While I'll be concentrating mainly on RBs in this year's draft, I'm not completely ignoring all the other positions. I plan on looking at players the Rams might target, especially prospects that fans on TST have mentioned. Interior offensive line is a group that fans want the Rams to prioritize. The first non-RB I decided to study is Florida offensive guard, O'Cyrus Torrence, who currently is the consensus best guard in the draft.

Based on current projections, Torrence could be taken in the 1st round, in which case he obviously won't be available to the Rams. If Torrence is still on the board, should the Rams grab him in the 2nd round?

Torrence is a huge guy with massive hands (11 1/8'' mitts) and developmental upside. Will he be a dominant NFL star or could he end up becoming the next Chance Warmack?

Background

Name: O'Cyrus Torrence. Nicknamed "Cybo", as in cyborg, a name his mom used to call him as a child. Turns 23 years old in January.

School: Florida, transferred there in 2022 from Louisiana, where he played 3 seasons. A 4th year junior in eligibility, he's declared for the draft. Studied environmental science.

Size: Listed at 6'5'' tall, 347 pounds. Per NFLDraftBuzz 11 1/8'' hands, 33 1/4'' arms, 84'' wingspan.

From a very small town in Louisiana near Baton Rouge. Was 6'3'' tall and 420 pounds in 8th grade. 3 star recruit.

The starting LG for Louisiana suffered a serious injury in the first game of the 2019 season and Torrence as a true freshman stepped up as his replacement, remaining a starter all 3 years at that school. He played both LG and RG.

At Louisiana, he blocked for RBs such as Elijah Mitchell, Raymond Calais and Trey Ragas. He played with several future NFL linemen, Robert Hunt, Kevin Dotson and Max Mitchell.

Billy Napier was the HC at Louisiana, then got hired by Florida, and Torrence followed him to UF. Consensus All American in 2022. Had a MCL strain in game against Georgia and missed the LSU game in 2022. Per PFF he was the highest graded run blocking guard in FBS football in 2022. Had 89.1 overall PFF grade. Started 46 career games in college and surrendered zero sacks.

Napier says that Torrence is intelligent, mature, disciplined, leads by example, and has a great perspective on life. Coaches and teammates say that Torrence is eager to learn, a hard worker and very coachable.

ESPN 1st OG, 27th overall prospect

Draftcoutdown (Shane Hallam) 1st OG, 16th overall prospect

Drafttek 1st OG, 49th overall prospect

PFF Big Board 1st OG, 33rd overall prospect

NFLDraftBuzz says he's a natural knee bender, excellent hand placements, mean streak as a run blocker, anchors against a bull rush. Susceptible to speed rushers. Oversets and beaten inside. Too high in his sets with his lower and upper body not coordinated. A work in progress with high end physical traits.

CBSSports says he has a thick lower body, fluid athlete, dips his head and has balance issues, late eyes allows defenders to get to his hip and he struggles to recover from there. A gap scheme blocker.

TDN says he generates movement, high motor, strength to anchor. Too aggressive, ducks his head and gets off balance. Lacks quickness to react to stunts and twists. Fails to move feet when engaged on pass blocks. Scheme limited. Has limited pass blocking range. A guard in a gap/power scheme. 4th round grade.

So, the consensus is that Torrence is the number 1 guard in the draft and he could be a 1st round to early 2nd round pick.

Strengths

Tall, heavy, with gigantic hands, but unlike many big guards he's not stiff and slow, he is relatively fluid and athletic. He's not athletic compared to all offensive line prospects, but for such a big person he moves well.

Desired mass in lower body. Can drop anchor and become difficult for the defender to push backwards.

While he's not ideal for a zone scheme, he was used on zone runs in college and does have sufficient baseline mobility to play for a zone team. On a zone run, he made a great backside seal block and his large frame made it difficult for the defender to run around him. On easier reach blocks he has adequate range to flow wide and some fluidity to swing his hips around and seal the defender.

Can burst out of his stance on run blocks. Knock back power when working on a combo block to drive the defensive lineman out of the gap and help open up a hole for the RB. A couple times put the DT on skates.

Violently finishes some blocks with nastiness. Tossed defensive lineman to ground multiple times, including one block where he throws the guy into a 2nd defender, sending both defenders to the ground.

