Rams 2020 UDFA Profile: OL Cohl Cabral

You can’t spell “Cohl” without “OhL” and that’s the intro statement I’m going with.

It is more than fair to emphasize the “OL” position for Cohl Cabral because I can’t imagine there were many division-I players to get starts at both left tackle and center last season. However, that’s something that Cabral was able to do for the Arizona State Sun Devils when they needed it and who knows what his newest team, the LA Rams, will eventually be asking Cabral to do when practices resume.

Given that he’s an undrafted free agent just trying to earn a contract next season, I’m sure he’ll be willing to do anything asked.

Cohl Cabral was a three-star offensive tackle prospect out of Los Osos High School in Rancho Cucamonga, CA in 2016. If you’ve never been to Rancho, have you considered maybe AirBNBing the Workaholics house?

At 6’5, 288 pounds, Cabral earned second team All-State from USA Today and he played in the Under Armour All-American Game. He received offers from 13 schools, including eight in the Pac-12, and Cabral chose to play for Todd Graham at Arizona State, joining a class that included five-star receiver N’Keal Harry.

Cabral spent his freshman season as a reserve, but was regular working into games. By his sophomore season in 2017, Cabral started all 13 games at left tackle and the unit as a whole was upgraded to the 34th-best run blocking line in college by PFF after they had ranked 69th the year before.

As a junior, with Herm Edwards replacing Graham at head coach, Cabral moved inside to center and received high marks for his run blocking, while also allowing zero sacks. Eno Benjamin rushed for 1,642 yards behind that line, Harry had 1,088 receiving yards, quarterback Manny Wilkins was often left untouched; the Sun Devils had six games without allowing a single sack, four more no-sack games than any season for them since at least 2000.

After opting to return to school for one more season (Cabral strongly considered the jump but people such as Edwards and Hall of Fame center and ASU alum Kevin Mawae advised him to wait another year), Cabral started two games at left tackle and the final 11 at center. He started 38 consecutive games for the Sun Devils in his career and was a two-time captain. He allowed one sack and zero QB hits as a senior.

Cabral didn’t get the draft result he wanted when he returned for a senior season at ASU and preseason expectations that he could be one of the nation’s top three or four centers didn’t pan out. But Cabral always seemed to have more success on the field than failures.

The Draft Network lists the following as negatives: “Does not possess ideal levels of mobility,” “stale as an athlete,” “does not have ideal core strength,” “lack of foot quickness,” “lack the necessary punch and power through his frame,” “doesn’t possess enough fluidity through his flame to slide, flash, and mirror in pass protection,” “lethargic” and “does not possess nasty tendencies as a blocker.”

The positives are that Cabral is considered to be smart, a good leader, and works his butt off. An ideal low-cost, low-risk addition to a practice squad and meeting room. His chances of beating out someone else for a starting center job on the Rams is highly unlikely, even in the position of being on the 2020 Rams, but he’s made it into the conversation after going undrafted.

There’s plenty of competition between him and a job on the final roster, but you can’t spell “Cabral” without “bral” ... which sounds like “Brawl.”

You get it.