2017 NFL Draft: Pat Elflein Scouting Report
By jonfox
Where does the draft stock of Pat Elflein currently stand for the 2017 NFL draft?
I’m a big fan of Pat Elflein, the pass blocking guard. In this role, he could be Brandon Scherff 2.0. He sets his base well and gives help when he doesn’t have an assignment. He also knows how to deal with a variety of pass rush moves and doesn’t panic.
As a run blocking guard, he seems limited. His passivity as a blocker makes his pulling skills look ineffective. I know he’s very capable of pancaking just about any defender he faces in college, but when he pulls he shies away from making contact with a defender preferring to just wall off the defender.
I’m very impressed by his run blocking when Elfein doesn’t pull. For whatever reason, and it might be schematic, when Elfein asked to wall off a hole for an interior run he can be extremely effective.
But even in this, Elflein exposes himself to smaller, quicker blockers by putting his arms too high on a defender. This is something that will work in college. In the pros the defensive linemen will all know how to counter that move.
The tape of the 2015 Michigan and Notre Dame games show all of these traits in Elflein. And it’s easy to retort that a lot of this could be scheme. Ohio State doesn’t pull their guards as much as other teams do.
And their passing game turns into quarterback keeper runs more than usual so he could look a bit a passive at times since he is unsure what’s going to happen. I don’t find this as a valid argument since he has no passivity problems when asked to block the interior run.
Draft Grade: Mid 2nd
He might be the top guard in the draft right now, but I can’t justify taking him in the 1st round because I’m worried that he doesn’t seek out contact enough on those pull calls-which he’ll be asked to do far more often in the NFL.