NFL scouts think they know him, but they're wrong ...
Ryan Kalil: senior center, USC
WHAT NFL SCOUTS ARE SAYING
Pro Football Weekly: The most athletic center in the draft, he maximizes his ability with tremendous savvy and football smarts. Great football character. Unselfish team player. Good work ethic. Has NFL bloodlines and a great understanding of the game. Tremendous football intelligence --- makes all the line calls and adjustments. Is a little undersized. Is not an overpowering in-line blocker.
Street and Smith's: Agile and able to work in space on the second level. Excellent technique and is like a coach on the field. Has a problem with massive defensive tackles, but has the frame to get bigger.
PROBABLY GETTING DRAFTED ...
Middle first to early second round. Kalil is the consensus top center, much like Ohio State's Nick Mangold last year. Mangold did well for the Jets, indirectly boosting Kalil's draft stock. The NFL rarely drafts centers in the first round, but Kalil's about as good as they come at the position and won't fall very far if he isn't a first rounder.
GUY WHO WATCHED HIM FOR FOUR YEARS IS SAYING
The NFL guys pretty much have him pegged here. Kalil is the complete package. His father played in the NFL so he knows how things work. He's a three-year starter who led the inner attack on one of the best collegiate lines ever assembled in 2005. Easily beat out Jeff Byers - considered the best high school lineman in a generation and the Parade Magazine Player of the Year - as an inexperienced sophomore in 2004. Has an easygoing and affable personality with zero character concerns. Oozes leadership.
Will give his all and looks to be a great investment as a player who can make a 10-year career or more in the NFL. Very light on his feet, moves quickly as a pass blocker but can also get nasty and drive block or quickly disengage and push to the second level to spring longer running plays.
Bonus video below: Kalil hanging with the USC Song Girls at their "Boot Camp"
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-10-2007 @ 2:13AM
Chester said...
I'm sorry I missed him winning the "Remington Award". The best? I guess somebody must have forgot about the "hick from WVU" Dan Mozes.
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4-10-2007 @ 8:56PM
Brian said...
And Charlie Ward won the Heisman. Awards are significant but at some level have to do with name recognition and team profile.
Like the Louisville center last year, Mozes is viewed as a specialist, he can only fit certain teams and certain schemes particularly the spread-y, zone-blocking type looks and teams like the Broncos.
On more conventional teams (the majority of offenses in the NFL), he's a misfit.
Kalil, on the other hand is a conventional center, and is a consensus choice as the nation's best.
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