Luke Wypler

Pos: OC

School: Ohio State

Ht. 6’3”

Wt. 303

Games Watched: Michigan, Penn State, Georgia

One Liner: Athletic center who wins with lateral agility, short area quickness and football IQ.

Strengths: 

  • Very good athletic ability. Wypler displays the required short area quickness with good foot speed to be an athletic, scheme versatile center at the next level. Wypler has the fluidity in his hips to roll in gap blocking techniques and be more than a non linear, zone blocking athlete.
  • Very good lateral agility. Wypler demonstrates high quality lateral movements for a center and proves capable when pulling in gap schemes beyond C gaps. 
  • Very good quickness off the LOS. Wypler jolts off the snap and into the POA, engaging and engulfing the player into his chest. His quickness off the line allowed him to overcome arm length deficiencies in college. 
  • Good football IQ. Wypler shows a solid understanding of incoming defensive fronts, potential twists and identifes the keys for the offense to succeed on a play by play basis. His football IQ combined with athleticism allow him to be ahead of defenders mentally. 

Weaknesses:

  • Adequate strength. Wypler lacks the power and strength to be a true neutralizer in the NFL. At his size and strength, he is more likely to eat up blocks rather than be an attacking mauler in space. Wypler doesn’t maintain power and drive in his blocks rather beating players out to the ball carrier with athletic ability.
  • Adequate measurables. Ideally centers need bigger hands rather than having longer arms, but Wypler has neither ideal trait in terms of measurables and frame, making blocking technique much more of a hassle for Wypler to succeed with.
  • Adequate blocking technique in space. Wypler often moves too fast in space to the point where he loses awareness of the defenders he needs to block. His overcommitment to moving out and finding work in space also leads to poor technique at the POA where he might misplace his hands or lose some body control and positioning once engaged.

Overall Assessment: Luke Wypler is an athletic center who is much more likely to succeed as a second level, zone blocking center that wins by finding work at the next level. Wypler thrives off playing on the move and in space, and has the fluid athletic ability to make this work at the next level as well. However, Wypler will need to bulk up and clean up some of his technique at the POA with his hand placement and timing. Because of Wypler’s athletic ability, he has pretty high upside but may struggle early on if he isn’t in a scheme catered towards his movement skills and fails to add some strength to drive defenders back once engaged.

Scheme Fit: Zone blocking center

Pick Projection: Day 2-Early Day 3

Grade: 6.20