It’s the final and greatest day of the NFL Combine.
The offensive lineman are finally up.
Yeah, yeah, the defensive backs, pass rushers, and wide receivers were all super fast and jumped out of the gym. But do you want to REALLY be impressed? Watch a 320-pound lineman jump the same height as some of the wideouts while weighing 100 pounds more. Take in a 300-pounder running the same speed as the edge rusher with 40-50 more pounds on him.
The offensive linemen going through athletic testing is must-see
television and you will NOT want to miss it when the Chargers will be so heavily focused on this group.
OT Kadyn Proctor, Alabama
Monolithic tackle with surprising movement skills for someone his size. At the same time, Proctor has one too many lapses in his pass protection when it comes to handling twitchier pass rushers. He does not have the reaction time to recover against inside counters when oversetting. Proctor could be just fine at right tackle, but guard seems to be where most believe he could excel the most while all but erasing his shortcomings as a pass blocker on an island. He’s a people-mover to the definition and will immediately raise the floor of a team’s rushing attack.
In pass pro, NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein calls him a “roadblock” against rushers trying to convert speed to power. Even if it’s just his sheer size that helps him keep defenders away from his quarterback above all else, that’s still an upgrade over the protection Justin Herbert had in 2025.
OT Vega Ioane, Penn State
The top offensive guard in the 2025 class. With great size (6’4, 323), power, and the athleticism to be a blocker out in space, Ioane is the whole package. While most would say his best fit would be in a gap scheme, Ioane’s film showed plenty of movement skills to have confidence that he’d excel in the Chargers’ new wide-zone scheme being brought to town by Mike McDaniel.
As a pass protector, Ioane has all the pop in his hands that you’d want in an interior defender. His functional strength is apparent with the way he can strain and bend in order to keep from being beat by twitchy interior rushers.
Even if Ioane impresses at the combine, positional value may end up still pushing the consensus top guard in the class all the way down to No. 22 for the Chargers. That’s the hope, at least.
C Connor Lew, Auburn
Per NFL.com’s prospect grading system, Lew is Zierlein’s top-ranked center prospect in this year’s class. One of the reasons Zierlein gave Lew the nod is due to his intangibles as a leader of the offense and overall intelligence at the pivot. Lew was in charge of making every protection call at the line of scrimmage and direction his linemen around him. On top of that, the ideal athleticism for a center is there, especially when it comes to moving up from the first to second levels to cover up linebackers.
The unfortunate part of Lew’s draft prospects is that he suffered a season-ending torn ACL in October of 2025. Despite that, he’s still highly-regarded in league circles. I’m not sure if the injury scares the Chargers off entirely, but I’m sure the team wants a new center that can hit the ground running immediately after being drafted. Still, center will be at the top of the needs list entering the draft if they can’t address it in free agency.
C Logan Jones, Iowa
The nation’s top center in 2025, Jones was part of the offensive line that also won the 2025 Joe Moore Award which is given to the country’s best front five. However, Jones comes in as Zierlein’s third-ranked center behind Lew and Sam Hecht of Kansas State. The main factors for this being Jones’ age (will turn 25 in October of rookie season) and lack of positional flexibility. He’s going to play the pivot in the NFL and that’s it.
At the same time, an NFL team will get a bonafide plug-and-play center with a ton of experience dominating the best conference in college football the past three seasons. His technique is as polished as anyone in the class and that is the easiest trait to bank on for Jones to overcome his lack of length and prototypical size.
OG Keylan Rutledge, Georgia Tech
If the Chargers want to double-dip at interior offensive line in the first 3-4 rounds of the NFL Draft, Rutledge is a solid prospect to target in the third/fourth round. He’s a throwback, rugged guard who wins with physical domination of the person in front of him. Rutledge’s play demeanor is exactly what a Jim Harbaugh-led team wants: No-nonsense player that wins the dirty battles without getting the recognition he likely deserves.
His combo block fundamentals are excellent. Rutledge is a smooth mover in space and his transition from double-teams into climbing from the first to second levels is top-notch. However, his movement skills take a tumble when asked to move within a larger space than a phone booth.
Rutledge is a leaky pass protector that Zierlein describes as having heavy feet and tight hips that struggles to recover. That may not be ideal after having just watch Herbert run for his life all season, but we’re projecting some level of progression once he gets around the team’s star linemen.
