Zach Frazier scouting report: Exploring the West Virginia interior offensive lineman's strengths and weaknesses

A three-star recruit in 2020, Zach Frazier started nine of 10 games at left guard during the COVID season, before starting all 25 contests at center the following two years, earning second-team All-Big 12 accolades in each of those. This past season, he improved to first-team all-conference, while being in the lineup for all but the team’s bowl game against North Carolina at the end of the year.

Zach Frazier scouting report

Run-blocking:

• Operates with great initial angles and leg-drive in the run game
• Excellent snap-to-step quickness and is able to cover plenty of ground laterally on outside zone, by utilizing a deep bucket- and cross-over step, executing reach-blocks against 2i-alignment routinely
• His understanding for the effects of applying force in certain ways and adjust on the fly is impeccable, showcasing the dexterity to sustain from challenging positions
• Consistently can deny nose-tackles the ability to fight across his face on zone concepts and understands when he has to stay thick in order for his guards to be able to overtake
• If you want to pull your guards despite having a three-technique across from them, Frazier can be trusted to urgently take that flat angle and not allow that defender to chase from the backside
• He almost looks like a wrestler or other combat athlete when he bumps at the hip of a D-linemen engaged with one of his fellow linemen and gets them turned towards their outside shoulder, before working up to somebody on the second level
• Very patient working up the linebackers and just getting in front of them, plus then he works hard to get his hips across to deny them the ability to fly to the action
• Averaged a run-blocking grade of 77.7 over the past three seasons, with almost no missed assignments, despite also being asked to pull frequently

Pass-protection:

• Highly patient with his hands in protection, letting rushers punch air and then latching underneath their chest
• Consistently keeps his elbows in tight and is able to lock up interior rushers once he gets underneath their chest
• Operates with a wide base and good sink in his hips, slowly giving ground to bull-rush attempts and spiking linemen coming his way
• His background as a four-time state champion certainly shows up in his ability to find different anchor points and work his base to stay balanced
• Quick to re-fit his paws and centering defenders, in order to deny them to get to the edges of his frame
• On slide protections, Frazier makes sure to provide a help-hand and feels pressure from the opposite A-gap
• Does a great job of applying force to the hips/ribs of the initial man on twists, in order to pass them off effectively, before sliding in front of the guy he’s ultimately responsible for
• IDs three-man games and understands where slanters or off-ball blitzers are coming from, as he redirects in accordance to it, to pick those guys up
• Wasn’t charged with any sacks and just seven total pressures across 359 pass-blocking snaps last season

Weaknesses:

• There’s nothing athletically that pops off the screen with Frazier and he’s not somebody who will flat-out overwhelm defenders on straight down-blocks
• With only 32-and-¼-inch arms, his ability to steer defenders at the end of his reach or recover from false steps is limited
• Doesn’t have the short-area burst to compensate for staying attached to the down-lineman for an extra beat whilst the backer is crossing his face or gets a step on him towards the front-side
• Lacks high-level short-area quickness to still be able to shuffle in front of delayed rushers or when he’s generally a little out of position to pick up crossing blitzers, after sliding away from them
• There’s reason to believe Frazier may struggle in a protection scheme where he’s more on an island against twitchy interior NFL pass-rushers

This is barrel-chested, slightly sawed-off center prospect with high-quality tape over the past three years. Watching him play, he regularly makes the job look easy, whether he has to latch and drive a shade-alignment horizontally on zone concepts or slide in front of a looping edge defender on third down.

His background in wrestling is omnipresent as you watch him gain and maintain positioning. He’s not a top-tier athlete and his shorter arms do bring some limitations, where I don’t want him to handle a dominant presence at nose-tackle one-on-one for the majority of snaps, but there’s not much you can find on the film that would trouble you.

Grade: Early second round