Top 10 offensive tackles in the 2019 NFL Draft

#5. Dalton Risner, OT, Kansas State

Here we have a two-time All-State pick from Colorado, who started every game at center in his first year at the campus where he received Freshman All-American honors. Risner moved to right tackle as a sophomore and has started 36 games at that spot since then (with the only missed start coming due to having shoulder surgery). He put up a Pro Football Focus grade above 90 in three consecutive seasons and was named first-team All-Big XII in each of those.

Risner is a mauling run-blocker, who has the grip strength to torque the pads of defensive linemen or absolutely throw them to the ground and open up running lanes, plus he brings that nasty attitude to push people around past the whistle or jump on top of them if they are already on the ground. He excels at reaching five-techniques and sealing the backside on run plays, while being very fluid at passing on assignments and working his way to the second level, where he just swallows some linebackers. The three-time first-team All-Big XII selection switches up hand-positioning in order to seal or drive defenders, either getting a hand on the inside pad to turn the defender’s body or underneath it to grab and move.. He is effective at kicking out and skip-pulling to clear up space for his backs by finding targets on his radar and identifying end-man getting upfield aggressively. You can see that he takes pride in imposing his will on defenders by continuously driving his legs and he had great success doing so at K-State.

In the passing game, Risner has that wide frame that forces defenders to go through him and that’s a hard thing to do considering the sturdy base he has to anchor. He combines that with well-coordinated footwork and a broad base while showing active feet to mirror counter moves and protecting the inside. Risner has a strong push to get somebody past the quarterback late if safety comes with a head-start, his running back messes up in a full line slide or he has to help out late. He processes information and adjusts to defensive movement better than anybody in this class, constantly picking up late pressure and altering angles in the run game. In his senior year, he almost scored a touchdown in the late stages of the season versus Texas Tech, but it was called back because it was ruled a forward pass. Altogether Risner allowed just one sack and 28 total pressures in four years for the Wildcats on 1490 pass-blocking snaps, with only four of them coming in 2018.

There might be some athletic limitations for Risner at the next level if he stays on the edge, as you see him have some issues with pure speed and he doesn’t have the length most of those guys in front of him do. He loses balance in the run game on a high rate and lands on the ground quite a bit. He also lunges over his toes at times and can be arm-overed or push-pulled past. Risner has a general flaw in his pass sets as he slides his inside foot before kicking and with Kansas State running plays almost exclusively out of shotgun he only used verticals sets up to this point.

Risner was really solid all Senior Bowl week long, as he showed some feistiness in one-on-one drills where he added that little shove at the end and created a lot of movement as a run blocker. Length was a concern early on in the process, but with 34-inch arms that is good enough for me. Overall there are some limitations with his athleticism, but Risner has been extremely consistent for the Wildcats and you rarely see him get out of position or just whiff on a block. The last sack he surrendered came in week five of 2016 – almost 1000 pass-blocking snaps have passed since then. Like his former teammate Cody Whitehair, he might ultimately move inside, but Risner has high football IQ and is technically sound, plus I love the edge he plays with on an every-down basis.