Strengths: 

  • Great Hand Usage

Creed Humphrey does a phenomenal job with his hands. His hand placement and timing is great play in and play out and his hands also pack a punch making for an effective combination.

  • Good Footwork

Creed Humphrey does a great job with his feet in both pass protection and the run game. His kick slide is very consistent and there is no wasted movement with his footwork in the run game.

  • Understands Leverage

Creed Humphrey comes from a wrestling background and it’s clear that he understands how to out leverage defenders and keep his pads low to give himself the leverage advantage.

  • Finishes Play

Creed Humphrey is a great finisher who doesn’t let players go once he gets a hold of them. He will drive guys in the run game and take guys completely out of pass rush snaps which is good to see.

Weaknesses: 

  • Short Arms

Creed Humphrey has short arms even for a center which we saw was an issue in college with linemen being able to outreach him and get into his chest and it will be even more of an issue in the NFL.

  • Not the Strongest Guy in the World

Creed Humphrey will give up a lot of ground in pass protection even when he anchors down, especially early in the snap, and in the run game he doesn’t get too much drive at the point of attack. Overpowering his opponents is just not something he will do.

  • Not Incredibly Quick

Creed Humphrey isn’t the slowest guy in the world but he’s not quite as quick as people think and he relies on good footwork rather than quickness to get to his spots, and it’s visible when he’s asked to travel far on the second level.

Player Comp: Creed Humphrey reminds me quite a bit of Lions center Frank Ragnow when he was coming out of college. Both guys play with great leverage and pad level and understand how to position themselves well. They have great footwork that makes them look quicker than they are and it allows them to beat defenders to their spots. They use their hands extremely well and always finish the play. Their weaknesses similarly is that they don’t have amazing strength when anchoring and at the point of attack, as well as not being overly quick when asked to get defenders farther away. Ragnow has slightly longer arms and his technique and recognition is a bit better than Humphrey but their play styles are still very similar.

Final Thoughts: People have Creed Humphrey in the first round conversation if not in the early second round leading up to the draft and I think this is just a bit high on Creed Humphrey for now. He’s not a bad player but he still has to get better with his play recognition when reading the defense, and he’s not overly athletic to make up for it. I’d say that the mid late second round suits him more than the early second round or the late first round. I think he’s going to be a bit better in power than he will be in a zone blocking scheme because of the lack of quickness, so my team fit for him is the Cowboys because they run power and since Travis Frederick retired they’ve had a hole at center.