[Direckshun]

OT/G Xavier Su'a-Filo, UCLA



If you were asked to build a guard, the end product would look a ton like Xavier Su'a-Filo (pronounced "zoo-ah feelo"). You'd probably give him a large frame (6'4", 307 lbs) with room to grow, long legs with a thick trunk of a lower half, quick feet and powerful hands. That's what Su'a-Filo has, and it's the kind of tools that make you think "wow, this guy could really be an All Pro." Yet I was surprised that with all those gifts, I merely saw a steadily above average player in the guy, which suggests that he has yet to reach his maximum potential. That said, he has a lot of impressive tape. Filling in at LT this year because of injuries, you'll see in the above clip that he has a pretty good game against VT, one of the most ferocious front sevens there was in 2013.

Su'a-Filo is described this year as a guard, and for good reason. Putting on his UCLA tape suggests that he's extremely good at guard, and merely really solid at tackle (he played left tackle for about a year and a half for the Bruins). I don't think he's a "OT/G" like Zack Martin, who's more of a tackle who can convert to guard; Su'a-Filo will play guard and can fill-in at tackle when needed. Like the other 1st-round-caliber guard in this year's class (Yankey), Su'a-Filo is comfortable with both power and athletic schemes. That flexibility will put him higher on draft boards than the power-only, guard-only talents of Gabe Jackson. And while Yankey may be more polished, Su'a-Filo dominated him at the Combine.

As I alluded to earlier, there are areas where Su'a-Filo will need to step up his game, suggesting that he hasn't reached his full potential yet. He legitimately struggles keeping his head on a swivel and making the right blocking decision; stunts, blitz-pickups, and delayed-rushes can confuse him, which honestly may be the only way to beat him. If he gets a DL sized up and squared, he is capable of dominating, though he's surprisingly not a pancake artist like Gabe Jackson. He does get beat with tricks, however, but possesses really good recovery moves/speed.

His upside is probably Alan Faneca, if you remember the All Pro Steeler guard, because Faneca also had thick trunks, could sink his hips, and drop anchor. Su'a-Filo isn't as consistent in that regard (very few are and will be), but he has the build and skillset to develop in that arena.

It's important to remember that Su'a-Filo does possess some bust-ability. He possesses a fantastic punch, and he plays strong, but he doesn't play with that nastiness that can erode DLs over the course of a game. He played like a steady, dependable presence against college defenses, so he's definitely not going to be an elite road-grader against NFL defenses.

Projection for Su'a-Filo: At this point, Su'a-Filo is just outside the top 32 prospects in this draft class, in my opinion. But his elite versatility and huge upside give him better-than-50% odds that a team in the back end of the 1st goes for him. Again, he does have All Pro upside.

Projected Chiefs interest @ 23: Orgasmic levels of interest. The Chiefs altered last year between a power-run scheme (that the coaches preferred) and a zone-blocking scheme (that they best performed under). Su'a-Filo should be able to play both schemes very well, and most importantly, he can also play tackle when you need him to, which is something neither Yankey nor Jackson can say with confidence. If the Chiefs have to decide between Yankey and Su'a-Filo, it'll just be like their choice in 2013 between the known quantity in Luke Joeckel (Yankey) vs. the elite upside of Eric Fisher (Su'a-Filo). And we all know how that decision went down.