FanPost

Brandon Kipper draft profile

Win One for the Kipper

Do you know how good VRS's draft content for TST has been this year? I don't know if most of us fully appreciate the quality that has gone into some of those articles. About a week ago, VMS wrote about potential 5th or 6th round offensive guard prospects for the Rams and said about Brandon Kipper, "Color him a sleeper anywhere in Round 5."

What is so remarkable about such a simple statement? On many major draft boards and about half of the draft simulators, you won't find Kipper's name listed at all. Even when he is listed, he's ranked as an UDFA. Kipper wasn't invited to the Combine. He wasn't at the Senior Bowl. So, how does VRS even know about Brandon Kipper? What led VRS to even think that this player was a potential draft sleeper? Did you ever ponder that question?

Who is this player and is VRS on to something? Is Kipper a sneaky good player who is flying under the radar?

Background

Name: Brandon Kipper. Turns 25 years old in September. 6th year, redshirt senior. Nicknamed "Mamba".

School: Oregon State. Degree in psychology.

NFLPA bowl measurements: 6'5 7/8'' tall, 326 pounds, 34 1/8'' arms, 10 1/8'' hands, 80 1/2'' wingspan. SI has him with a 5.25 second 40 time, NFLDB lists 5.20 second 40 time.

O'Cyrus Torrence is expected to be the top guard drafted this year and could be a 1st round pick. He's a huge dude, right? Torrence is 6'4 7/8'' tall, was 330 at the Combine and has 33 7/8'' arms. So, Brandon Kipper is one inch taller than Torrence, barely weighs less and has barely longer arms. Torrence ran 5.31 seconds in the 40 at the Combine, so if the reported speed for Kipper is accurate, he might be slightly faster than Torrence.

From Idaho. 2 star recruit. Played OL and OLB in high school. 270 pound recruit. Student body president in HS. Was on speech and debate team. Was 48-0 as wrestler, 2 time state champion, had wrestling scholarship offer as well as FB scholarship offers from Army and a number of smaller schools, primarily in the Pacific Northwest.

Played as true freshman at Hawaii in 2017, no starts. Was listed at 270 pounds. Used as an extra lineman in jumbo formations.

In January of 2018 announced intent to transfer. Committed to Oregon State, also had interest from Arkansas and Iowa State. When he transferred, he said that his goal was to be a 1st round NFL draft pick.

Made 45 consecutive starts at Oregon State. Multiple academic recognition lists at OSU.

Listed at 278 pounds in 2018, redshirted and appeared in 3 games.

Made 12 starts in 2019, listed at 305 pounds. Made 7 starts in 2020. Jermar Jefferson (RB for Detroit Lions, 7th round 2021) averaged 143 rushing yards per game and 6.5 yards per carry in 2020. Jefferson was a PS player for Detroit in 2022.

Made 13 starts in 2021, listed at 310 pounds. BJ Baylor had 1,337 rushing yards at 5.9 yards per carry in 2021. Baylor was an UDFA who was on the PS for the Atlanta Falcons in 2022.

Kipper said that he intended to leave college for the NFL after the 2021 season, but was very emotional and upset after the team lost their bowl game (in SoFi Stadium) to Utah State. He returned for 2022 season, played in team's bowl instead of opting out and OSU crushed Florida 30-3 in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Played right tackle until moving inside to right guard in 2022. Started 13 games in 2022. Listed at 327 pounds. The Oregon State offensive line was considered to be a good run blocking unit in 2022, but a poor pass blocking unit.

Had minor leg injury in 2019 and minor ankle injury in 2021. No missed starts in 4 seasons.

ESPN not ranked

Shane Hallam not ranked

Brian Bosarge not ranked

PFN (Industry) not ranked

NFLDB 211st overall, 7th round projection.

