Top 10 offensive tackles in the 2021 NFL Draft

#7 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Dillon Radunz (North Dakota State)

6’ 5 ½", just over 300 pounds; RS SR

Dillon Raddunz

A skinny 265-pound offensive tackle and defensive end coming out of high school, this former two-star recruit redshirted his first year at North Dakota State to bulk up. He was named a starter heading into his freshman season, but was lost for the rest of the year just 15 snaps into the opener.

The next two years, he started all 31 games for the Bison, improving from second- to first-team All-Missouri Valley Football Conference and being named a first-team FCS All-American, plus he started NDSU’s one game they played in the fall. After being part of three national championship teams, he now decided to forgo his senior campaign.

First and foremost, Radunz does not lack FBS athleticism or game. He is such an easy mover at that left tackle spot for the Bison. He really jumps out of his stance on lateral blocking schemes, where he would be a great fit for an outside zone-oriented offense, because he can really widen the edge or reach-block outside defenders.

You see him open up huge lanes on angle blocks against D-tackles, where he attacks that near hip and turns those guys that way. Yet, he can also pin linebackers inside and get his ball-carrier out to the edge that way. NDSU moved Radunz to guard and over as the swing right tackle, with teammate Cordell Volson next to him as part of an unbalanced line, to get the run game going with those two leading the way, where Radunz was a true road-grader for the Bison.

With his mauling mentality and the fact he can still bulk up his frame, he could turn himself into an even more imposing run-blocker at the next level, while already being familiar with tons of pro-style schemes as part of a ground-oriented Bison offense.

Radunz’s movement skills as a pass-protector are also highly impressive. He flies out of his stance in his kick slide and takes away the easy angle right away. I love how active and well-coordinated his feet are, plus he has shown the ability to re-position the hands and recover with natural athleticism.

He can really mirror athletic rushers beautifully, where he doesn’t overreact to sudden movements, being able to sit in that chair and shuffle his feet. Other than one hit on Trey Lance, Radunz pretty much neutralized Northern Iowa’s Elerson Smith in 2019, who was a first-team All-FCS defensive end.

Coming into Senior Bowl week, my biggest question for him if he was able to anchor against Power-Five edge defenders, but he showed no issues dealing with speed-to-power conversions and displayed outstanding technique overall. Old friend Elerson Smith gave plenty of tackles problems with his quickness, but on the couple of reps Radunz had against him, he did what he already did in their last regular season meeting – he shut him down. I thought he was the best and most consistent OT of the week down in Mobile.

And that is something I have to weigh more heavily with him, because I already he could do it against FCS competition, allowing just one total hit on the quarterback in 2019 plus their one game last season (just over 1000 total snaps).

Nevertheless, Radunz does get caught crossing his legs at times when engaging with guys coming around the edge and if that tendency shows up in the pros again, those guys will send him flying. That is also the case when trying to react to counter moves, where the way he shifts his weight can hurt his overall balance.

You also see him get caught in-between assignments at times, when the defense brings down an extra defender late. With only 33-inch arms, his length is below-average for the tackle spot, which has some scouts projecting him to play guard, and some people have talked about concerns about his practice habits.

I can’t speak on the last bit I just mentioned because I have only watched the ball and the all-star type setting at the Senior Bowl is certainly different, which he actually thrived in.

With such a heavy dose of the run game and hard play-action off it, once again the amount true dropback pass sets was highly limited for Radunz and we will have to see how it could affect him, in terms of pass-rushers being able to read his sets and string moves together over the course of full games. I really don’t see a lot of concerns however and would feel pretty comfortable grabbing him in the latter parts of the first round.