Top 10 offensive tackles in the 2021 NFL Draft

Honorable Mentions:

Jackson Carman (Clemson)

6’ 5”, 340 pounds; JR

A former top 20 overall recruit, Carman was a quality swing tackle as a freshman for Clemson’s national championship team, before he started all 15 games in 2019 and earned third-team All-ACC honors. Last season he improved that to second-team all-conference, despite Notre Dame joining them for the year with two excellent offensive tackles themselves.

This guy is a monstrous tackle prospect, who can move much better than you’d expect- Carman possesses a ton of natural power and you see him overwhelm some defenders at the point of attack, where his strikes are well-placed and often knocks guys backwards, creating plenty of movement on angle blocks.

And he has that strong grip, which enables him to turn bodies and establish proper position. Even when it seems like defenders have the angle to work across his face from the backside of zone runs, Carman can torque their pads and seal them off anybody.

When he is asked to climb to the second level, he is usually under good control and nobody likes getting in his way. It’s really fun to watch this guy get out in front on screens, where he actually gets moving pretty well and lets some guys fly.

Carman’s wide frame and length make it really tough to get around in pass-pro, where he can push rushers past the arc when they try to get around him and they certainly won’t be able to run through the middle of him either. He puts those big paws on you and you’re not getting away from him anymore.

So many times you see defenders engage with Carman in their rush and they seem like they lost their plan. On play-action, he gets defenders to commit against the run because they need to in order to hold their ground and once again, thanks to his wide chest, they can’t really see what’s happening in the backfield usually.

However, Carman carries a lot of weight in the upper body, ducks his head into contact at times and is not as natural a knee-bender as you would like to see, which leads to him landing on the turf way too often. While that was the case for everybody in 2019, Carman certainly had issues handling Chase Young in the 2020 Fiesta Bowl, in terms of forcing him to get out of the chair as a pass-protector.

And that also became a problem in the Sugar Bowl at the end of last season, when Baron Browning got him to completely disregard his technique and desperately tried to run with the linebacker and push him past the quarterback.

He doesn’t gain a lot of depth with his kick-slides and I would say he is rather slow-footed overall for the position, which also leads to his feet seemingly getting stuck in the made, when rushers hit him with an up-and-under moves. Those twitchy rushers, who can work in hesitation certainly can give him issues. His hands and pads also get a little too high for my taste.

I think Carman can stay at tackle in the right scheme, where he isn’t asked to do a lot of wide zone or reach-blocking and doesn’t have to get into too many vertical pass sets, but if you do expect that out of your tackles, you might want to look at Carman as a guard. He can still be a quality addition inside, because the mass, power and more limited space he has to cover could lead to a brighter future.

D’Ante Smith, Eastern Carolina

6’ 5”, 295 pounds; SR

A former three-star recruit, Smith’s collegiate career didn’t start off on the right foot, as he suffered a season-ending injury on his first ever game with the Bearcats. In year two, he started five of seven games played, before taking over full-time at left tackle from that point on.

He started all 12 games each in 2018 and ’19, earning honorable mention All-AAC as a junior, but was lost one game into last season due to an undisclosed injury, focusing on his preparation for the NFL.

This is one of those guys I didn’t really know or hear much about before Senior Bowl week, but made me watch the tape soon after. He made an early statement on day one of team drills, when he took Florida State’s 320-pound D-tackle Marvin Wilson and drove him a good five yards out of the way on angle-block.

That really impressed me throughout his stay in Mobile, becoming more consistent with every pass-set he took and how he kept pushing defenders until the whistle in the run game. There’s a lot to like about Smith as a run-blocker. His hands strike low to gain positional advantages, he rolls those hips through contact beautifully, keeps churning those legs and does a great job of active re-placing his hands.

On zone runs, he punishes edge defenders shooting upfield too hard on the front-side, and he excels at cutting off on the backside. With his agility to hinge-block three-techniques, he allows the guard next to him to pull, but he was also fun to watch as a lead-blocker himself on power runs, where he showed little issues getting hands on linebackers and ended plenty of them as pancakes.

In the pass game, he keeps those hands ready to shoot and that 85-inch wingspan helps him control rushers. While he will be threatened more with speed to work backwards at the next level, Smith’s feet rarely leave the ground and allow him to react quickly. That’s how he sustains good positions over multiple moves by the pass-rusher he is working against.

