Christian Mahogany scouting report: Exploring the Boston College interior offensive lineman's strengths and weaknesses

A three-star recruit in 2019, Christian Mahogany redshirted his first season, before starting all 22 games the following two years and being named second-team All-ACC in the latter one of those, when he switched over from left to right guard.

He missed the entire 2022 season after tearing his right ACL in June, but then bounced back big-time, improving to first-team all-conference as a 12-game starter at that RG spot last year.

Details: 6‘3“, 320 pounds; RS SR.

Breaking down Christian Mahogany's scouting report

Christian Mahogany at the NFL Combine

Strengths

Run-blocking

• Christian Mahogany presents a wide chest and packs a ton of pop in his hands.
• Makes good use of the bucket step and has that broad chest to take control of D-linemen in the play-side gap of outside zone.
• Keeps working laterally on those lateral concepts, whether he has to stay thick or climb early on combos.
• You see Mahogany provide force towards the side of nose-tackles and push them over to open up significant cutback lanes on the backside.
• Leads with his near-shoulder and is regularly able to create that initial momentum on vertical double-teams, such as “duo.”
• Has the thump at contact to absorb the momentum of linebackers creeping or attacking downhill and redirect it, in order to ride them out of the lane.
• Legitimately bowls over edge defenders on kick-outs and will happily pounce on top of them.
• As only a redshirt sophomore, he was one of six Power Five guards who earned 80+ grades as a pass- and run-blocker – and he nearly did the same this past year.

Pass-protection

• Christian Mahogany shows quick, active feet in protection.
• Features impressive change-of-direction skills to mirror rushers moving a lot side-to-side.
• Probably can kick out to tackle in a pinch with the way he can cover ground against wide three-techniques, where he leads with the outside foot in a quasi-kick-slide.
• Does a nice job of squaring up blitzing linebackers and neutralizing their charge.
• Patient with sorting out different pressure looks and rarely gets caught out of position.
• Even when he commits his shoulder with the spiking D-tackle, he’s typically able to cut off and take control of the end looping over the top, thanks to his sturdy base.
• Dishes out some wicked rib shots when he’s unoccupied in protection
• Wasn’t charged with any sacks or QB hits last season and just seven hurries across 422 pass-blocking snaps.

Weaknesses

• Christian Mahogany has a pretty high center of gravity and against NFL defensive linemen where he doesn’t have the raw strength advantage, that lost leverage battle will become more prevalent
• His feet tend to overrun the target and he can slip off blocks in the process when there’s more of a runway, particularly against savvier defenders in terms of their hand usage
• Doesn’t have the greatest short-area burst, to where if he has to stay attached to the down-linemen, the backer beats him to the spot at times on the play-side (outside zone for example) or he just takes too long to get to his spot as a puller.
• Tends to overextend when trying to short-set interior rushers and loses off the line more than you’d like to see on those.
• Needs to gain more depth after delivering an initial bump as guys slant across his face or he’s just being unoccupied in protection.

Christian Mahogany's 2024 NFL Draft projection

You’re not going to find many more powerful offensive linemen in this draft than Christian Mahogany. That makes his inability to latch his hands under the pads of defensive linemen and control reps that much more frustrating.

So often you see him move large men against their will and a second later he’s past them, allowing his initial defender to get involved in the tackle. And then other times I’m asking myself “Why don’t you just sit back and stonewall pass-rushers” instead of compromising himself with more aggressive approaches.

If you can ever truly bundle that force and get him to operate under better control, he could absolutely develop into a quality starter. Yet, it may take him until his sophomore season to eliminate those whiffs sprinkled in throughout his tape.

It was good to see him create movement throughout team periods and be more patient during one-on-ones at Shrine Bowl practices, to remind people of his ability, considering he missed all of 2022 and Boston College wasn’t seen on television a whole lot last season. I’d be willing to spend a late day two pick on him.

Christian Mahogany Grade: Third round.

You might be interested in other OL scout reports: Cooper Beepe; Christian Haynes.