The profile makes you salivate, but the Oklahoma tackle should be quite reassuring.
Anton Harrison – Tackle – 21 – Junior – Oklahoma
Height: 1m94
Weight: 143kg
Estimated draft position: 1er-2e round
NFL Comparison: Dion Dawkins
Strong points
– Aggressive from the first contact
– Good technician
– Fluidity of movement
Oklahoma and left tackles, it’s a long story! In recent times, the Sooners have notably provided the NFL with prospects like Trent Williams and Orlando Brown, two of the league’s most renowned outside offensive linemen. Is the story about to continue, with Anton Harrison? The future will tell.
But one thing is certain: the Washington native has clearly asserted his reputation as an academic. Quickly propelled left tackle on the Norman campus, the number 71 was happy to be respected on the professional pass. Endowed with a good technique and a deterrent physique, he also composes with a praiseworthy fluidity of movement when protecting the quarterback. In a more than sluggish 2022 season for the Sooners, Harrison was a key player in the latter part of the season, allowing the air offense to turn a real corner, while being aggressive on the ground. Often used on the move, on blocks in the zone, Harrison showed his advantage on the ground game as much as on pass protection, thanks to his use of the upper body and violent hands, able to jostle his screw -to-vis in active or passive phase. The room for improvement is undeniable for those who have just blown out their 21 candles.
Weak points
– Center of gravity
– Endurance and consistency
His somewhat premature registration for the NFL made him an arguably perfectible product. And this on many points. Technically, Harrison is quite solid, but if the upper body highlights him, the lower body still stutters: his foot placement and his hip positioning tend to sometimes put him in needless difficulty against defenders adept at bull rush. Physically, not everything is perfect, or at least not all the time. In some encounters, Harrison has seemed more borrowed, and he will clearly need to gain consistency to be an effective blindside guardian angel. Last point: his athletic qualities, which were not really obvious compared to other “competitors” during the Combine in Indianapolis. Nothing prohibitive, when we remember Orlando Brown’s abominable Combine at the time, but it has the gift of questioning for a player more likely to play on the left than on the right.
Possible destinations
New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers, Indianapolis Colts, Tennessee Titans, Chicago Bears
A reliable-looking player, but with gray areas that are still too palpable. On paper, Anton Harrison is an attractive project, especially since he represents a rare commodity, namely a quickly operational tackle on the blind side. But when other linemen rage during the draft process (Freeland, Wright, Dawand Jones), the Sooner does not mark the spirits and could not be drafted from day one because of it. With a coaching staff that believes in him, it does not seem outlandish to see him start a match in his season rookiein a fairly balanced attack on the bouldering phases, so as not to expose it too much on its random management of dropouts.
