2022 NFL Draft Notebook: 2021 NFL MVP Rams QB Matthew Stafford?

One of the more interesting players in the 2022 NFL Draft is TCU offensive tackle Obinna Eze. Eze spent most of his childhood growing up in Nigeria before moving to America in 2015. He spent his first two seasons in the USA focusing on basketball but finally decided to give football a chance during his senior year in high school. It didn’t take long for colleges to notice him either as he was rated as a four-star prospect and earned offers from Alabama, Auburn, Florida, and several other Power Five schools.

Obinna Eze pulled a bit of surprise though when he chose to play at Memphis over these more high-profile schools and was the second-highest-rated player in his recruiting class to choose to go to a Group of Five school. Eze spent his first year with the Tigers redshirting and studying film to get a better grasp of the game, He started to see game action in 2018 when he started six games and in 2019 became a full-time starter to give him a total of 25 starts at left tackle. In January, Eze announced he will play his final season at TCU where he is expected to be a day one starter at left tackle.

When projecting Eze to the next level several traits stand out about him that makes him an intriguing developmental prospect. One of these traits is his enormous size coming in at 6-foot-8 and 315 pounds. He has the long arms to go with this size and does an excellent job of extending his arms and keeping his defender at bay. Another positive with Eze is his strength and his ability to control his man once he has his hands on him.

While Eze is far from a bad athlete he likely lacks the athletic ability to play left tackle in the NFL. He will need to switch to right tackle due to this lack of fluidity to hold up against the top speed pass rushers in the NFL, who will be able to beat him off the edge. His biggest deficiencies in this area are he tends to lunge when blocking, especially when he gets to the second level, and having poor lower body flexibility. This poor flexibility also hurts him when it comes to his pad level which is an even bigger issue for a player who is as tall as Eze is.

Going into the 2021 season Eze is graded as a fourth-round prospect, however, if he can compete against the top players in the Big 12 that grade will likely rise. It would not be a shock if he earned a day two draft grade in the 2022 NFL Draft if he holds up against tougher competition this year, performs well at an all-star game, and tests well at the NFL combine.