Top 10 interior offensive linemen in the 2021 NFL Draft

#3 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Alijah Vera-Tucker (USC)

6’ 4”, 300 pounds; RS JR

Alijah Vera-Tucker

Just outside the top 100 overall recruits, Alijah Vera-Tucker saw plenty of action as a backup his freshman year at right guard.

In 2019, he switched to the left side and excelled all year, earning First-Team All-Pac-12 honors. Last season, after initially opting out, he jumped in at left tackle due to necessity and in those six games the Trojans played.

He impressed so much that he was named first-team all-conference and received the Morris Trophy for the top linemen period in the Pac-12, despite not having played out on the edges since high school.

Vera-Tucker presents a wide frame and is naturally strong. When he is tagged with angle blocks, he can create plenty of movement horizontally or vertically. He delivers a good bump at initial contact on combo-blocks to set up his teammates.

Tucker can literally turn the bodies of defenders by 90 degrees and coversup linebackers in the second level. When he gets into the frame of down-linemen, they stay chest-to-chest pretty much until the ball-carrier has cleared them. He can be seen pushing defensive tackles back a yard with his hands, and he consistently creates an initial vertical movement on more downhill run plays.

Vera-Tucker was used a lot on wrap-around and power pulls from that left guard spot, to clear the way. In the zone run game, he uses almost a skip-pull technique to scoop up linemen from the backside and he has the glue-like grip to be able to continue riding them as the play progresses, to where they can’t work across. There just aren’t a lot of snaps, where he slips off defenders and fails to sustain blocks, which is very appealing for zone and duo run schemes.

At the same time, AVT also offers a really strong base to swallow bull-rushes. He rarely allows defenders to suppress the integrity of the pocket, if he establishes that initial contact. And that’s why he uses a lot of quick-sets, where his arms get to near full extension and I’m waiting for him to get caught for lunging, but his base seems to always stay solid.

The versatile USC lineman gas very good balance and re-anchor ability to get back into solid position, if one of his feet doesn’t grab turf, plus he does a nice job re-placing those hands when they get too high or wide, pulling those elbows in tight, to counter any power maneuvers.

Vera-Tucker keeps scanning potential rushers into the gaps to either of side of his, when not matched up with anybody in pass-pro. When he takes on loopers or guys working his way on stunts, he can stun them with his punch. AVT allowed just seven total pressures on 590 pass-blocking snaps in 2019 at his more natural spot.

He completely neutralized Daviyon Nixon and those other Iowa linemen in their bowl game at the end of the year. Out at tackle this past season, his steps were a little choppy on those kick-slides, but he got out of his stance with urgency and once he got hands on those guys off the edge, their rush slowed down severely. So he could most likely survive at left tackle over extended stretches, which boosts his draft value.

With that being said, Vera-Tucker’s hand-placement and pressure points need some work in the run game, to control blocks, and he should use better flexion in his arms, to actually grab without refs seeing it. He has a few bad whiffs on tape in protection, when D-linemen can beat those quick-sets with sudden hands, to win cleanly, especially being vulnerable to some stutter moves.

At tackle, he tended to give up too much ground and when the quarterback had to hold onto the ball, at some point AVT and his man were in the way of being able to open up that direction or even having to release off his back-foot.

Often times he should have just pushed that guy past the pocket. His weight is shifted too far to that outside foot and he loses a lot of base strength when rushers stab to the inside. He got beat up quite a bit by Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux in the Pac-12 title game last season.

While he did give four sacks this past season (and as many additional pressures), it came at a different position, that he kind of re-learned on the fly, without much of a training camp to speak of – for the Pac-12 in particular.

In 2019, he allowed just one sack and no extra hits on the quarterback on twice as many pass-blocking snaps. In my opinion, he is getting a little overhyped as this clear-cut IOL1 on most people’s boards. But he is worth a first-round pick for me as well.

He might not the best linemen at any singular spot, but he can play all five positions at a pretty high level.