This question can only be answered with the commitment of the players . If they begin now in putting in the extra work, weight training and agility drills, they both can go as far as they they want in my opinion. The commitment and effort has to come from them.

This post was edited on 1/19/22 at 6:27 am

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Posted by AkronTiger

Rubber City

Member since May 2021

2660 posts

Posted on 1/19/22 at 6:29 am to ulmtiger

Honestly with the offensive line I put more stock into proven performance in college than high school. The competition is better and you have time to see how they physically mature rather than just guessing. That’s why evaluation of high school offensive lineman is so hard. Look at how often small school offensive lineman are taken highly in the draft.

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Posted by I20goon

about 7mi down a dirt road

Member since Aug 2013

18852 posts

Posted on 1/19/22 at 7:25 am to Penrod

quote:
It’s hard to know. In 2018 we took Badara Traore and Damien Lewis. One was a good backup, and the other is punishing NFL defensive linemen.

Within these two examples is the answer.

You did not have to look very deep to see that Traore was going to need a lot of work and that Lewis looked ready to go before they stepped onto campus.

My point being JUCO and transfer guys at least have the info out there to vet. For offensive linemen the competition matters less than say a RB or CB.

Your going to look at the individual's traits more than overall "performance". And I'll go right back to those examples- Traore did not move well at all. He didn't even qualify as "moves well for his size". It was a moves badly at any size. He literally lumbered and it took half of the QBs drop back to even get out of his stance. Competition didn't matter when those are the things you are looking for.

For Lewis he just jumped out at you- movement was good, not great, and his strength appeared off the charts. Now as far as strength you have to consider competition. But strength is much easier to develop for than movement/agility/bend.

Regardless, for this discussion - that info was readily available because there was plenty of film to evaluate such things.

Where to I think these two, Shorts and Frazier, fall? lostinbr (and others) are correct that we won't know for sure until at earliest middle of spring camp. But, we recruited them... gotta have some idea if you're going to give them a schollie right?

- Shorts: I'd ink him in as a starter. Not pencil... ink. Ironically, I think his best comparison is indeed Lewis. None of his traits, easily trainable or hard to train, jump out as super great. But conversely, none of them look weak. He's just all around solid. There's no real scary aspects to him; nothing screams "we have a lot of work to do there". And the reality is he will have less competition for a spot. Could he beat out a Kardell today? Yep, or I think so. Could he have beat out a Hines? Likely. And he's got a head start foundation to build on to boot.

- Frazier: I'd pencil him in at LT. To start with he has a little bit more competition. Not a plethora, but his road to a starting spot is going to be tougher. Dellinger despite his obvious not being SEC ready (physically- strength wise) still go plenty of playing time. Wire is coming back. Martinez and Hill also got time at OT (and inside). And Frazier's technique needs refinement for the guys he is going to face. We're talking all aspects- hands, leverage, feet, posture, etc. There's a good foundation there and not a lot of weakness. But other than QB we're talking the most difficult position to both learn and play.

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