Speaking of underrated offensive linemen, I submit Virginia Tech RT Jonathan McLaughlin.
I watched him live in Shrine practice and he caught my eye as perhaps the BEST offensive lineman on the East squad. And possibly the both squads since all the OLs kind of sucked. Even Avery Gennessy kind of sucked. Will Holden had his moments, but McLaughlin was better, and Holden struggled during the game. Victor Salako had his moments too. But not quite as good as McLaughlin.
Actually the only guy that was consistently good other than McLaughlin was Zach Johnson of North Dakota State. And what's funny is that neither he nor Jonathan McLaughlin actually played in the game itself. I know Johnson took a tough injury but he should be healthy by the time camp rolls around. And I am absolutely interested in him as a guard. More on that later.
For now it's Jonathan McLaughlin.
Here's what is interesting about the guy to me. He only weighed in at 293 lbs. And he was lanky at 6041 with 34" arms and a 6'10" wingspan. But on tape...this doesn't give up ground. The anchor is really good.
I watch him in a lot of different situations. You have situations as a tackle where getting backed up at least a little bit is an assumption. If you lose the hand battle and a guy has you gripped at the collar pretty good, if you're trying to block a dude at an oblique angle, if a bigger player comes screaming in at you at a running start where you've been backing up in a vertical set, etc.
He's not impervious. You'll see him give up a bit of ground in those situations that are extremely difficult. But not much. Not as much as he should. Not enough to be beaten. And then in situations where he's not at a disadvantage, forget about it. He's a forward player.
In this way he reminds me of Joe Thuney. I used to talk about this with Joe Thuney a lot. You look at the size and the frame and you say OK, this guy has got to have some problems with anchor. But you look and you look and you look, and you'll be damned if you can find anything. They bow up, and just stop giving up ground.
I think the key here is the way both of these players hold themselves in terms of the way their weight hangs, their perfect pad level, center of gravity. That's part of what stood out for me about a Jonathan McLaughlin in Shrine practice and it's something I learned to look for at these practices immediately when I attended in 2010 and found that Rodger Saffold looked far and away the best offensive lineman attending. It can be hard to recognize just on broadcast tape that center of gravity, pad level, the angle of his back and the way he carries himself. It becomes more obvious in a practice setting when you're at ground level with the guys.
And for all Jonathan McLaughlin's unusual anchor ability for his weight class, the guy is really quite mobile, and has long arms and very, very active hands. He doesn't always do it right, not a perfect technician with his hand placement, etc. But his balance, agility, mobility are all very good. He has to learn to sustain his blocks a little better and keep his feet moving, reacting better to his opponent's leverage.
Like Joe Thuney, I'd like to get a look at this guy on the interior of the offensive line. But with his long arms and wingspan, the NFL may keep him at right tackle and may even make him an eventual swing tackle. In some ways, the guy he actually reminds me of is a little bit smaller version of Ja'Wuan James. Which makes it further unsurprising that I like him so much, because I was a fan of James for years in college before he came out.
[video=youtube_share;4bQrVuigtNM]https://youtu.be/4bQrVuigtNM[/video]
[video=youtube_share;V-cka6r38Vc]https://youtu.be/V-cka6r38Vc[/video]
