The Football Brainiacs

Image via 247 Sports

From time to time the guys will text me with the name of a lineman they want me to have a look at, but last week I really started to question whether or not I was being too hard on a few of the players they had sent me. I say that because although I was generally able to find a few things I liked in their games, at the same time none of them really blew me away. There’s an old saying that goes ‘you’ll know it when you see it,’ and when I turned on the tape for 2016 OL Chris Owens (Arlington, TX) that’s exactly what I saw.

It actually made me think about the first time I went to see a major league baseball game, which I know sounds completely random but allow me to explain. What I mean by the reference is how I was in awe at just how effortless the players made the game look. The ball seemed to fly out of their hands and literally jumped off of their bats. At one point, Sammy Sosa went opposite field lining a ball off of the top of the right field wall that traveled the three hundred or so feet in the blink of an eye. I can see it in my head like it was yesterday. And I’ve always felt like it translates to doing these type of evaluations because if you’re having to formulate an argument as to why you think a guy may be good enough, odds are they’re probably not.

With Owens, you just turn on his tape and smile. Like those major leaguers I remember from years ago, Chris just looks effortless when he comes into contact with an opponent. For those of you who have been here at TFB for a while, you know how I love heavy-handed players. So it shouldn’t be a mystery why I like Owens’ game so much. The players he is blocking seem to “fly” off of his hands.

A simple test of how good a players hands may be shows when Owens is able to get knockdown blocks in pass protection. It’s not all that uncommon to see knockdowns in the run game, but when you see a guy putting people on the ground as he’s going backwards in pass pro…well, my friends…that’s just special.

It’s always fun to watch film as good as Owens’ is when you tend to watch as much film as we do. And Owens looks like an absolute perfect fit for that Bill Bedenbaugh wants to do with his offensive line. While he plays primarily tackle for his h.s. team, Owens projects as a guard for me at the next level. Which is not to say he lacks the athleticism to play tackle, rather at 6’4″ he may be just a smidge shorter than what you typically need at tackle. He just sticks out for me as a very athletic, heavy-handed battering ram inside at the guard position.

If there is something he needs to work on, he hops a little bit when he’s pulling or heading out on a screen. At 277 pounds, he still has quite a bit of filling out to do but unlike some players who need size to help their power, as he grows and puts on weight he’s likely to become even more devastating than he already is.

I get excited when I see the type of player that Coach Bedenbaugh is pulling in these days, and I’m hopeful that Chris becomes a Sooner.  He’s a man amongst boys in his high school film, and I have little reason to doubt that it wouldn’t be more of the same at the next level.