NFL Draft 2021: Sewell is great but I'll pass at -500 odds

Of all of the position props out there for Thursday’s NFL Draft that have yet to be sorted out, one that seemingly has is the first offensive lineman to be selected.

Oregon’s Penei Sewell is currently the favorite to be the first at his position off the board at -500. Northwestern’s Rashawn Slater currently sits at +250 before a huge dip.

The interesting thing about both of those players is that we haven’t seen either of them play in over a calendar year. When it comes to buzz from fans, it’s a lot of what a prospect did in the previous season that they remember.

But since neither Sewell nor Slater played in 2020, we have to go back even further to remember watching these guys, even though not a lot of casual fans watch football to watch offensive line play. Scouts that were former linemen in the league absolutely love talking about and evaluating offensive linemen, but that won’t show up on the morning shows, or grab headlines. It’s way more fun to talk about quarterbacks and skill players.

That being said, I think Sewell is the pick here, but wouldn’t take it at the price tag.

Sewell started at Oregon as a true freshman. In his first game on the Ducks’ offensive line, he had to go up against Auburn’s Derrick Brown who went on to be drafted No. 7 overall in the following draft. Still at just 20 years old, Sewell is the guy you want as the first offensive lineman off the board. 

According to former offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz, who went on The Herd with Colin Cowherd Wednesday, he believes Slater might be the most pro-ready of the two. Slater had tough assignments as well, including being tasked with blocking Ohio State’s Chase Young in his monster year at Ohio State, and did well doing so.

Out of all of the mocks that I’ve read, I only saw one, Daniel Jeremiah’s back on April 6, that had Slater going before Sewell. After that, all of the other big names like Mel Kiper, Todd McShay, Peter King and Peter Schrager all have Sewell before Slater.

Virginia Tech’s Christian Darrisaw currently has the third-best odds to be the first offensive lineman off the board at a whopping +3300, showing just how more likely it is to be Sewell or Slater. USC’s Alijah Vera-Tucker is tied with Darrisaw at +3000.

Oklahoma State’s Teven Jenkins is currently sitting at +5000, Alabama’s Landon Dickerson sits at +10000, Sam Cosmi out of Texas at +15000 along with Alex Leatherwood, Jaylen Mayfield, Liam Elchenberg, Creed Humphrey and Dillon Radunz.