2015 NFL Draft Scouting Report – Reese Dismukes, C Auburn

By Peter Smith | Dec 12, 2014

Auburn’s Reese Dismukes entered his senior season as one of the most decorated offensive linemen in the country. The Tiger center started his freshman year and has not looked back, being saddled with the responsibility of handling the line calls up front in Gus Malzahn’s high powered offense. As a junior, Dismukes was the SEC-All First Team pivot as well as the team’s highest graded blocker on the unit. He finished his career by winning the Rimington Award for the nation’s top center.

The tempo and style of the Auburn offense forces Dismukes and the rest of the Auburn line to be light on their feet and athletic. As a result, the blocking scheme tends to has a heavy emphasis on zone concepts that ask Dismukes to be able to win with good positioning and able to attack the second level, demanding he have a lot of stamina over the course of the game and season. To this point in his career, he has only missed one game due to injury and will leave with over 50 starts in his career.

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Vitals & Build

Born October 20, 1992 (Will be 22 at the time of the NFL Draft)
6’3″ 295lbs (Listed)

Dismukes has a decent but somewhat ordinary looking build, but he has plenty of room to add weight and more importantly, strength. He looks taller than his listed height because of how he plays. There is certainly a decent amount of growth potential at the next level, which could be promising if he can maintain his athleticism.

Athleticism

Dismukes moves really well and is light on his feet. He runs well and is easily able to get to the second and up the field when needed as well as having impressive pretty good lateral agility. Not only that, but Dismukes is accustomed to playing in an up tempo offense and has the endurance, motor, and effort to sustain.

The one major area of concern with Dismukes has to do with his knees. He does not bend all that well in his stance or when he is in pass protection, so he has issues with his leverage and it mutes some of his strength. This also impacts his ability to break down in space, which can be problematic. If Dismukes can become a more natural bender, he could improve dramatically.

Run Blocking

Dismukes is an effective positional blocker in the running game. When he is able to shield the opponent from his body and continually work his hands and feet to keep them from getting to the play, he can be productive. He moves well and can be quick off the ball, enabling him to initiate contact with opposing interior linemen.

Dismukes fires off the ball, gets in great position, turns the opposing defender and then keeps working his feet to seal him off, which helped to create a huge running lane for the ball carrier.

Dismukes struggles to generate power at the point of attack (in no small part to his bad leverage) and is rarely ever to move the line of scrimmage without help from one of his guards. Too often, simply forcing a draw is the best case scenario. And there are enough situations where he is left to block a defensive lineman alone and the play is cut short as a result that raise significant concerns.

The defender drives Dismukes off balance into the backfield, sheds him and stuffs the play.

When Dismukes is not covered or he is just tasked with helping put a defender on a guard’s block, he is going to the next level. He is extremely nimble and get to the second level effectively and when he is right there, it can produce big opportunities for the offense.

Dismukes gets to the second level and is able to seal off the backer, enabling the ball carrier to get the first down.

The problem for Dismukes is that in part because he has issues with bending, he can have trouble hitting moving targets or sinking so he can make a block. As a result, while he is more than athletic enough to get down field and make an impact on the second level, the results can be overwhelmingly inconsistent.

Dismukes gets to the second level but is quickly discarded by Benardrick McKinney who is able to go help with the tackle for loss.

More concerning is the fact that Dismukes’ lack of power is not just limited to opposing defensive linemen; he can also get overpowered by linebackers.

Dismukes attempts to go to the second level to pick up the middle linebacker and gets knocked back into the hole, causing the ball carrier to get knocked to the ground.

Athletically and in terms of his willingness to work both with his feet and hands, Dismukes shows flashes of what could be an extremely productive center. Struggles with power as well as issues with bending his knees produce some inconsistent results as well as some concerning failures on his part at the collegiate level. With improved flexibility and more power, Dismukes can be an asset in the running game, but it is difficult to imagine him being ready to contribute early in his NFL career.

Pass Blocking

Dismukes is a pretty solid pass protector at this point. His lack of leverage is less of a problem and he has great feet to slide and work laterally, giving the team options with how they want to draw up protections. Dismukes is consistently under control and balanced so that he can absorb hits and keeps his head on a swivel so he is rarely caught by surprise.

This gives an idea of the type of lateral agility Dismukes offers in pass protection.

While he does not always use it, Dismukes often snaps the ball with a big step back to make him even with the rest of the offensive line, giving him more time to process what the opponent is throwing at him.

Dismukes is lined up with the rest of the offensive line even with his hips, but when he snaps the ball, he steps back and begins the play even with them to set up their protection.

Dismukes holds his water well here and is in good position to take on the stunt, providing a nice pocket for the quarterback.

Dismukes gets in his pass set, but is thrown out of the way by a push-pull move.

Technique

Dismukes does a nice job with his hand placement and understanding how he can control and turn opponents with his hands. His punch is not overly powerful but Dismukes is not someone that is going to whiff and overextend on the punch either. Whatever he lacks in being able to jolt the opponent, he makes up with his consistency and getting his hands in good position to make blocks.

Footwork

Dismukes has active feet. He does a good job of taking short, controlled steps to maintain a position of strength while always trying to keep his feet moving to maximize his position and give him the best angle to block opponents. When going to the second level, he does not try to reach too far with his steps and compromise his ability to adjust to a moving target.

System Fit

Zone Scheme Center

His quickness and ability to get down field makes him most ideally suited to play in a zone heavy scheme. He still needs time and development to get to where he can play and be productive but the best situation for him. Teams that run up tempo offenses such as the Philadelphia Eagles may also have an interest in Dismukes as he has shown he can play fast and not wear down over the course of a game.

Zone Scheme Guard

For the many of the reasons listed above, Dismukes could be an attractive prospect as a general interior linemen to zone heavy schemes or teams that run an up tempo pace consistently. If a team already has a center and needs a guard, Dismukes could end up playing there.

Gap Scheme Center

Given the issues he has, it seems unlikely that a gap heavy scheme team would be all that interested in Dismukes, at least in his current state. With substantial physical development, he could be an effective cog for teams that prefer to run more gap blocking, but it would be a substantial project.

Draft Projection

Reese Dismukes looks the part of a Day Three Prospect, but much of this is largely because of the scarcity of options and the importance of the position. His actual value is more of a Late Round option with the possibility of going undrafted. He could end up as depth initially, but it could be difficult for him to become a starter at the next level unless he can learn how to bend and maximize his leverage and power.

The clips were provided by DraftBreakdown.com

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