Drafttek 18th guard, 389th overall (UDFA)

PFF draft simulator, not available

PFN draft simulator, 191st overall (6th rd)

NFLMDD simulator, 392nd (UDFA, listed as an OT)

Fanspeak simulator: Broncos board (not available); Rigdon (409th, UDFA); Diamonds (282nd, UDFA); Drafttek (363rd, UDFA); Bills board (not available); Bears board (not available); Shoup (not available)

NFLDB: Infinitely coachable, athletically gifted with ideal frame, physique, weight distribution, knee bend, hand strength to be molded into a special blocker. Effective pulling, agility, speed and range, adjusts to LBs. Fairly high upside developmental pick. Anchors vs bull rush, good awareness vs twists. Flashes power to overwhelm at point of attack. Speed to recover. Jackhammer hands. Light, quick feet. Only adequate burst. Upper and lower body not always coordinated. Shaky pass protection vs speed to power. Might play too high for guard. Occasionally stops feet punching. Doesn't have ideal balance in set, can struggle to mirror in pass pro.

Strengths

In interviews, he talks like a football coach. Very intelligent, has a positive attitude and professional approach, speech and debate background from HS paying off. Leadership skills, could be a motivational speaker. Maybe he's the next Dan Campbell. Has a mature perspective and sense of urgency to his preparation and practice habits. Football is important to him. Don't discount the importance of his intangibles when it comes to selling himself as a prospect to NFL teams. The OL coaches will probably really like this guy and feel that they can work with him.

Athletic mover. Has a great "spider web" in terms of physical measurements. Long arms, big hands, good weight. Looks the part of an NFL player.

Quick out of his stance into pass set and into run blocks. Explosive climb to 2nd level off of snap, he got past the DT before the ball left the QB's hands on pitch back to the RB.

Will bury defenders into the ground and finish them with attitude. Has upper body strength to win wrestling matches against defenders.

Good work rate as help blocker in pass protection. Solid awareness and range to help C and OT. Shows awareness to twists.

Realized he was too far past the LOS on play action pass and tried to move back towards the line.

There was a 57 pound weight difference between his listed weight as a true freshman at Hawaii and his final listed playing weight as a 6th year senior at Oregon State. It wasn't bad weight, he's not some fat slob. Someone's been putting in some work training. If guard is going to be his NFL position and nearly 330 pounds is his "true" playing weight, Kipper has only played one season of football at his proper position and at the proper weight.

Has been very durable. Availability is important in the NFL. You could be a talented player, but if you are on IR or you're always playing through an injury, you aren't going to be able to help the team much.

Experience at both RT and RG could make him a candidate to be a swing backup capable of playing multiple spots. Probably too tall to play center, but if Joe Tippmann could do it, maybe you could even experiment with trying to train him to play the pivot.

Weaknesses

Performance doesn't match his physical appearance. He looks like he should be a good player, because he's so big and is a decent athlete, but he doesn't play well. Looks like he should be strong, because of his size and length, but he has poor play strength and doesn't know how to use his hands properly.

Almost too tall to be a guard. High cut. Below average contact balance.

Doesn't have speed or body control in space. Oddly runs with short steps when leading the way on a screen or draw, not covering ground efficiently. Doesn't maintain balance and change directions well.

Pops out of his stance with high pad level. Loses leverage battles right off the snap. Struggles to properly engage his hips and deliver power into the block. Even when he bursts out of his stance, he fails to efficiently transfer that power into the defender, hitting the DT too high. When man blocking straight ahead, the DT can get into his chest and drive him backwards off the LOS. When climbing to 2nd level, he pops up high with his chest exposed, which I think is going to make it difficult for him to cleanly climb in the NFL.

Not a drive blocker. Insufficient lower body strength to drive defenders backwards.

Repeatedly gets creased at the LOS by slanting defenders, unable to protect the A gap. He tends to pop up out of his stance instead of exploding laterally to cut off the defender. DTs can penetrate past him to get TFLs. Doesn't have a strong feel for finding the proper angles, both at the LOS and at 2nd level.

Fails to effectively execute relatively basic zone scheme run blocks. Against NT on wide zone run, didn't get hips around to seal and didn't have leg drive to push the NT down the LOS, so the NT disengages and stuffs the RB for no gain.