Good awareness. On a zone run, the RT at the 2nd level can't block his LB, Torrence blocking a DT is able to adjust and simultaneously block the DT and LB at the same time, giving his RB a chance to gain yardage. On a goalline run, RG is blocking a DT and he sees the LB trying to crash the A gap on a run blitz, Torrence reaches out and simultaneously blocks both the DT and LB at the same time. The DE crashes inside on a zone run, Torrence adjusts and picks him up, limiting the penetration into the path of the RB. On 3rd down, Torrence squeezes down inside on the DT, but he also sees the OLB trying to penetrate through the B gap and he is able to stop it.

Good hand eye coordination at initial contact. Doesn't seem to commit many (or any) penalty worthy plays in the games I watched. Maybe one play I saw could have been holding, but that was about it. I couldn't find official stats, but articles from early December said he hadn't committed a single penalty the entire 2022 season for Florida.

Nice effort multiple plays to recover and save run blocks, has effective length to shove defenders past the QB or RB even if he's not in ideal position on his block.

Developmental upside, because it seems like he could improve his body and get stronger. Carries some bad weight, so if his body continues to physically mature, maybe he can add muscle to replace fat and come out even more explosive.

Praised for intangibles by coaches, both in terms of conditioning work on body and in film study and learning the scheme.

Has rare size and physical attributes that you can't coach.

Has experience playing on both right and left side of the line. Had a left handed QB at one point at Louisiana.

Normal age for draft prospect, fairly durable, doesn't seem to have a long injury history.

Has a high ceiling, but also a low floor.

Weaknesses

His arms are relatively short for such a big lineman. For example, D'Ante Smith of the Bengals was a 4th rd pick in 2021, a prospect I kind of liked. He's 6'5'' tall with 35'' arms. Quinton Spain was an UDFA in 2015. He was 6'4'' tall with 35'' arms. Torrence only has 33'' arms. You might wonder why this is a big deal, since plenty of NFL guards have arms just as short and some even considerably shorter, but the issue is that those guys are smaller and shorter in height, with a lower center of gravity. The combination of being a tall guard, but with average arm length gives the defender a potential advantage. The defender can use Torrence's size against him by knocking him off balance.

What I saw happen repeatedly in Torrence's games is defenders could grab his jersey, getting their hands into his chest. Then they toss him sideways. Alternatively, they would get their hand on the outside of his shoulder pad with a club move, also resulting in Torrence losing balance. Even on blocks where Torrence wasn't completely beaten, the DT sometimes could get into his chest and steer him. Instead of the G controlling the block, the DT had leverage and could cover his gap assignment on a run or constrict the pocket on a pass play. One pass block, the DT gets hands inside and Torrence can't knock them down or get a good hand placement, even at one point burying his facemask into the shoulder pad of the DT. Another play, the DT puts his hand on the shoulder pad of Torrence's inside arm and pushes up, lifting Torrence's left foot off the ground, allowing the DT to win to the inside and push his way into the front of the pocket. A couple plays, the DT grabbed him inside, then violently tossed him sideways to the ground.

Bottom line is it doesn't matter how big you are if the defender has their hands on you with firm grip and you can't grab them. They are in control and you're typically going to be in trouble. Like judo, right?

Has slow hand speed. Will lose hand fights in the NFL. If his initial hand placement misses or is weak, he doesn't effectively replace his hands to improve his hand position. On a pass block, his left hand slipped off the pads of the defender and Torrence missed multiple attempts to try to get them back on the pass rusher. If his hands miss the initial placement and go around the back of the defender or outside the frame, he's not able to quickly correct them, which could result in holding penalties in the NFL.

In addition to slow hands, Torrence has sluggish feet when engaged on both pass and run blocks. I doubt this can be changed much, so I wonder if perhaps an OL coach will have to work with Torrence on changing his stance or other techniques to try to cover up this deficiency. If pass rushers change directions, Torrence struggles to stay with them. A quicker DL attacking his edge can get around him, because Torrence can't slide his feet laterally, forcing him to open up his hips and desperately scramble after them. This is bad. Not only is the G at risk of being beaten to the outside, but once he turns his hips, if the defender counters back to the inside the G is toast, he has no way of recovering.

Being tall makes it challenging for him to maintain proper pad level. Got stuffed at LOS on a zone run, unable to win leverage battle. Has size, but doesn't posses elite strength and power. Not a true drive blocker on short yardage runs. Generates zero movement on some short yardage plays, because he couldn't get under the pads of the defender.

