Caleb Lomu OT Utah |
NFL Draft Profile & Scouting Report

Scouting Report: Weaknesses

• Core power is the glaring issue and it showed up at the Combine. In the mirror drill, he shadowed the coach beautifully but drifted backward the whole time, bracing for contact rather than anchoring against it.
• Run blocking is a full tier below his pass protection right now. He struggles to generate movement at the point of attack and too often stalls out against defensive ends who sit and anchor.
• Arm length at 33 3/8 inches and hand size at 9 1/2 inches are both below average for the position. He compensates with timing and technique, but longer NFL edge rushers will test those measurements.
• Finishing through blocks is inconsistent. He wins the initial punch and the positioning battle, then lets defenders shed and make plays that his talent should have prevented outright.
• Opens his hips early against speed-to-power conversions, giving away the inside lane. Any NFL rusher with a corner-to-counter move in his bag will attack that tendency until it is coached out of him.

Scouting Report: Summary

Lomu is one of the more fascinating offensive tackle prospects in this class because the gap between his current floor and his theoretical ceiling is enormous. Right now, today, he is a legitimate pass protector. Going from two sacks allowed to zero sacks allowed across his two starting seasons is not a fluke. His hand timing, his ability to mirror in space, and his composure against complex rush patterns are tangible, repeatable skills. Those traits, combined with a Combine performance that confirmed every ounce of athleticism his tape suggested, put him in the conversation as one of the better pure pass blockers in this draft cycle regardless of position.

The run game is where a team has to buy the projection. Lomu does not move people off the ball consistently right now, and his core strength limitations are real. But the raw tools are sitting right there. A 9.88 Relative Athletic Score. A frame that can carry 325-plus pounds without losing its movement profile. Lateral agility that makes him a natural fit in outside zone and wide-zone concepts, where footwork and angles matter more than brute force. He is the kind of tackle who will thrive in a scheme that lets him work in space, get to the second level on combination blocks, and use his feet rather than his anchor to win reps. Power-heavy, phone-booth offenses that ask their left tackle to cave in a 5-technique every snap are not his best fit, at least not yet.

The development curve matters here. Lomu has only 27 college games and 1,620 career snaps under his belt. His pass blocking jumped meaningfully from his first year starting to his second, which tells you he absorbs coaching and applies it quickly. A team that drafts him late in the first round is not buying a finished product. They are buying a left tackle with rare movement skills and legitimate blind-side protection ability who needs a year or two of NFL strength and conditioning work to round out the run game and shore up the anchor. That is a bet worth making, because when the body catches up to the feet and the hands, the result could be a fixture at the most premium position on the offensive line for a decade.