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Here is an insightful breakdown of Peter Skoronski’s game I recently came upon:
Peter Skoronski - A boring but important draft pick
Top tier offensive tackles are boring draft picks. Fan bases never get excited by them and they're not viewed as franchise-changing the way quarterbacks can be.
And adding one great lineman to a bad unit as a whole generally doesn't change how good your offensive line is. You need to build an offensive line over time.
It's a weird dichotomy where everyone understands how valuable and impactful a left tackle can be, how hard they are to find and how important it is to have one, but not everybody really wants to draft one.
This year's top pick sure to disappoint on draft day is Northwestern's Peter Skoronski.
Skoronski is a prototypical high-end left tackle prospect. He ticks every box in terms of athleticism and is a refined pass blocker.
Skoronski will start from day one for whatever team that drafts him and you'll likely forget he's there for the next decade or more.
Often the difference between an elite offensive line prospect and just a decent offensive line prospect is in the weight of their feet.
Skoronski is 6'4" and 313 lbs. He's not big by tackle standards, in fact he might switch into guard because of that.
But he's also not small. So when Skoronski shifts his weight and plays on the balls of his feet the way he does in pass protection it's a sight to behold. He lines up at left tackle here and you can see how his feet keep chopping so that his chest stays square to the defender.
He is always perfectly positioned between the defender and his target.
The size aspect is seen somewhat here as the defensive end is able to corkscrew his way around the corner slowly. The quarterback is able to get the ball out and even if he didn't he would have had space to step up in the pocket, which would have completely taken the defensive end out of the play.
In the same game, we see Skoronski isolated against the defensive end at the bottom of the screen. That defender sprints upfield off the snap, but you can see how quickly Skoronski widens at the snap.
His kickout is rapid. He shifts his weight so that he never has to turn his upper body to mirror the defender. Often you'll see offensive tackles abandon their technique to stick with a speed rush. It's not something that Skoronski ever has to do.
And while he gets outside rapidly, he doesn't overplay wide positions so that he's exposed to inside moves.
Against Penn State we can see that same rapid kickout speed so that the defender doesn't have an outside path into the pocket. It looks like the defender wanted to go around the edge but changed his mind after coming off the line of scrimmage because of Skoronski's positioning.
When the defender crosses his face, Skoronski easily sticks to his outside shoulder and clamps him down. The looping action from the linebacker suggests this play was possibly a designed stunt.
Skoronski shows awareness to pick up stunts, but this stunt came from too far away and the linebacker was never a threat. Skoronski handled the immediate danger as he's supposed to.
If Skoronski improves his strength a bit at the next level, his offence will be able to leave him alone in pass protection more often than not. This is a prime example of him handling a defender in space.
He kicks out with speed and balance before engaging the defender with his hands. Skoronski's hands are wide initially but he gets underneath the arms of the defender while resetting his feet.
This causes him to concede some ground but he is generating control.
The defensive end reaches a point where Skoronski has anchored and he can't get around him. The quarterback in the pocket remains untouched despite the defender attacking both of Skoronski's shoulders.
And while Skoronski will benefit a lot from adding some strength, it's not like he's noticeably weak either. Against the non-freak defenders in the NFL, he should hold up just fine as he is.
On this play, the defensive end gets a good position at the beginning of the play. His hands are inside to the Skoronski's chest and the two players' helmets collide.
We can see that the defender has leverage beneath him, but Skoronski resets his back foot and anchors so that he regains his footing.
He can't drive the defender off his spot immediately, but absorbs his effort before working through the contact to drive him backwards. The defender was moving back before the running back was hit in the backfield.
It's that short movement that matters, he stops trying at that stage because the play is over but Skoronski doesn't know that so he drives him off screen.
Skoronski doesn't stand out as a run blocker. He's an assignment blocker who locates relatively well in space and works hard through contact to continually move defenders away from the ball.
On this play, he helps to clear the defensive tackle with a double team at the line of scrimmage before advancing downfield to take out the linebacker. He stonewalls the linebacker so that the running back can escape through that space.
Here we see an example of Skoronski showing off poor technique. He lunges forward and doesn't perfectly locate the defender across from him. This allows the defender to get to his outside shoulder.
Fortunately for Skoronski, he can recover with his athleticism and work rate. By sticking to his assignment, he drives the linebacker out of the running lane so that the running back can run through his spot.
The running back is stopped again for a short gain but that's not the fault of Skoronski.
You're not always going to have a chance at drafting a Tyron Smith-like left tackle. They come along once every 10 years or so. But every team in the league would accept an Andrew Whitworth starting at left or right tackle.
