Sedrick Van Pran scouting report: Exploring the Georgia interior offensive lineman's strengths and weaknesses

The number one center recruit in the country for 2020, Sedrick Van Pran sat his first season behind Trey Hill and saw action as a backup late in four games. In year two, he started all 15 games for the eventual national champs, with a higher percentage of snaps than any other Bulldog (90%).

He once again spear-headed that unit last season en route to another title and earned second-team All-SEC accolades. While UGA fell short of a three-peat, due to their one loss coming in the SEC championship, Van Pran improved to first-team all-conference, starting all 13 weeks.

Sedrick Van Pran scouting report

Run-blocking:

• Pretty quick from snap to step, to where he gets his hands on head-up 2-technique over guards before they can properly get out of their stance on inside zone or blocking down to the backside
• Swiftly erases the space towards three-techniques when asked to back-block on them as they pull that guard
• Whether he bucket-steps or opens those hips to get flip down the line on different variations of zone-blocking, this guy gets moving horizontally and he delivers some thump when he does initiate contact
• Defensive linemen slanting into the play-side A-gap blocking inside zone get put on the ground a few times by Van Pran
• Makes sure to connect with the near-shoulder of his guards and unite their force on vertical combos (duo)
• While his arms are only 31.5 inches, Van Pran’s 78.5-inch wingspan is slightly above average and he’s able to direct defenders when it looks like there seems to be some separation created
• Fully capable of coming off the ball with low pads and digging D-tackles out of their gap in short-yardage situations
• Can get on his horse and wrap-around the guard for powerful lead-blocks on the play-side linebacker

Pass-protection:

• Brings some heavy hands and maintains a wide base to take control of interior pass-rushers
• Finds ways to re-gain leverage by lifting rushers and getting his elbow in tight
• Maximizes his arm length well to pick up rushers that becomes his responsibility slightly delayed on slide-protections
• Excels at using his near-arm on slide protections to feel if the next-closest rusher bubbles over towards the A-gap whilst keeping his eyes on the second level for delayed pressure
• Shows good patience to square up blitzers and lock them up
• There are some impressive moments of shoving the first man over towards his teammate and catch the secondary looper or cross-blitzer easily
• Really sells play-action by coming hard down the line, forcing linebackers to scrape along
• He’s allowed just one sack and QB hit each on 1418 pass-blocking snaps over the past three years, with pressure rates between 2.1% and 2.7% in those

Weaknesses:

• Certainly gets pretty top-heavy in the run game and could lose his balance against crafty D-linemen who can use that against him
• Looks a little bit lot at times when linebackers hit backside or just in general the picture changes post-snap and his initial assignment isn’t “in place”
• Has some body-control issues trying to secure moving targets in the defensive backfield
• Certainly more comfortable in a phonebooth, where he can battle them in confined space as a pass-protector than if he has to set a little wider and possibly redirect vs. sudden counters
• Doesn’t have the reactionary athleticism to still get the job done if he’s late with transitioning on twists or different games

I was shocked to see Van Pran’s arm length measuring in the sixth percentile at the combine, because if anything it looked like his ability to guide defenders further at the end of his reach was a plus. This guy’s a gritty run-blocker, who can move defenders off their landmark in a horizontal or vertical capacity, yet he can also be utilized on shorter pulls at least.

In pass-protection, he rarely lunges and then has the shock in his hands to take control of rushers, and linebackers trying to crash into him with a runway won’t find much success either. As long as you don’t ask him to work longer pulls or get out in space a whole lot, I think he can start right away for a team at guard or center, preferably for a gap-scheme heavy offense.

Grade: Early third round