Footwork is sloppy and not disciplined in pass pro. Takes false steps, unnecessary steps as helper, not calm, measured, efficient and disciplined with his movement. Leans forward in PP after engagement, easily losing balance. Feet are not quick enough to change directions and slide laterally to handle twists well.

Doesn't punch with his hands. Has no power in his punch. Hands are passive and lethargic after initial engagement, leaving him vulnerable to countermoves.

Poor grip strength and hand accuracy, not able to latch onto LBs at 2nd level and control them. Catches the LB at the 2nd level, doesn't get hands inside frame, allowed LB to get into his chest and violently throw him to side to shed.

Leaky anchor. Doesn't have enough lower body mass and strength. He catches defenders in pass protection instead of punching. Repeatedly weakly catches DT and gets walked back into QB. Against twist, the NT very easily pushes him off balance and powers through him as if Kipper were a 280 pound lineman, then delivers hard hit on QB.

Ducks his helmet into blocks in a variety of situations. Ducked crown of helmet into side of DT while helping in pass pro. Ducked and leaned into DT on reach block. Ducks and lunges forward into LB at 2nd level. Leads with his helmet when he should be using his hands and maintaining body control so that he can stay balanced and be more powerful. Way out of control at 2nd level, wildly lunged and whiffed on LB, then fell to his knees.

Poor awareness in space at 2nd level, didn't adjust his assignment to block the safety in run support, head looking the wrong direction. Climbing to 2nd level, he went to the wrong side of the LB. Gets stuck helping one player pass block, lingers too long and can be late to switch over and help the lineman on his other side or doesn't maintain proper depth to be in position to help.

Shaky as a RT in pass pro. Poor vertical set, his heels click close together. Average ability to change direction with lateral footwork to mirror. Nearly did the splits against OLB. Pass blocks like he has very short arms. When EDGE attacks outside then converts speed to power, he can't kick slide back in time to set up and gets driven backwards to the QB. Way oversets and can get roasted by inside move.

Nearly 3 years older than average draft prospect.

Draft Grade and Pro Comp

UDFA. (Ty Nsekhe, undrafted 2009, Texas State)

Notice that I didn't put the name of an NFL team after his name and instead of "UDFA" there is just the word "undrafted". That's because Nsekhe wasn't an UDFA. After college, he played Arena Football for 4 years. In 2012, the Colts briefly signed him. Nsekhe was nearly 27 years old at the time. The Rams claimed him and he spent much of that season on the PS. He later bounced out of the NFL, to the CFL then briefly back to arena football, until Washington signed him in 2015. This was the first year that he saw substantial snaps in an NFL regular season game. He was 30 years old that season.

When the Rams signed John Sullivan in 2017, I watched his games playing for Washington and couldn't help but notice Nsekhe playing left tackle. He was really good. I knew it wasn't Trent Williams, but Neskhe was doing a very good impersonation of him as a tackle. Sean McVay was Washington's OC during this period and Bill Callahan was the OL coach (It's unbelievable how many great OL success stories involve a player being coached by Bill Callahan.) When the Rams brought him back as in injury replacement in 2022, I wasn't expecting much, but Nsekhe was surprisingly effective at left tackle, posting a 70.6 PFF grade. Not bad for a 37 year old player.

Brandon Kipper isn't particularly good at any specific thing right now. He's not a strong blocker for power run plays. He's not a reliable zone scheme blocker. He struggles handling bull rushes and power moves. He struggles to handle speed rushers and quickness. He has weaknesses everywhere.

On the other hand, he has decent building blocks to try to develop him into a useful NFL player. He's really big with long arms. He's not stiff or slow, he's a decent athlete relative to his size. He's a very smart guy with good football character. There's enough there that a team might take a chance on him as a developmental project.

The problem is he's already so old. If it takes 3 years to coach him up, he could be 28 years old by the time he's ready to be a contributor. So, IMO there is no reason to invest an actual draft pick to acquire a prospect like this. There is almost no chance he'd make the regular roster as a rookie, so my plan for him would be to see if he can show enough potential in camp to earn a practice squad spot. Give him a year of NFL development and see if he shows sufficient progress to justify giving him a 2nd year, then take it from there.