Due to his large size, it is difficult for Torrence to change directions. Once he gets his momentum going one way and he can't slow down and shift to go in the opposite direction. Limited COD range versus a twist, so if Torrence starts going one way then realizes the 2nd defender is coming around in the other direction, it is challenging for Torrence to stay with him and cut him off.

An average blocker at the 2nd level. Lacks agility to stay with quick LBs and sustain blocks against them. Average blocking range on zone plays. Sometimes the DT would beat Torrence to the spot, creating congestion at the point of attack. Sloppy technique on some zone blocks.

The zero sack stat is a bit misleading. He played in a shotgun based, RPO type offense that was OL friendly. QB never under center, very few true pass blocking sets where the QB holds the ball for an extended period. On an RPO, the defender with a swim move beat him cleanly. Ducked his head on a pass block and the DT swam over him, hitting the QB. Long 3rd down, the DT converts speed to power and drives into chest of Torrence, pushing him all the way back into QB, then DT sheds the block.

Susceptible to getting confused when things get more complex. Surprised by a twist and nearly pancaked. Appeared to almost completely blow his pass blocking assignment before he realized late which defender he was supposed to pick up. Completely fooled by a complicated layered blitz.

Has an extra wide blocking stance, because he's such a big dude. Multiple times in the games I watched he stepped on the foot of other linemen or got his foot tangled up with them, tripping him or them up. Ed Ingram multiple times this season has stepped on the foot of Kirk Cousins right after the snap. Even on plays that were "clean", if you watch the play from an overhead camera angle, his foot sometimes was directly next to the neighboring offensive lineman. Twist by DTs. the DE working against the RT tries to spin inside, and the RG trying to pick up the twist shuffles into the RT, stepping on his foot, causing Torrence to lose balance and stumble.

A poor help blocker in pass protection. Scans slowly with his eyes, late to recognize and react to developing trouble. He doesn't gain and maintain sufficient depth to stay in proper relation to the other linemen so that he is in position to help them. Makes very odd decisions as a helper, chasing after the wrong defender when he should be helping the lineman on his other side.

Slow on screens, slow as a pull blocker, doesn't have short area burst. Doesn't keep pads low while pulling. An attacking defender can penetrate and blast into his chest, disrupting the play before Torrence is able to pull all the way across the formation.

Better when facing lesser talented opponents. When he went up against a higher level of defense, I felt he was stressed trying to sustain blocks. I think the speed of the NFL game is going to cause him problems, because he has slow eyes, hands and feet. From a condensed formation, the DL ambushed the OL with a quick twist and it surprised Torrence, slow to recognize what was happening. Caught up too long on the first DT, he didn't feel twist coming, late reacting to the 2nd DT.

Not a good scheme fit for a zone team that prefers mobile and more athletic offensive lineman. I don't feel that Torrence is a good fit for what McVay and the Rams like to do offensively.

Limited positional flexibility, can't play center or tackle. A guard only prospect.

Draft Grade and Pro Comp

4th round grade, Edwin Mulitalo (4th rd 1999, Ravens, Arizona)

Mulitalo was a starter for nearly the entire time he played for the Ravens (1999 to the 2006 season), part of the reason they won the Super Bowl and helped running back Jamal Lewis pile up big rushing totals, including a 2,066 yard season in 2003.

O'Cyrus Torrence is a throwback lineman, fitting the mold of guards that were far more prevalent 25 years ago. For a team that wants to incorporate old school type power run blocking concepts into their offense, Torrence will be valued, because there aren't many "big" guards like him left in college football these days.

For pro teams who are married to a zone system, Torrence might have very little appeal to them. I feel like he has holes in his pass blocking and he lacks ideal athleticism and skill to be a quality zone blocker. Consequently, I'm not convinced that Torrence will be drafted as early as all the draft experts seem to think. He might not even be the first guard off the board. It is also possible that an NFL team needing a guard won't grab one from the list of OGs, but instead will draft a prospect listed on boards as an OT or a C, then slide that player over and use them at the G position.

Guard is not a premium position in the NFL draft. There is no reason to draft a guard in the 1st round unless you see him as a virtual lock to be a dominant All Pro type performer (e.g. Zack Martin). I see Torrence more as a developmental player. He might not be great right out of the gate as a rookie. There is potential payoff if you are patient, but it could take some time to iron out issues with his game and allow him to physically develop. In my view, Torrence is too risky of a prospect to target at the top of the draft. I would pass on Torrence with the first pick for the Rams.