The Wright Call: Who I Think Should be Mizzou's Starting Right Tackle

Welcome to "The Wright Call," a series where Missouri On SI reporter Killian Wright (Ha, get it?) provides insight on what he would do in certain situations involving Mizzou athletics. A quick disclaimer: Wright is not as smart as the coaching staff, but his opinion isn't worth nothing, if that means anything to you.

Anyway, on with the show.

SEC Media Days answered plenty of pressing questions about Mizzou football, including but not limited to Ahmad Hardy's injury timeline, how Austin Simmons has looked early on and what Eli Drinkwitz thinks about a potential College Football Playoff expansion.

While it answered those important questions, it also brought a new, uber-important question to the surface. Projected starting right tackle Josh Atkins suffered a setback on his lower leg injury he initially suffered in spring practice, pushing his return-to-play timeline further into the season. Drinkwitz originally said Atkins would likely be back on the field in September or October

"Unfortunately Josh had a setback with his injury," Drinkwitz said. "He's still attacking it, but it's not gonna be as hopeful as we had that he might be able to be back midseason. We'll see how that goes, but had a little bit of a setback in the early part of June."

With Atkins now set to miss what seems to be a significant amount of time, Missouri will have to turn to a different face to fill the void left by the Arizona State transfer.

Here's what I think "The Wright Call" is.

Who Should Mizzou Start at Right Tackle?

Numerically, Missouri has plenty of options to turn to as replacement options for Atkins, as the Tigers hit the portal hard for depth at the position.

- Luke Work
- Colin Sorensen
- Jack Lange
- Whit Hafer
- Will Kemna
- Ryan Jostes
- Logan Reichert
- Johnnie Jones

Kemna and Lange are redshirt freshman with little-to-no playing time in 2025, while Jones is set to begin his true freshman season. Hafer, Jostes and Reichert have been with Missouri for three or more seasons each, but all have less than 150 career snaps. Sorensen started 20 games at tackle between the last two seasons, but suited up for an FCS Charleston Southern squad and was mediocre in his time.

That leaves Missouri with just one option at tackle that has prior Power Four experience at the position: Luke Work. If it were up to me, Work would be starting at right tackle in Missouri's Week 1 matchup against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Work, a 6-foot-6, 315-pound junior, transfers to Missouri after spending the last two seasons as a plug-and-play linemen at Mississippi State. While he was far from perfect, Work has at least shown flashes of being a competent SEC linemen, particularly in pass protection. He posted a pass-blocking grade of 73.1 or higher in five games last season, one of which was as a blindside protector — which he'd be doing for lefty QB Austin Simmons in 2026 — and three of which were against Power Four opponents.

A drawback to take note of, however, is Work's worst game of the season was his lone start at right tackle, when he allowed four pressures, one sack and picked up a penalty in 27 pass-blocking snaps against Texas A&M. In his defense, the Aggies had the second-most sacks in the conference and logged four total that game, so Work's struggles were far from isolated.

According to Drinkwitz, there's reason to believe Work has improved a tremendous amount over the offseason.

"I think Luke Work has had as good an offseason as I've ever seen an offensive lineman have," Drinkwitz said.

Even after acknowledging Work's struggles, I'd rather start a player with previous, up-and-down experience at right tackle — which will be one of the most important positions on the entire roster next season — than a player with none.

The fun option

I think Work is by far the safest bet at right tackle, which I think should be the value Missouri favors when deciding who gets that spot. However, it'd be a disservice to not mention a second, potentially more intriguing option in Lange.

Lange, a 6'7, 305 redshirt freshman, was once ranked as the top prospect in Missouri in the class of 2025. He played just four snaps last season, but has all the physical makings of a future SEC-caliber lineman. If things with Work don't pan out, why not speed up his timeline to the gridiron a bit?

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