Analysis: Who Holds Edge in Seahawks Right Tackle Competition?

With each gamers coming from pass-happy offensive schemes within the Pac-12 convention, Lucas and Curhan every entered the league with ample expertise in move safety pitted towards high quality competitors.

Logging almost 2,100 move blocking snaps at Washington State, Lucas excelled at mirroring towards defenders and holding them away from the quarterback, surrendering solely 45 pressures and 4.0 sacks taking part in in Air Raid and Run N’ Shoot offensive schemes. He closed out his spectacular school profession by yielding no sacks and one lone quarterback hit on 477 move blocking reps, incomes First-Crew All-Pac 12 honors for the primary time.

At California, Curhan did not publish fairly as environment friendly of numbers defending the quarterback, although he remained one of many convention’s greatest bookends and loved a high quality four-year run as a starter. Transferring higher than anticipated at 330 kilos and light-weight on his ft, he surrendered 63 pressures and seven.0 sacks on 1,582 move blocking snaps for the Golden Bears, incomes a stellar 84.6 grade from Professional Soccer Focus and Honorable Point out All-Pac 12 recognition as a junior in 2019.

Based mostly off of their school numbers, accolades, and movie, Lucas ought to come into the NFL as a extra polished move protector than Curhan, who struggled with consistency as a rookie for the Seahawks. Over his ultimate six video games performed, together with 5 begins, he allowed 15 pressures and three.0 sacks, receiving higher than a 50.0 grade from Professional Soccer Focus in solely two of these video games. He wrapped up the season with a 37.2 move blocking grade and ranked 84th out of 88 certified tackles in move blocking effectivity fee.

Quantitatively talking, statistics merely aren’t out there to check Curhan and Lucas blocking towards blitzers and stunts. Professional Soccer Focus would not have splits out there, so assessing this trait boils down primarily to movie research and in that regard, there’s little or no separation between these two gamers.

Taking part in in unfold offenses, Curhan and Lucas noticed loads of twist stunts and line of defense video games from aggressive Pac-12 defenses. Additionally they needed to choose up oncoming blitzers regularly and for essentially the most half, each gamers excelled at holding their heads on a swivel, passing off rushers inside to their proper guard, and selecting up loopers capturing again outdoors. Method-wise, every participant constantly did an excellent job of utilizing hand and ft in unison towards these stunts for high quality pickups.

As evidenced within the video above, Curhan has already proven what he can do towards stunts on the subsequent stage. Whereas he struggled with quick edge rushers and in addition received abused usually with inside energy counters each without any consideration guard and deal with, apart from just a few mishaps taking part in in his first NFL common season sport towards the Vikings in Week 3, he did not have any notable points selecting up stunts or blitzes. Lucas should show he can deal with NFL gamesmanship from defensive traces.

With that mentioned, from a projection standpoint, Lucas appears extra comfy in these conditions than Curhan on movie with higher motion abilities and hand/ft synchronization. In the long term, this may not be an element this makes or breaks who wins this beginning job since each gamers have proven themselves succesful and efficient on this space, however the incoming rookie presents the next upside selecting up stunts towards NFL-caliber athletes.

Although each gamers did not have many alternatives to run block in school, Curhan benefited from seeing intensive motion in a zone-heavy scheme for the whole lot of his profession at Cal. In every of his first three seasons as a starter, the Golden Bears ran zone ideas on not less than 64 p.c of their run performs, and that will clarify why he appeared so comfy on comparable ideas as a rookie final yr.

Taking part in a key function in working again Rashaad Penny’s explosive end in December and January, Curhan acquired a good 73.4 zone blocking grade for the season, rating thirty third out of 75 tackles with not less than 175 run blocking snaps. Whereas it is not at all times fairly, he succeeds most of the time as a zone blocker by profitable the positioning battle, getting the job accomplished constantly on attain blocks and reducing off bottom defenders.

