PHILADELPHIA – The NFL Scouting Combine kicks off on Tuesday, but the schedule could be saving the best for last.
The final day is Sunday and that is when the offensive linemen will do their on-field work. It’s a class that may be the deepest position in this spring’s NFL Draft.
NFL Media’s lead draft analyst, Daniel Jeremiah, has 10 of them ranked inside his pre-Scouting Combine top 50, and, well, the Philadelphia Eagles love offensive linemen and may need to find one if they lose both Jason Kelce to retirement and Jack Driscoll to free agency.
Jeremiah’s top offensive linemen in the top 50 are:
- Joe Alt, No. 9, Notre Dame
- Taliese Fuaga, No. 10, Oregon State
- Olumuyiwa Fashanu, No. 12, Penn State
- JC Latham, No. 13, Alabama
- Tyler Guyton, No. 17, Oklahoma
- Amarius Mims, No. 18, Georgia
- Jordan Morgan, No. 31, Arizona
- Graham Barton, No. 33, Duke
- Jackson Powers-Johnson, No. 35, Oregon
- Zach Frazier, No. 37, West Virginia
“They’re all different flavors,” said Jeremiah, who spoke to national media on a Zoom call on Thursday. “They’re all really talented. When you look at that top group of guys, really I would say you’re talking about Alt, Fashanu, Fuaga, Latham. I would think those are pretty unanimous, whatever order you have them, those are kind of the top four guys.”
They will also likely be gone by the time the Eagles pick at No. 22, should an offensive lineman be on their first-round radar.
Still, as Jeremiah said, “The tackle depth is really good, so even though you have players worthy of trading up for, there’s so many of them that I don’t think that would be the case.”
Trading up is one scenario that NFL Media draft analyst, Chad Reuter, has the Eagles doing, jumping up to No. 16 in a deal with the Seattle Seahawks to take Powers-Johnson.
Now, 16 seems high when you look at Jeremiah’s rankings, but he believes Powers-Johnson is a plug-and-play center if Kelce leaves, and depending on how the Eagles feel about Cam Jurgens moving to center from right guard, where he was mostly inconsistent this year after playing the position for the first time in his life.
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“Jackson Powers-Johnson, it’s hard to find guys that big that can move like that, 334 pounds,” said Jeremiah. “You can’t get through him. He just kind of catches guys and absorbs them. In pass pro, he is quick to the second level and good on combo blocks. He has some nasty to him. He is a bulldog. Got some real snap and pop in his hands.
“He was having a great week until he got nicked up at the Senior Bowl, too. I think he’s going to find his way into the bottom portion of the first round. He’s too clean of a player, and it’s just somebody that can anchor your offensive line for the next decade.”
As for Barton and Frazier, Jeremiah likes them at center along with Powers-Johnson.
