensive tackles under him when he comes from the side on double-teams.

He does an excellent job standing up his man and continuing to move his feet to get his body in-between the defender and the ball-carrier and is very successful at reaching 1-techs by cutting at the inside knee of the defender and forcing them to at least get back on their feet and step over Deiter.

I also think he shows surprising quickness when climbing to the second level directly. Deiter has experience executing a variety of gap and zone schemes, as he was asked to block down, reach, power pull, skip-pull and kick out the end-man.

In protection he stays active with his shuffle and keeps his rusher squared up with the hands tight to that guy’s chest. He uses a well-time and -placed, effective punch and even is he ducks his head every once in a while, he somehow finds a way to keep his body in front of the rush.

While some defenders can get a good initial push against Deiter, that guy seems to catch himself anyway and somehow give his quarterback that space he needs to step into his throw.

He keeps his eyes up in protection consistently when he doesn’t have a clear one-on-one matchup and is smooth at passing on assignments on stunts and twists. Deiter also does a nice job letting his man get to one shoulder and then driving him that way to open up space on draw plays.

Well-schooled defenders can use his forward lean against him in the run game and pull the big man off themselves.

Deiter will give up ground quickly against powerful bull-rushers and he has quite a bit of an issue flipping his hips to recover if his guy gets a step on him in protection.

If he can mirror his man the entire way he is successful, but once he gets out of position it is tough for him to get back into it against counter moves and he gets a little wide with his arms for my taste.

Deiter struggled in the 2017 conference championship game versus Ohio State’s vaunted D-line in 2018 and in one-on-one pass rush drills on day one at the Senior Bowl, but he improved as the week went along and opened up some big holes in the run game.

Deiter is an extremely technically sound and smart offensive lineman. He understands blocking schemes and anticipates defensive movement very well.

His athleticism is not quite up to par with some of crazy defensive tackles we have in the pros, but it’s good enough to hang in there, especially in a sliding protection scheme.

He also brings the versatility to be flexed out to tackle if really needed as well as having experience at center and he has been part of one of the very best O-lines in the country these last two years.