Update: Brady Christensen Panther. The Carolina Panthers read this article and didn’t let Christensen get out of the third round.

A guy like Brady Christensen is easy to hate on. 24 years old, relatively small school, assumed poor athleticism. That’s what you’ll read in most scouts reports. It shouldn’t shock you that those scouts are idiots. Brady Christensen is a stud, and he absolutely deserves to go earlier than he will.

Strengths

I mentioned that scouting reports say Christensen isn’t athletic. These people aren’t paying attention, they just see a big white guy and make a pretty safe assumption. The problem is Christensen is actually a fantastic athlete. Let’s take a look at those workout numbers: 34 inch vertical, 95th percentile for OTs, broad jump 124 inch broad jump, 100th percentile for OTs, 30 reps on the bench, 89th percentile for OTs, 4.89 second 40 yard dash, 96th percentile for OTs, 4.46 second short shuttle, 94th percentile for OTs, 7.33 second three cone drill 95th percentile for OTs. Huh, those are some pretty impressive numbers for a non-athletic guy. Combine these numbers with his high level of play, and you have a star in the making.

Christensen had one good year and two excellent years playing left tackle for the Cougars. He plays clean and smart, which even the scouts who say he’s not an athlete will attest to. He’s a technical blocker, maybe it’s because of his age but Christensen looks the same from play to play. Consistency is a very good thing. People talk about plug and play guys in the draft, prospects who look like they can start from day one. Christensen certainly appears to be one of those guys.

Weaknesses

The scouts say he’s a bad athlete, his numbers say literally the opposite so I’m not going to get into that. One of my major concerns with Christensen is that he has short arms. Long arms help offensive tackles, they’re not required to be an elite tackle, but they help. Christensen is also a little light, weighing in at 302 lbs. Stretch his arms out a couple more inches and pack on 20 lbs. of muscle, and we might be talking about Christensen as a lock for the first round. Christensen is also older than I like to see. He is 24 which is up there when we’re talking about NFL rookies. Finally, people will point to the lack of top level competition. This last point really confuses me as it clearly isn’t hurting Zach Wilson, so why is it bad for a left tackle and a non issue for a quarterback? Christensen keeping Wilson clean is one of the reasons he was able to look so good this year. Wilson’s plenty talented, but as we’ve noted no quarterback puts up numbers on their back.

Fits

Christensen is an athletic, slightly undersized offensive tackle who would fit best in a zone scheme. You know who he reminds me of? Vikings offensive tackle Brian O’ Neill. O’Neill is one of the only bright spots on an offensive line that has had its fair share of struggles. O’Neill and Christensen have very similar workout numbers and were both on the smaller side for offensive tackles. The Vikings should draft Christensen and have two smaller, athletic, zone blocking tackles hold down the line. He’s projected in the 3rd to 4th round, but I think he’s good enough to go in the late 1st-2nd. I’m as confident in Christensen as I am in the offensive tackles who are projected to go in that range.