STRENGTHS
Mason has solid athletic talents to play more than one of the interior line position for your offensive line. He shows good feet and good size and can make all the snaps getting out of his stance quickly. Mason is smart and goes to the second level quickly on balance to make his assigned block. He has the quick feet to be used in a pulling system and on sweeps and screens and that is rare for a center. Mason is a natural pass blocking center with quick lateral steps to mirror his opponent. He can also help out his line mates quickly because of his quick, first step, lateral agility. He is good at combo blocks and picking up blitzing linebackers and stunts because of his athletic talent to adjust. Mason has the potential to become an excellent interior offensive lineman at the next level.

CONCERNS
Mason might wind up being a better Left Guard than he is a center because of his pass blocking talents. At center he struggles to anchor and gets overmatched against those big nose tackles because of a lack of upper and lower body strength and body type. Mason will become frustrated when he is overmatched and this will cause him to commit penalties.

BOTTOM LINE
I really think that a change to the left guard position might be Mason’s future. He plays a good overall game at center but the intricacies of the center position and his techniques are lacking and inconsistent. Mason doesn’t use good leverage all the time and he lacks finishing and using his talent to recover when he gets beat. He really just needs confidence and more repetitions to gain those veteran like, tricks of the trade. Moving to Left guard will allow a center to help him mentally gain that confidence. Mason to me is a natural Left Guard but he does also have the potential to play center at a high level. He has that versatility and that means teams will value Mason’s potential high on their boards. At the Senior Bowl practices Mason did a solid job, and in the game, did an even better job playing center so my guess is…center is where he stays.

Drew Boylhart   APR.2018