The Big, Happy Thread of Luke Joeckel

[Direckshun]

Well here we are.

In the coming draft, we can assume one thing: if Branden Albert is not resigned by draft time, the Chiefs will draft a left tackle with their first pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, whether they trade down or not. It will be such a gigantic hole that it will have to be filled with our 1st rounder, be that pick 1.1 or 1.7 or whatever.

So let's make ourselves familiar with Luke Joeckel, Eric Fisher, and Lane Johnson, all three of them candidates to be that pick. That way, we can have more informed drawn out conversations between all the Joeckel and Johnson backers this draft season! What joy!

First up, of course, is Texas A&M left tackle Luke Joeckel.

The first thing to learn, a la Luke Kuechly from last year, is how to pronounce his name.

It looks like "joke-l," and I'm sure that's how a lot of radio personalities and uninformed web scrollers who haven't watched him play pronounce it, but that's wrong. His name is actually pronounced like "chuckle" if you replace the "ch-" with a "j-". Juckle.



There's a handful of game-long videos like this one on YouTube, so feel free to watch if you're interested in embedding yourself into All Things Joeckel.

A few things you'll notice from the game tape once you do watch him:

1. He's incredibly boring to watch. But this is not a bad thing, necessarily. Tackle is not a fun position to watch if they're really good at it. There's no heroic last-second rescues of Manziel, and as is frequently the case with the best left tackles, there's never really any pancakes.

2. He is close to unbeatable around the edge. He's as tough to beat around the edge as anybody. His kickslide is a flawless wonder and this allows him to take the speed rush totally away. His lateral movement makes him very difficult to spin on as well. His mirror ability is perhaps the best in the draft class -- I'm not sure anybody's is better.

3. The only pressure he gives up, if ever, is when the QB holds the ball and the DE tries to beat him inside. That's the DE's only hope, is to get him so oriented to defending the edge that you can beat him inside. However, that hardly ever works -- but hardly is better than never if you're a DE.

4. Once he gets his hands on you, it's over. He locks up defensive lineman. To the point where the defensive lineman may as well sit this play out.

5. It's hard to tell how he does in space. The Aggies never pull him out in this game, and rarely pulled him out in other games. We'll get back to that in a moment.

6. I would not claim he plays soft -- he's too aggressive in his lock-ups for me to say that's the case. But he doesn't play with the reckless abandon of somebody like Brian Waters, or even Branden Albert. He lacks a nasty side and that's clearly evident in the run game.

7. In fact, this is the area we would be losing the most in a shift from Albert to Joeckel -- his runblocking will be subpar for at least a little while, and it may yet remain a weakness in his game for years to come. (Whereas Albert is perhaps the best runblocking LT in the NFL.)

8. He's flawless in recognizing blitz schemes, blocking assignments, and stunts. He works with his teammates extremely well. He is truly a technician at the position and a student of the game. Even on the plays where he gets driven, he's exercising excellent leverage. He just needs to get stronger.

9. Joeckel finishes his blocks to the whistle, everytime. This is something that's all too rare in the NFL. I find it very endearing -- it wears DL down over the course of a game and it makes their jobs harder. I don't understand why more players don't do this.



As for his measureables:

Joeckel is leaving for the NFL as a junior. In 2012, he allowed 10 pressures, including two sacks, total. It should be noted, as you can tell from the YouTube above, that teams rarely rushed his side of the field aggressively.

He's 6'6", 306 lbs. His arms are fairly long, at 34+". At the Combine, he benched 27 reps, which is merely not bad. He will need some time in an NFL strength and conditioning program. He comes across as well spoken, though he doesn't seem to have that locker room leading presence.

The key problem for Joeckel as he would have to potentially fit into Kansas City's zone-blocking system, is that it doesn't seem like he'd be a terrific fit, though he's talented enough to probably fit in. He ran a 5.3 40-yard dash, which doesn't boast well for his speed. What's even worse is the 10-yard split of 1.81 seconds, which is among the bottom half of the OL at the Combine. It's not immediately clear how effective Joeckel would be in space -- though it should be noted he looked pretty fluid to me personally in the drills, though he was by no means a position leader at them. Joeckel is a football player's football player, but he is not a freakish athlete like Lane Johnson.

Luke Joeckel won college football's Outland Award last year.



Interesting factoid: in 2010, he helped the Aggies rack up a 100-yard rusher in nine games -- six of those nine games were by current Chief RB Cyrus Gray.