Big uglies underwhelm in weight room … It was kind of a disappointing day for many of the top offensive line prospects when they did the bench press earlier today. One would kind of like to see the top OT prospects manage something in the 27-28 reps range in the bench press, however, the numbers today for the leading OTs today were a tad underwhelming as Washington State’s Andre Dillard and Florida’s Jawaan Taylor both managed 24 reps, while Alabama’s Jonah Williams and Kansas State’s Dalton Risner stopped at 23. Not necessarily bad, but hardly eye-catching either as none of those guys would have been among the top 5 RBs in the bench press in Indianapolis today. At the same time, Oklahoma’s Cody Ford, thought to be the rising star on the OL, really did disappoint with only 19 reps which indicate a lack of basic core strength. In fact, a number of well-known offensive line prospects didn’t lift at all well today including Michael Deiter of Wisconsin who manged just 21 reps along with his Badgers’ teammate Beau Benzschawel and Alabama’s Ross Pierschbacher who both had 20. As is often the case the top OL lifters are somewhat unknown prospects and this year was no exception. The top performance by an OL in the press today was recorded by unheralded Weber State OT Sua Opeta, who put up 39 reps, the best by an OL at the combine in 5 years, while other with over 30 reps included NC State C Garrett Bradbury (34), Wake Forest OG Phil Haynes (33), West Virginia OT Yodny Cajuste (32) and Arkansas OG Hjalte Froholdt (31). C/Gs Elgton Jenkins of Mississippi State and Penn State’s Connor McGovern also impressed with 29 and 28 reps respectively. Meanwhile, other offensive linemen that disappointed in the BP included OTs Paul Adams of Missouri and Trey Pipkins, both of whom got stuck at 16 reps, while Ohio State C/G Mike Jordan had just 19 and rising Alabama State OT Tytus Howard recorded 21. Here are the full offensive line bench press results courtesy of Steelers Depot.
