National Football League

2017 NFL Draft: Utah Lowell Lotulelei scouting report

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Utah’s Lowell Lotulelei has put himself in position to be an early selection during the 2017 NFL Draft.

Lowell Lotulelei is the brother of Star Lotulelei, the fantastic defensive tackle for the Panthers. And after watching a few games, he’s not his brother. Nor should anyone be expecting him to be his brother.

What Lowell is, is a power 0 tackle who will struggle with guards and victimize lesser centers who don’t know how to stand him up and keep him off balance. That said, if a team is looking for a 2 down/run stopping 0 for a 3-4 defense, they could do much worse than Lotulelei in this draft.

One thing that Lowell is better than Star with is sheer power. Star likes to use his speed/size combination to overwhelming a blocker. Lowell is strong enough to just push a smaller blocker into the backfield then has strong enough hands to shed the block and make a play.

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The problem with this and why Lowell seems to struggle with guards is that a good guard will either be big enough to deal with Lowell’s power or they’ve been taught to use leverage and stand him up to negate his power.

This is why he looks much better at the 0 because college centers are too small to successfully use that leverage or haven’t been taught to do that.

In a pure 3-4 defense, he has the potential for good value because of his power/strength. He looks like a Ravens/Jets 1/0 straight out of central casting. As a comparison, I would compare him to Snacks Harrison of the Giants/Jets.

Draft grade: mid to late 3rd

I’d like to see more speed from him in 2016, but failing that he’s just another one dimensional 1/0 tackle to me. If he learned to use his hands better then he could rise in value since his over-dependence on power and strength would make him really unblockable.

His issue with guards would go away almost immediately if he were to accomplish that.

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