STRENGTHS
Paris is an extremely athletic offensive lineman. He has excellent size and wing span to go along with his quick feet and excellent lateral agility. He plays with just enough of a competitive, nasty attitude that shows the needed leadership skills to protect the blind side of your franchise quarterback. Paris really likes to go out to the second level or be used on sweeps and screens in the open field. When watching Paris on film, blocking for sweeps and screens, you can see the drool coming out of his mouth, waiting to make an open field block on a smaller linebacker, safety, or cornerback. Paris has the athleticism of a Tight End, in fact, he is more athletic than most of the backup Tight Ends in the NFL right now. He is big, strong, nasty, and athletic and plays one of the most important positions on the offensive line protecting the blind side of most team’s franchise quarterbacks. If I needed a Left tackle, I would not hesitate to pick him at ANY point in this draft.
CONCERNS
Paris is tall, so against a bull rush he will struggle and can get out leveraged but for Paris, that will just be a technique issue to correct. As with most O-linemen coming out, and because he is so tall, Paris will need to improve his overall strength in his lower and upper body.
BOTTOM LINE: 1.43
So many offensive tall tackles are told they have to hunker down and gain more strength in their lower body to deal with the bull rush. I say screw that, because against a taller player a bull rush is more about leverage than strength. After all, a smaller player already has the leverage advantage. So, what does the taller player need to do? I say, don’t go strength against strength, the taller player either pushes down on the smaller player’s shoulders and falls on him or the taller player pushes one of the smaller players shoulder’s, turning his shoulders and making the smaller player lose balance and strength because he doesn’t have both feet under him to push. I don’t think that Paris, needing to learn one move or technique better, would be a reason to not select him high in this draft anyway. Paris is way too athletic to think that a bull rush is going to defeat him and put your franchise quarterback in harm’s way. After all, if your franchise quarterback and Offensive Coordinator, can’t see his Left Tackle being overwhelmed with a bull rush and adjust, then you don’t have a franchise quarterback or a very good Offensive Coordinator. As far as Paris being considered as the very first pick in this draft? For me, it would depend on if I needed a quarterback or not. If not a quarterback then why not a pure Left Tackle?