And what gives him the upper hand on many other guys, is the way he can use his hands individually, separate from his lower body. He delivers a good shove to get rushers past the arc and he has the sturdiness to sustain blows, as the end tries to crash the inside shoulder on E-T twists and stuff like that. Moreover, he displays excellent timing and technique on cut-blocks against blitzers coming hot off the edge.

Nevertheless, Smith’s feet get too far away from his base and not under himself anymore, which gets him off balance and he almost trips over his own feet at times. I would like to see him pull those elbows in tighter and land punches, to actually stun rushers at times.

He gets caught leaning forward to engage a lot of times, which also leads to him missing in the run game at times, when a defender comes down late and gives him a little wiggle. And not only does he overrun some guys, as he aims back to the inside, but he also tends to overextend his arms on second-level blocks, which will be punished more by well-schooled NFL linebackers, who knock them down and make him whiff.

The track record in the AAC conference, which lacks premiere pass-rushing talent isn’t great, as Smith surrendered 41 total pressures and 12 combined sacks plus hits over 2018 and ’19. However, his one game last season, he was responsible for just three pressures and no hits to the QB, and I was just so impressed with what I saw from him at the Senior Bowl, where he seemingly got rid of some of his bad tendency, after a couple of “learning reps” early. Getting him at the top of day three potentially, to play either tackle or guard could reap major benefits.

Brady Christensen, BYU

6’ 6”, 300 pounds; RS JR

Just a two-star recruit all the way back in 2015, Christensen redshirted his first year on campus, before starting all 13 games of his freshman season and already playing at a very high level. However, he has proved both years since then, starting every contest at left tackle, and was named a consensus All-American this past season. Now he decided to forgo his senior campaign and enter the NFL draft.

Christensen has been one of the best run-blockers thanks to his understanding of angles and aiming points. He really excels at grabbing underneath the pads of defenders and twist their bodies, to establish proper position. He provides great vertical movement as part of combo-blocks, where he can uproot defenders out of the B-gap and he has a good jump out of his stance when getting out to the edge as a puller on toss plays.

Yet, when you try to maximize his abilities in terms of scheme fit, Christensen is a tremendous zone blocker. On the front-side of outside zone runs, he really attacks the edge of the defender, without allowing quick back doors, and he is equally effective sealing 4 or 5-techniques on the backside, almost ripping through and putting his body in the way.

When he actually has to reach guys over the guard, he lands that outside hand on the play-side shoulder of the D-tackle, while bringing his hips around. However, Christensen can also cut off the backside or wash defenders down the line, to create major cutbacks. And what really stands out with him is the way he replaces his hands and keeps those legs churning to sustain blocks on the move.

What makes him so effective as a pass-protector is his football IQ. He squares up rushers so well with good patience and stays inside their chest once he’s engaged. That first punch is so well-placed underneath the near pad, to kind of ride speed rushers past the loop, with a good feel for the depth of the pocket and when to just turn with the man.

Moreover, he excels at grabbing without drawing that yellow flag, so once he gets those clamps on you, it’s tough to get away from him. He shows great awareness for twists and overall counters what rushers show him extremely well throughout games.

That’s why he has allowed just one sack in each of the last three years and just three more QB pressures this past season. I also like how he makes play-action on the front side of zone fakes look exactly alike and he does a good job of breaking down in space as part of the screen game, while having enough wheels to cut off DBs.

However, Christensen does get pretty wide with his arms at times and gets caught on some inside moves, when he stops his feet momentarily or rushers get a feel for when he goes for his punch, because he doesn’t quite have the lateral agility to recover.

He just doesn’t have the athletic upside the guys in my top ten list do, and the jump in competition could be huge for him, in particular, because his technical refinement might not be enough against the elite professional athletes. Houston’s Payton Turner gave him trouble on a few snaps in their meeting last season, and it won’t get any easier going forward.

Christensen brings a lot of redeeming qualities with him, when it comes to technical refinement, understanding of his job and the track record of being an elite pass-protector. There are also some physical limitations, that will come to light more, as he faces professional athletes. For me, if you put him in a zone-heavy system, he can a solid starter for a long time and at worst a high-quality swing tackle.

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The next names up:

Walker Little (Stanford), Spencer Brown (Northern Iowa), Josh Ball (Marshall), Alaric Jackson (Iowa), Cole Van Lanen (Wisconsin) & Larry Borom (Missouri).

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