Trevor Penning Scouting Report: NFL Draft Prospect

 

Offensive Tackle, Northern Iowa Panthers, #70

 

Measurements

6′ 7″ / 321 lbs

40 time: reportedly around 5.0

 

Trevor Penning Draft Profile

Penning played high school football at Newman Catholic High School in Mason City, Iowa. While there he was the captain of his football team, earned first-team All-District honors, garnered an All-Area selection, and was invited to play in the River Battle Bowl (an All-Star game featuring the best prospects from Nebraska and Iowa). During his time in high school, he also lettered in both basketball and track and field. After redshirting his freshman season and playing in 4 games the following year, he would play and start in all 15 games the Northern Iowa Panthers played in during the 2019 season. He also played and started in all 6 games during the 2021 FCS Spring season (including making 1 start at right tackle).

 

Strengths

 

Nasty Demeanor

If you’re on defense and you’re playing against Trevor Penning, you better look out because he’s coming. From the snap of the ball to the whistle, Penning is looking for someone to hit. Penning is a big, strong man that loves to throw defenders to the ground. Then he makes sure to give them a good belly flop every now and then for good measure. Fellow analyst Ken Noble loves this in his lineman as well.

 

Can Really Move

It’s pretty scary when you have a human being as big and tall as Penning is, that can move the way he does. Trevor shows a great ability to get up to the next level and take out linebackers. Not only this, Northern Iowa has him pull all the way from left tackle to lead block on plays going off the right end. It’s very impressive to watch.

 

Solid Footwork

Penning has a good kick step at the snap to help get himself into a solid position in pass protection. He also shows great ability to regain balance and leverage when knocked off balance. I think the most impressive thing I saw though, was his ability to wall off defenders while run blocking. I could instantly tell which side the ball was supposed to go to at the snap simply by watching Trevor. Running off of Penning’s outside hip? At the snap, Trevor would quickly get outside positioning on the defensive end and effectively eliminate him from the play.

 

Weaknesses

 

Can Get Upright

At 6’7” it’s quite understandable if Trevor Penning isn’t able to stay as low as some of the smaller players that he goes against on a weekly basis at the FCS level. With that said, the amount of times that you see him get too upright is slightly concerning. There were numerous times I saw him get pushed back by smaller players because of this. Smaller players were able to get under his shoulder pads and get him off balance. Most of the time he was able to recover, but NFL players are a different breed than FCS.

 

Mental Mistakes

In every single game that I watched of Trevor Penning, he had a least one penalty. On top of that, there would be times where he would almost seem bored with the competition and fall asleep and get caught flat footed. In the end, they’re also easily correctable mistakes. However, when you’re trying to separate yourself from others in the NFL Draft, it’s small mistakes like this that can be the difference between a 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd round selection.

 

Passive When Pass Blocking

This might be a little bit of my own personal opinion coming out a little too much. I believe that Penning allows the defender to get in on him too much. Maybe it’s because Penning is so much bigger and stronger than the defensive players he’s typically going against. I would like to see him be the one to initiate contact with the defender, rather than the other way around. Now this isn’t to say I want him lunging out at defenders. Rather, I would want to see him make contact and knock the defender out of rhythm when they go to make their move around him. This would help him from getting caught upright and losing leverage against the defender, as I mentioned earlier.

 

Final Thoughts on Trevor Penning

 

While Trevor Penning isn’t a completely polished prospect, he has the tools that you would need to succeed in the NFL. He dominates lower level opponents in the FCS, but when Northern Iowa has stepped up in class he’s more than held his own. Penning isn’t getting a lot of attention from the national media at this point, but I expect that to change once the 2022 NFL Draft season really kicks off. I think eventually he will even break into the Draft Dive Top 50 Big Board as his stock continues to rise, and be a name that everyone becomes familiar with.

While I think that he can rise to become a 1^st round prospect, currently I would feel safer taking him in the 2^nd round of the 2022 NFL Draft. That’s only because I believe there are more NFL ready tackles ahead him at the moment. However, I’m looking forward to watching Trevor the rest of the season, as well as him finally getting that national attention he deserves.

 

Trevor Penning Scouting Report/ Draft Profile by Brandon Claburn

 

Trevor Penning NFL Comparison: Check back closer to draft