Charles Cross Scouting Report/ Charles Cross NFL Draft Profile

 

Offensive Tackle, Mississippi State Bulldogs, #67

 

Charles Cross Measurements

6’5” / 310 lbs

40 Time: 5.2 (projected)

 

 

Charles Cross NFL Draft Player Profile

 

Coming out of Laurel High School, Cross was rated a five-star recruit by Rivals and 247Sports. In fact, 247Sports had Charles ranked as the #2 prospect in the state of Mississippi. After his senior season, Cross was named first team All-State. He would also earn a Clarion Ledger Dandy Dozen nomination. Charles would go on to participate in both the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star game, as well as the US Army All-American Bowl.

 

College Career

In 2019, Cross would see limited action in just three games allowing him to earn a redshirt season. Charles would earn the starting job in 2020, playing and starting in 10 of the Bulldogs’ 11 games. Mississippi State would struggle scoring points, averaging 21.4 points per games that year. This would rank them 13^th out of the 14 SEC teams. Their 340.2 yards per game would rank 12^th in the conference. They were the only team that averaged under 100 yards per game on the ground (43.9 ypg), but had the 5^th ranked passing offense (296.3 ypg). Cross would earn a Freshman All-SEC team nomination after the season.

Charles returned as the starting left tackle in 2021, starting in all 10 of the Bulldogs’ games. While they are still the only team in the conference averaging under 100 yards per game on the ground (57.6 ypg), the offense overall as improved. Their 437.5 yards per game ranks 6^th in the conference, while they boost the SEC’s best passing offense with 379.9 yards per game. All this has helped Mississippi State off to a 6-4 record at the time of this report.

 

Charles Cross Strengths

 

Pass Blocking

The first few snaps, I was shocked by how slow Cross appeared getting set for pass protection. Once I got a better angle I was able to see he wasn’t slow but rather he wasn’t bailing out to get into position. Most tackles like to take a bigger kick-step at the snap, taking a more vertical step to stay in front of the edge rusher. Charles, on the other hand, takes more of a horizontal step. Doing so, he doesn’t get depth but he ends up right on the defender. Once in position, you don’t see him ever seem to panic. He is patient in his blocking, never over extending himself and getting out of position. He also does a great job of using his arm length to keep the rusher from getting into his body. Many times Cross was able to stop the defender’s rush completely.

 

Burst

As I mentioned above, Cross looked slow at first coming off the snap for pass protection. This couldn’t have been further from the truth during a run play. It was quite impressive watching him fire off the ball and get himself into position to wall off defenders or get up to the second level of the defense. Run blocking wasn’t the only spot you would see the burst though. There were a few occasions he would find himself getting beat by an edge rusher on passing plays. Once again, you would see this burst allowing Charles to get himself back into position, protecting his quarterback from a big hit.

 

Strong Base

I was quite impressed with the number of time I saw Cross completely bring a defender to a stop while they were rushing the passer. Bull rushes just didn’t seem to work on him. Charles plays with great leverage, and it all starts at the base. Even on the handful of plays where the rusher would get Cross off balance, he was able to recover and stall out the defender’s rush.

 

Charles Cross Weaknesses

 

Footwork

 

This is the area Cross needs to improve on before his first NFL start. I’ll once again refer back to my comment about his kick-step being more horizontal than vertical at the snap. I’m not sure why exactly he does it that way, but it can cause him to get flatfooted at times. This would allow the defenders to get a step on him, and that impressive burst I talked about earlier would come into play as he had to recover. Also, there’s times when his shuffle was more like stomping. Overall this didn’t seem to effect his productivity in his pass protection. So you would think if he cleans it up, he’ll only continue to improve in that respect.

 

Charles Cross NFL Draft Stock

Before the season, most people were mocking Cross as a later first round pick. Since the season has progressed, he has seen his draft stock increase from just another first round tackle to one of the top tackles in the class. I’ve seen a good number of mocks lately that have him in, or near, the top 10 picks. I don’t think this will change any time soon. This is a very talented class at the position, so the question is which team will fall in love with him most?

 

Final Thoughts on Charles Cross

I was really intrigued to get a chance to get a good look at Charles Cross. I hadn’t had a chance to catch any Mississippi State games at the time I started my report, and I was curious to see what the hype was about. Now I have to say that I can see why so many people are high on him. Cross is an athletic tackle, that moves well both horizontally and vertically in the running game. He’s a brick wall in pass protection. On top of that, he does a lot of small things right that can often go overlooked. He’s also has the prototypical size, arm length, and strength that you would look for from an NFL offensive lineman.

He will need to improve on his footwork, but I think that’s something a good offensive line coach will be able to get cleaned up. While I still have Penn St.’s Rasheed Walker as my personal top tackle for the 2022 NFL Draft, Cross is easily up there as one of the best in the class. Barring an injury, I don’t see any reason why Charles Cross doesn’t hear his name in the top half of the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft.

 

Pro Comparison: Andrew Whitworth (LT / Los Angeles Rams)

Cross is a little smaller than Whitworth (6’7” / 330 lbs), but I see a lot of Whitworth’s game in Cross. Patient, strong, long arms, able to get up to the next level on running and screen plays. If Cross can have the career that Andrew has had, whichever team he lands on is going to be really happy.

Charles Cross Scouting Report / NFL Draft Profile by Brandon Claburn