2022 NFL Draft: Kenyon Green, Tyler Linderbaum Top IOL Rankings
Texas A&M’s Kenyon Green and Iowa’s Tyler Linderbaum headline the interior offensive line class in the 2022 NFL Draft.
The interior offensive line isn’t often the position that gets a lot of headlines in the draft, but it’s produced some excellent players in recent years. The 2018 draft had Quenton Nelson and Frank Ragnow. Elgton Jenkins and Erik McCoy have been very good from 2019, and even this past draft featured two talented centers in London Dickerson and Creed Humphrey. For the 2022 NFL Draft, another pair of linemen sit atop the rankings. Let’s get right to it.
Previous Rankings:
1. Kenyon Green, G, Texas A&M
Kenyon Green tops the preseason interior offensive line rankings, and likely will find himself in the top 10 of the next big board here at NFL Mocks. Green has played fantastic at the guard spot to this point for the Aggies.
He’s got great power and pop in his hands, and has great hand usage to recover when his feet lag a bit working laterally in pass protection. His hands stay active and he has a fantastic anchor and rarely ever gives up ground to keep the pocket clean. Green has great vision and recognition when it comes to stunts, and is aggressive to attack when the defender loops around. In the run game, Green has good initial quicks, good explosion when pulling, and flashes the ability to turn defenders wide. He’s good at climbing to the second level and has the finisher mentality.
It will be interesting to see how Green handles moving to left tackle this year and what that does for his 2022 NFL Draft stock.
2. Tyler Linderbaum, C, Iowa
Tyler Linderbaum has been firmly on the radar for a couple seasons now after moving to center from the defensive line at Iowa. It’s hard to believe how natural center looks for him.
Zone teams in the NFL will love his skill set. Linderbaum’s initial quicks, explosion, and excellent athleticism play into his great angles in the run game, and gives him the advantage to establish leverage quickly. He’s an excellent reach blocker, getting to the outside shoulder of defenders with ease. His vision is great to peel back to get second level defenders out of the play when he’s leading the charge in space. In pass protection, Linderbaum can give up some ground at times, but has the anchor and strength to recover.
Linderbaum has some things to work on, like overextending a bit at the point of attack and getting more consistent with hand placement, but his talent is unbelievable and another season should only improve his stock for the 2022 NFL Draft.