Renner's NFL Draft summer position rankings: Best OTs for 2026, including two top 10 picks from one school?
This tackle class has special potential. We saw an NFL-record nine offensive tackles get drafted in the first round in 2024, and this class could be knocking on that door. I count at least five prospects from summer scouting whom I'd bet good money on going Round 1, and there's developmental potential to sneak into the top 32 picks stretching beyond even the 10 players listed below. It's a good year to be in need of a bookend.
Here are my top 10 offensive tackle prospects (ordered from No. 1 to No. 10) ahead of the college football season
Position rankings: EDGE • DT • LB • CB • S • IOL • OT • TE • RB • WR • QB
Note: ⭐️ represents each player's 247Sports star rating as a high school recruit
- Player type: Zone OT
- Room for improvement: Anchor
- Early grade: Top-10
Get ready to have another arm length conversation next spring. Spencer Fano has all the traits necessary to be an elite tackle at the next level ... except the length. While less than ideal, the rest of Fano's game is so impressive that I'm not too worried. He's got the best feet in the tackle class by a wide margin. Fano moves like a jumbo tight end playing tackle and can mirror the quickest edge rushers with ease. It's almost difficult to believe he was only a sophomore last fall. If he doesn't work out at tackle, Fano could easily be an All-Pro-caliber guard in the right scheme.
- Player type: Road grader
- Room for improvement: Getting depth in pass sets
- Early grade: First round
You did not want to be a 3-tech lined up against the left side of Alabama's offensive line last year. With nearly 700 pounds of beef between them, Kadyn Proctor combined with 2024 12th overall pick Tyler Booker to form one of the deadliest double-team duos in college football history. The raw power Proctor possesses is truly something to behold. With 274 pounds of lean muscle mass, according to Bruce Feldman's Freaks List, and an 815-pound record squat, Proctor is not someone you're going to overpower.
Proctor's worries are the same as pretty much every offensive tackle who's tipped the scales at 350-plus pounds before: how are you going to mirror someone who runs a 4.4-second 40-yard dash? Against quicker rushers, he already feels like he's in a hurry and can get his base too narrow into contact. It will be something to monitor this season.
- Player type: Blindside protector
- Room for improvement: Lower-body strength
- Early grade: First round
Utah will have one of the best tackle duos in modern college football history this fall with a real shot at both going top 10 next April as early declarations. Caleb Lomu isn't the dominant run-blocker Fano is, but he may be the more NFL-ready pass-protector at the moment.
He's got numerous sets and punches at his disposal already. My favorite is the "trap" move, where he uses defenders' momentum against them to pull their shoulders down and send them stumbling fast first to the turf. You'll see it work numerous times a game. There's a comfort to his game that's rare for a first year starter in only his second year of college.
- Player type: Tackle-guard
- Room for improvement: Waist bending
- Early grade: First round
One look at Francis Mauigoa in his stance, and you'd swear he has to be a guard at the next level. Then you see him kick slide and realize you've made a mistake. The big fella can really move -- not only linearly, but laterally as well. That's the ideal combination for the tackle position, which is where Mauigoa has been starting since his true freshman year.
I love watching him in pass protection because he already understands full well how to use his hands independently to get the job done. Now if he could only play with a more consistent base and better posture in those sets, Mauigoa would have a chance to be a top 10 pick.
- Player type: Dancing bear
- Room for improvement: Technical consistency
- Early grade: Early Day 2
Xavier Chaplin was a towering figure on the left side starting at Virginia Tech the past two seasons. He makes even your bigger defensive ends look small by comparison. It's rare to see him lose the first touch battle with the length of the lever arms at his disposal.
Unlike most tackles his size, Chaplin can really move. He mirrors with ease and then comes with violence behind his punch in pass protection. When he wins, Chaplin leaves caverns for his quarterback to step up into.
If you are looking for consistency, however, Chaplin is not quite there. The high-end physical ability is obvious on tape, but Chaplin too often relies on it to get the job done.
- Player type: Nimble pass protector
- Room for improvement: Experience
- Early grade: ??
I couldn't in good conscience put a player who wasn't even a starter last year any higher, but just know I wanted to. Last season, Trevor Goosby played 319 snaps between right and left tackle as injuries necessitated and was wildly impressive in pass protection. The redshirt freshman allowed only five pressures on 162 pass-blocking snaps against the likes of Texas A&M, Clemson and Georgia, to name a few.
He's got the quintessential long, angular tackle frame with the kind of feet that can make quick work of speed-rushers. He'll take over for Kelvin Banks Jr. protecting Arch Manning's blindside and get an immediate test Week 1 against Ohio State.
- Player type: Project LT
- Room for improvement: Predictable punches
- Early grade: Day 2
Isaiah World is an apt surname for the new Oregon tackle given the shear size of his frame. In his three years as a starter for Nevada before transferring, World would routinely engulf the much smaller edge rushers he was facing in the Mountain West. If you pair that frame with some light feet and flexible hips, you've got the makings of an NFL tackle.
While the building blocks are there, World still has a long way to go. His pass sets are rudimentary by NFL standards, and his two-handed punches will get eaten alive by NFL defensive ends. Hopefully a year at Oregon under an offensive line coach with a great track record in A'lique Terry will work some magic on him.
- Player type: Scheme-diverse OT
- Room for improvement: Health
- Early grade: ??
Charles Jagusah is yet another inclusion who's never been a full-time starter yet, but that's not because of talent reasons. The Notre Dame tackle has had some horrendous injury luck to start to his career. He tore his PCL before his freshman year, tore his pec before his sophomore year and then broke his arm in an ATV accident this past July. Still, in the two games we saw from him a season ago against Penn State and Ohio State, the talent was glaring. Now we'd just like to see it for a full season.
- Player type: Zone OT
- Room for improvement: Overextending
- Early grade: Late Day 2
Monroe Freeling was a backup heading into 2024, but by the end of the season he had snatched the left tackle job away from the incumbent Earnest Greene III. He's got that ideal tackle frame where it looks like he's a tight end who just had his sliders bumped up a little. There's not much bad weight on his massive frame. You see that show up with how well Freeling absorbs contact for a moderately sized tackle.
While the technical aspects of his game can be hard to evaluate given how much he was flipping back and forth from the right to the left side last fall, the physical aspect is obvious. He reminds me a little of former Stanford offensive tackle Walker Little with his explosiveness for such a tall tackle.
- Player type: Athletic project
- Room for improvement: Attack angles
- Early grade: Late Day 2
Max Iheanachor jumps off the tape with the twitch he plays with. He surprises defenders with his jump sets and can fight off poor initial hand placement with his ability to quickly reset. You'll go through a game of his and see a half-dozen or so reps that already look like a quality NFL starter.
With only two years of major college football under his belt (he started with two years at JuCo), Iheanachor can be forgiven for looking a touch out of control at times. If he reigns that in, he can start in the league.
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