Top 10 offensive tackles in the 2021 NFL Draft

#5 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Jalen Mayfield, Michigan

6’ 5”, 320 pounds; RS SO

Jalen Mayfield

A former four-star recruit, Jalen Mayfield played three games at left tackle as a true freshman before taking over and starting all 13 contests on the right side in year two, where he earned honorable All-Big Ten accolades.

After initially opting out for 2020, he came back and the best ball of his career. But he got hurt two games in for Michigan and now enters the 2021 NFL Draft as one of the most inexperienced prospects, but with a lot of intriguing qualities.

Mayfield has the agility to help ball-carriers get around the edge routinely by reaching the last man on the line or sealing off second-level defenders, as he is smooth in getting to those spots. Yet, he can also scoop B-gap defenders on the backside of zone runs.

In 2020, I thought he was much more effective in creating a lane inside when he was riding D-ends on the front-side, twisting pads to get them facing the sideline and then creating momentum. For me, he is at his best as a run-blocker when he caves in linebackers or combos off to them with a puller coming over to kick out the end-man to create that new gap between the two.

The Wolverines also used Mayfield himself as a puller, getting out in front on smaller bodies, with the tight-end(s) blocking down, where he had no issues of covering them up. And overall, he excels on those 'running blocks', where he hits the pressure points right and stays engaged through the whistle. He shows tremendous reactionary athleticism to deal with sudden movement by second and even third-level defenders to some degree.

Mayfield gets a great jump on the snap and is light on his feet in pass-pro to cut off the angle to the quarterback. But he also has a firm enough base to handle rushers attacking his chest. He uses that inside hand very well to engage with the rusher and force them to take a wider lane. Mayfield just makes it really tough for rushers because of the way he can square them up and force them to go through him while having enough sand in the pants to sit down on power moves.

And when they do get to the edge of his frame, he rides them past the arc with ease to render them useless. He looked comfortable picking up nickels and cornerbacks blitzing off the edge when he was tasked with doing so. Mayfield dominated Minnesota’s defensive ends in their first game of 2020, where he put them to the ground much more than what I had seen from him the year prior.

He has agile footwork and overall athletic capability to recover as a protector or shove some late blitzers or loopers off course. Overall, he was responsible for only one sack and one more hurry over his two games last season.

On the flipside, Mayfield just doesn’t create a ton of movement at the point of attack. He doesn’t necessarily crush linebackers in space despite having that size advantage, and he needs to do a better job of attaching to the hip of his teammates on combo-blocks to enable them to come off those.

In pass-pro, he is a little vulnerable to have edge rushers snatch the inside part of his jersey. His foot to that side gets too far off the ground on top of it. You also see some rushers get underneath his pads, and he has a hard time re-anchoring. And while it doesn’t really come through when you watch the totality of his snaps. When he is matched up against elite speed off the edge, you realize he doesn’t have a lot of depth on that initial kick and then shuffles to stay along to guide them around.

What you must realize with this kid is the fact that he is only 20 years old. So he can still grow a lot physically and technically. In my opinion, Mayfield is probably suited to be a zone-blocker only and for a team that finds ways to take advantage of his mobility.

With only 15 career starts, the tape is pretty limited, and there were some learning moments in year one. But having to face that trio of D-ends for Penn State, the duo that entered last year’s draft for Notre Dame, Alabama and Chase Young certainly didn’t help. And he absolutely held his own as a first-year starter.