As for Lucas, he will not arrive within the league with close to as intensive of a background within the zone run blocking division. In comparison with Curhan, he logged greater than 300 fewer snaps with zone ideas and his efficiency on these performs was erratic. Whereas he did obtain a 77.0 grade in 2019, he by no means had one other season receiving above a 69.3. On movie, his athleticism did not at all times present up shifting laterally to execute zone blocks and he struggled mightily making bottom blocks.

Resulting from Lucas’ athletic traits, it is a robust risk he’ll take a serious leap ahead as a zone blocker as he good points expertise within the NFL. Down the road, he might surpass Curhan on this space, however he shall be far behind his deal with counterpart when camp kicks off in August and shall be taking part in catchup.

In a 180-degree flip from blocking twists and stunts, debating who has the benefit within the hole blocking division presents a problem as a result of neither participant did most of these ideas a lot in school taking part in out of a two-point stance.

Combing by information, Curhan (298) and Lucas (258) noticed roughly the identical variety of zone idea snaps at California and Washington State respectively. Grade-wise through PFF, Lucas scored a considerably increased grade in 2020, however Curhan additionally performed lower than 100 complete snaps as a result of COVID. In 2019, the 2 gamers had close to equivalent grades, whereas Curhan completed with a 69.9 grade in comparison with Lucas’ 59.9 in 2018.

On movie, neither Lucas nor Curhan constantly dominated opponents as bodily drive blockers, although each displayed heavy, violent arms in spurts. Lucas performs sooner out of his stance and engages his arms faster, whereas Curhan appears to maintain blocks a bit longer when he will get his arms locked onto opponents, however mauling within the run sport is not essentially a power for both participant. Surprisingly, Curhan has higher tape as a puller than Lucas and appears extra fluid on counter, sweep, and lure assignments.

Regardless of receiving a poor hole blocking grade (50.2) from PFF, Curhan did show some potential as a drive blocker down the stretch final season when he performed with ample leverage and given his large body, he could also be a bit higher suited to most of these ideas as a highway grader. With that mentioned, Lucas has all the bodily traits and does play with a imply streak, so he might take a considerable step ahead with ample teaching, so this one looks like a little bit of a toss up from a long-term perspective.

Although Curhan and Lucas are neck-and-neck at this level in most blocking-related classes, they do not belong in the identical zip code athletically. It isn’t even remotely near being a contest.

As a part of the 2021 draft class, Curhan did not get to take part within the NFL mix and his numbers at Cal’s professional day weren’t spectacular in any respect. In truth, in keeping with Kent Platte’s All Time Relative Athletic Rating instrument, he scored a dismal 1.74 in comparison with Lucas’ 9.73, receiving purple marks on each athletic take a look at, together with bench press.

Head-to-head, Lucas ran the 40-yard sprint in 4.92 seconds (ninety fifth percentile) and ran the 3-cone in 7.25 seconds (98th percentile) in comparison with Curhan working the 40-yard sprint in 5.42 seconds and posting a gradual 8.07-second 3-cone time. He additionally posted 9 extra reps of 225 kilos on the bench press and his quick shuttle time (4.40) ranked within the 98th percentile.

On the sphere, Curhan performs with higher quickness and mobility than his testing numbers would point out, significantly in move safety. However by way of athletic presents, there is a vast chasm between him and Lucas, which is among the greatest causes one went undrafted and the opposite went within the third spherical.

Contemplating the stark variations between Curhan and Lucas athletically, it could come as a little bit of a shock that the previous has been a greater second stage blocker than the latter on movie. However not less than up so far, that is been the case.

Attending to linebackers and safeties downfield would not simply boil down to hurry. One of the best blockers within the enterprise perceive the way to work off of combo blocks and take high quality angles, permitting themselves to get arms onto sooner, smaller defenders and at minimal flip them to create working creases. Whereas he hasn’t mastered that facet, Curhan did assist spring Penny on a number of runs late final season the place he disengaged from combo blocks and climbed to the subsequent stage to make a key block.