Peter Skoronski - A boring but important draft pick
Top tier offensive tackles are boring draft picks. Fan bases never get excited by them and they're not viewed as franchise-changing the way quarterbacks can be.
And adding one great lineman to a bad unit as a whole generally doesn't change how good your offensive line is. You need to build an offensive line over time.
It's a weird dichotomy where everyone understands how valuable and impactful a left tackle can be, how hard they are to find and how important it is to have one, but not everybody really wants to draft one.
This year's top pick sure to disappoint on draft day is Northwestern's Peter Skoronski.
Skoronski is a prototypical high-end left tackle prospect. He ticks every box in terms of athleticism and is a refined pass blocker.
Skoronski will start from day one for whatever team that drafts him and you'll likely forget he's there for the next decade or more.
Often the difference between an elite offensive line prospect and just a decent offensive line prospect is in the weight of their feet.
Skoronski is 6'4" and 313 lbs. He's not big by tackle standards, in fact he might switch into guard because of that.
But he's also not small. So when Skoronski shifts his weight and plays on the balls of his feet the way he does in pass protection it's a sight to behold. He lines up at left tackle here and you can see how his feet keep chopping so that his chest stays square to the defender.
He is always perfectly positioned between the defender and his target.
The size aspect is seen somewhat here as the defensive end is able to corkscrew his way around the corner slowly. The quarterback is able to get the ball out and even if he didn't he would have had space to step up in the pocket, which would have completely taken the defensive end out of the play.
In the same game, we see Skoronski isolated against the defensive end at the bottom of the screen. That defender sprints upfield off the snap, but you can see how quickly Skoronski widens at the snap.
His kickout is rapid. He shifts his weight so that he never has to turn his upper body to mirror the defender. Often you'll see offensive tackles abandon their technique to stick with a speed rush. It's not something that Skoronski ever has to do.
And while he gets outside rapidly, he doesn't overplay wide positions so that he's exposed to inside moves.
Against Penn State we can see that same rapid kickout speed so that the defender doesn't have an outside path into the pocket. It looks like the defender wanted to go around the edge but changed his mind after coming off the line of scrimmage because of Skoronski's positioning.
When the defender crosses his face, Skoronski easily sticks to his outside shoulder and clamps him down. The looping action from the linebacker suggests this play was possibly a designed stunt.
Skoronski shows awareness to pick up stunts, but this stunt came from too far away and the linebacker was never a threat. Skoronski handled the immediate danger as he's supposed to.
If Skoronski improves his strength a bit at the next level, his offence will be able to leave him alone in pass protection more often than not. This is a prime example of him handling a defender in space.
He kicks out with speed and balance before engaging the defender with his hands. Skoronski's hands are wide initially but he gets underneath the arms of the defender while resetting his feet.
This causes him to concede some ground but he is generating control.
The defensive end reaches a point where Skoronski has anchored and he can't get around him. The quarterback in the pocket remains untouched despite the defender attacking both of Skoronski's shoulders.
And while Skoronski will benefit a lot from adding some strength, it's not like he's noticeably weak either. Against the non-freak defenders in the NFL, he should hold up just fine as he is.
On this play, the defensive end gets a good position at the beginning of the play. His hands are inside to the Skoronski's chest and the two players' helmets collide.
We can see that the defender has leverage beneath him, but Skoronski resets his back foot and anchors so that he regains his footing.
He can't drive the defender off his spot immediately, but absorbs his effort before working through the contact to drive him backwards. The defender was moving back before the running back was hit in the backfield.
It's that short movement that matters, he stops trying at that stage because the play is over but Skoronski doesn't know that so he drives him off screen.
Skoronski doesn't stand out as a run blocker. He's an assignment blocker who locates relatively well in space and works hard through contact to continually move defenders away from the ball.
On this play, he helps to clear the defensive tackle with a double team at the line of scrimmage before advancing downfield to take out the linebacker. He stonewalls the linebacker so that the running back can escape through that space.
Here we see an example of Skoronski showing off poor technique. He lunges forward and doesn't perfectly locate the defender across from him. This allows the defender to get to his outside shoulder.
Fortunately for Skoronski, he can recover with his athleticism and work rate. By sticking to his assignment, he drives the linebacker out of the running lane so that the running back can run through his spot.
The running back is stopped again for a short gain but that's not the fault of Skoronski.
You're not always going to have a chance at drafting a Tyron Smith-like left tackle. They come along once every 10 years or so. But every team in the league would accept an Andrew Whitworth starting at left or right tackle.
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