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Brandon Parker scouting report

Tarik Cohen was projected to be a late round pick last year before being taken in the 4th round by the Chicago Bears. He was a solid contributor as a rookie, chipping in over 700 yards from scrimmage. Will Brandon Parker, his former left tackle teammate at small school North Carolina A&T be another draft find for an NFL team in 2018?

Size: 6'7'', 309 pounds

Class: Redshirt senior, turns 23 during the next football season

Draft projection: Lance Zierlein has him as a round 5 to 6 prospect; Ourlads ranks him as the 15th best tackle and a round 4 to 5 pick; He is not on the draft board for CBS Sports, which I assume would translate to an UDFA grade; Walterfootball has him as the 9th best tackle and a 3rd to 4th round pick

Misc: Electrical engineering major. His father was an offensive lineman for North Carolina. His position coach, Ron Mattes, is a former NFL player who used to coach at Virginia (where he had Morgan Moses, Oday Aboushi and Luke Bowanko). Parker got engaged to his girlfriend on the field after a game this past season.

Positives: Good foot quickness and length are the two main attributes that stick out. He's tall and has a big wingspan, which is something NFL teams tend to like. While he's not the greatest athlete, he shows good lateral quickness in both pass protection and on run blocks and sound technique in his kick slide. Comes across as polite, thoughtful and respectful in interviews.

Negatives: Weak anchor. He got bull rushed both in practice and in the game in the Senior Bowl and it was ugly at times. He has a somewhat lean build and appears to need strength in all areas- upper body, core and lower body. Has lapses in awareness and football IQ- commits false starts, doesn't recognize zone blitz, takes questionable blocking angles, etc. Doesn't play with enough knee bend in both pass and run blocks. Not a good short yardage drive blocker. Poor second level blocker- fails to bury smaller defenders he should be able to push back or put on the ground and instead lets them get back in on the play and make the tackle. Falls off blocks. Can't impose size- smaller defenders sometimes grab him and toss him to the side. Struggles to redirect defenders when at a disadvantage. Initial punch not consistent, sometimes lacks patience or gets caught leaning forward.

Player comparison: I like Parker better than Julie'n Davenport (late 4th round pick in 2017 by the Houston Texans out of Bucknell). This is a pretty detailed look at what Texans fans thought about Davenport as a rookie in 2017. I also like Parker better than Kevin Pamphile (a 5th round pick in 2014 by Tampa Bay). Head to head against Chukwuma Okorafor, a player I reviewed in another post, I like Okorafor slightly better. Both players have flaws and both flash some potential, but I give the nod to Okorafor probably due to his better strength. The counterargument for Parker might be that quickness is more important for a prospect than strength, because with time an NFL lineman theoretically can get stronger, but they probably don't get any quicker, so Okorafor may simply not be a good enough athlete to ever catch up to NFL game speed.

My draft grade: 5th round. I gave Okorafor a 4th round grade, so to be consistent I have to slot Parker somewhere after that. One of my main concerns with Parker is that I don't understand why someone with his athletic roots and having a football coach/player as a father, he isn't already a more developed and advanced player by his age (he's a redshirt senior). While I'm not very high on Parker, I do see why it sounds like some NFL scouts are intrigued by his potential.