Cody Mauch 2023 NFL Draft profile: Scout report for the North Dakota State IOL

Cody Mauch, North Dakota State

6’6”, 305 pounds; RS SR

Joining the NDSU program as a preferred walk-on in 2017, Mauch’s transformation since his arrival on campus has been made viral thanks to the optics, but his improvements on the field might be even more impressive. He redshirted year two, was part of the scout team in his second season, and then stepped into the role of sixth lineman in 2019 (542 snaps). In the last two years, he’s started all 15 games at left tackle, earning second-team All-MVFC and then first-team accolades respectively, along with being part of four FCS national championships.

+ Flexible athlete who plays with a natural sink in his lower body and an apparent mean-streak in the run game

+ Consistently initiates first contact with low pads, heavy hands and feet ready to churn, along with the flexibility to keep his hands latched

+ Makes opening the B-gap on the front-side look easy, creating an impact on the near-shoulder and widening those edge defenders in just a couple of steps

+ Excels at torquing bodies and pinning guys away from the action, providing hip mobility to execute reach and hinge-blocks to high effect

+ Bullies most of these FCS three-techniques when allowed to get underneath their rib-cage and dig them out of their space on down-blocks, and he completely blows some guys off their landmarks on combo-blocks with the guard

+ Glides up to the second-level with ease and is able to cut off angles, before those defenders can even process the play – Shows the mobility to cut off linebackers on the backside of zone runs when the B-gap is uncovered

+ You regularly saw him kick out guys on the edge on short pulls, when they had a tight-end or two lined up next to him blocking down, and created massive lanes as they ran behind him

+ NDSU utilized Mauch’s movement skills pulling to the edge on sweeps and crack-toss plays, where he wants to absolutely bury those smaller defenders in space

+ Has that true finishing mindset, to where you see him ride guys across the field until the echo of the whistle and doesn’t even stop if his helmet comes off

+ Even though most of his tapes are against that lower level of competition, against the Bison’s one FBS opponent in Arizona last season, he still bullied those guys and earned an 80.1 PFF grade

+ Showcases the foot quickness to mirror quick, active defenders on the edge in passing situations

+ Stays tight to the chest of rushers going up against him and doesn’t really give them an escape route

+ Displays excellent balance to absorb force with his base, bends at the hips and sets the anchor against bull-rush attempts

+ Very effective with re-fitting his hands against rushers who move left-to-right a lot

+ Doesn’t let go of guys as plays run longer and if he can land a little extra shove or put guys on the ground, he will gladly do so

+ Shows impressive moments of being able to recover after shifting his weight too far towards the wrong foot and still being able to ride guys off track

+ Only allowed a sack each and 15 combined additional pressures over the last two years (628 pass-blocking snaps total)

+ Tested above the 60th percentile across every single combine event and in the 82nd percentile or better in four of six

– Can get pretty top-heavy in the run game and lose his balance when defenders are able to knock his hands off momentarily – and he whiffs totally every once in a while where he telegraphs his punch and guys counter it accordingly

– With 32 and 3/8-inch arms, a move to the interior is likely on the cards for him, yet he has only logged 16 career snaps at all three of those spots combined

– Can be thrown off a little by guys jabbing inside and making him step with the post-foot, creating a softer corner for the rusher

– Other than an inside-out combination or a straight-up two-handed punch, Mauch lacks any type of advanced hand-usage at this point

– Has to work on his ankle flexion and get more cleats into the ground in order to consistently deal with power at the next level, if he does move inside

This kid might have the best all-around athleticism and violent mind-set of any offensive lineman in this entire draft. The way he negates space towards defenders and just engulfs them, with continuous leg-drive until the play is over was one of my favorite things to watch during this cycle. While I would argue Mauch had a bit of an up-and-down week all-around at the Senior Bowl, he took snaps at all five positions during the actual game and didn’t look out of place at any of them – that flexibility should really help his cause. Now, I don’t see him sticking out at tackle, and there could be a fairly steep learning curve in terms of the way he uses his hands to keep interior rushers off balance. With that being said, he can be an absolute gap-scheme mauler right away, with the athletic traits to become a high-level pass-protector on top of it. He should definitely be a top-50 pick.

Grade: Second round

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