Top 10 interior offensive linemen in the 2021 NFL Draft

#9 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Quinn Meinerz (Wisconsin-Whitewater)

6’ 3”, 320 pounds; SR

Quinn Meinerz

Unranked coming out of high school in Hartford, Wisconsin, Quinn Meinerz didn’t have the opportunity to play for the nearby Badgers, but instead joined a powerhouse in Division III.

After playing only two games his freshman season, he dominated the competition in 2018 and ’19, when he was named first team All-Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) in each of them and first-team Division III All-American by the AP in 2019.

However, he only started getting the recognition, when he received a Senior Bowl invitation and became a big story for NFL Network and ESPN, with that belly hanging out of his half-shirt and the way he performed against some of the top collegiate players in the country.

Meinerz definitely shows some nasty on tape and you are guaranteed – bodies will hit the floor. On inside zone, Meinerz can dip that inside shoulder to enable his teammates to get their hips around and take over blocks of B-gap defenders. When they are more in a 2i alignment and he has to ride that block before passing it on, he can do so, as he has that guy pinned away from the ball-carrier, while his eyes are locked on the linebacker behind him.

On more wide zone blocking, he can twist D-tackles with that outside hand and bring his hips around, to get the ball-carrier out to the edge. Overall I just really like the way he makes sure his fellow linemen are left in favorable positions and can take over blocks on all those lateral run-blocking schemes.

Meinerz keeps those elbows in tight and strikes upwards through contact with backers, to create that momentum and drive them away from the action. And when he comes off those combos and there’s no second-level defender in his way, he will just keep going up to the safety. Plus, he is really quick at making up space and getting in front of bodies, after having to stay on the down-man a little longer, to make sure the block is secured.

Quinn Meinerz can just uproot one-techs on more man/gap schemes, by getting chest-to-chest and displaying tremendous leg-drive. On double-teams with the center, you see those two completely overwhelm some defenders, put them on their backs and roll over them. He can level guys when hitting them from the side on pulls and he’s also very smooth releasing on RB screen, where he is looking to take out defenders.

The D3 standout beautifully slides his feet in protection and punches inside the chest of rushers with impact. What really stands out about Meinerz is the way that he anchors down against powerful inside guys, activating the full strength of his lower body by using the full range of his joints, as he sinks his weight, and grabbing the turf with his cleats, by getting his toes pointed outside.

Moreover, his paws rarely come off defenders, and even if he can’t fit the hands initially, he will keep working them, to make sure he can gain control. So he really limits that push up the middle of the pocket. When he’s not matched up with anybody in pass-pro,

Meinerz keeps that inside hand on the defender locking horns with the center, while actively looking for counters back into the B-gap from edge rushers, where he can just flatten those guys if they try doing so. Meinerz has the foot quickness to get himself into position and brings some thump when engaging with stunts his way.

He also really sells play-action with how aggressively he comes off the ball and turns his body. While the media had to ruin it a little, by hyping him up like crazy, Meinerz did have a very impressive Senior Bowl week, driving some of the best Division I defensive tackles way off the ball in the run game and getting more settled in pass-pro with every single rep to go with landing on top on several rushers.

He was named the National Team’s offensive lineman of the week, playing a lot of center. And then the athletic testing at his pro day just put the cherry on top for a humungous pre-draft process.

Obviously this will be a huge jump in competition for Meinerz and he just won’t be able to bully defenders the way he did when watching the film. As impressive as he was down in Mobile, the top-end guys he will face at the next level, go even a step further.

Of course I don’t know if it was just about the timing of adding that snap and how much more natural that can become for him – you do have to consider he had never played center before he went to Mobile. But the one thing I did see at the Senior Bow, that I thought he needed to do a better job of, is actually squaring up rushers, who are lined up shaded to one shoulder or more so directly in the gap, rather than allowing them to play half the man as they first initiate.

That gave him some trouble, when they could shoot upfield. Meinerz’s weight tends to go over his toes and allows defenders to pull him off in pass-protection. And overall, there is some grabbiness to his game, which will get penalized more in the NFL.

While the projection is still not as easy as it would be with SEC offensive linemen of course, even in the 2019 D3 championship game against North Central, Meinerz was destroying defenders left and right.

He could probably play either guard spot in the NFL, but I like him best at center, if he can iron out that little detail I just explained, in terms being pro-active with his footwork against shade alignments. For me, he is a lower level offensive prospect since Ali Marpet out of Hobart back in 2015. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him go in the second round.