Highlights & Evaluation: Louisville OL Commit Kyson Mallard

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville football program has landed their first offensive lineman in the Class of 2027, with Kyson Mallard giving his verbal pledge to the Cardinals.

Here is Louisville Cardinals On SI's full evaluation:

Prospect: Kyson Mallard
Position: Offensive Tackle
Measurables: 6-foot-5, 310 pounds
School: Albany (Ga.) Westover
Top Offers: Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Ole Miss
247Sports Composite Rating (Nat'l Rank): 0.8722 (835th)

Kyson Mallard's Sophomore Year Highlights: HERE (Hudl)

Frame: Mallard is an absolutely hulking lineman. He's got great positional height, as well as a plus wingspan with broad shoulders. Based on pictures from Westover, he could be well north of 310 pounds - although not all of it is good weight. He could benefit from converting some of this weight pure muscle.

Athleticism: As you can imagine, with as big of a frame as he has, Mallard's athletic calling card is some pretty high play strength. He's got some solid footwork in the open field for his size, although his lateral movement leaves a little to be desired.

Instincts: From watching his film, it's immediately clear that, at any given time, Mallard is routinely the biggest player on the field. Because of this, more often than not, he can simply just use his frame to overwhelm edge rushers, while more than holding his own against three-tech tackles. In fact, he regularly throws pancake blocks to eliminate his man from the play entirely (although this comes with the downside of not driving downfield to the second level much). Mallard also uses his hand fairly well, as he has good initial placement and great strength with his hands, and also does a good job against counters. While he likely won't be asked to do this much at the next level (unless he moves to guard), Mallard does well as a pull blocker across the line.

Polish: Mallard primarily lines up at right tackle, although he does take some reps at blindside blocker as well. Considering he is someone that leans on his frame/physicality to win battles, there is some technical stuff that he needs to clean up. For starters, his pad level is routinely way too high, and he has some trouble keeping his man in front of him as result. His high pad level also results him not really exploding out of his stance, and leaves him unable to generate much driving force with his legs. That being said, Mallard has some great upper body leverage, and that's what typically keeps defenders from actually getting past him. His kick step in pass protection could use a lot of refining as well.

Bottom Line: Overall, this is a pickup for Louisville that could be boom-or-bust. Mallard absolutely has to refine his frame to put more good weight on, as well as fine tune a lot of the technical aspects of his game. But if he can do that, someone with his size and physicality has the potential to be a menace down the line.

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