Juice Scruggs

Pos: IOL

School: Penn State

Ht. 6’3″ 

Wt. 301

Games Watched: Michigan, Ohio State, Auburn

One Liner: Reliable center that wins with functional strength, athleticism and recovery technique at the POA

Strengths: 

  • Very good functional strength. Scruggs is a reliable, powerful blocker who can neutralize rushers in their steps with a powerful punch. He has the ability to seal off his edges to prevent finesse moves and other rush counters. 
  • Good footwork. Scruggs has good leg drive and has the footwork to move up to the next level and find work in space. While he isn’t the most fluid mover, he shows that he has the sufficient lateral agility to pull and attack downfield.
  • Good recovery technique at the POA. Scruggs uses good footwork and strength to recover from losses against inside moves, and shows the ability to shuffle his feet and maintain good positioning despite giving up initial ground to rushers. 
  • Good range. Scruggs has solid range, and is able to work upfield due to a limit on wasted steps and good footwork. When pulling, Scruggs can make an impact in the open field and neutralize defenders in running lanes.

Weaknesses:

  • Adequate hand technique. Scruggs will have to improve upon his upperbody technique to reduce the situations that require him to use his recovery technique. Scruggs is often late to bring his hands up, causing rushers to get their arms in his chest and work around Scruggs’ blocking attempts. He will need to clean up hand placement issues as well. 
  • Adequate awareness. Scruggs will need to do a better job picking up stunts on the defensive front in the passing game. Also, Scruggs needs to play with better awareness in space when looking to find work at the second level. 

Overall Assessment: Juice Scruggs is a strong center who possesses mostly average traits that indicate signs of potential success at the next level. On top of his strength, Scruggs has sufficient footwork and recovery technique which he uses in pass protection situations to outmuscle and outposition rushers attacking in. He is an alert player in pass protection but sometimes stunts and twists could get the best of him, and he needs to make sure his head is constantly on swivel when run blocking in space. There isn’t much to write home about his athletic ability, meaning he is just average, which is why I think he would best be suited to uitilize his footwork and strength as a man blocking center moving forward. 

Scheme Fit: Man Blocking center

Pick Projection: Late Round 3

Grade: 6.21