Four Things to Know About Colton McKivitz
In an anomaly ridden 2019-20 Mountaineer football season, Colton McKivitz was the only West Virginia football player invited to the NFL combine. While Morgantown, WV isn't exactly known as NFL "U" in years prior, it has been the norm to have a few athletes invited to the combine each year. For example, the 2019 combine featured six Mountaineers, the 2018 combine saw three, 2017 saw five, and 2016 also had six involved. So, yes, McKivitz being the only West Virginia player at the combine is not the standard.
For McKivitiz's complete combine results, you can read here. Overall, he essentially performed above his benchmark and finished in the middle of the pack, among offensive linemen. Now, let's take a deeper look into the four main takeaways of McKivitz's NFL combine.
1.) Most likely will be a right tackle at the next level
NFL analyst, Lance Zierlein, expects McKivitz to mainly play right tackle in the NFL. This doesn't come as a huge shock, considering he played three years at right tackle in Morgantown. Now, keep an eye on where he lands and that teams' depth chart, as that will be an indicator as to exactly where the former Mountaineer will be lining up on Sunday's.
2.) Dog Mentality
Across the board, pundits agreed that his "chip on my shoulder" mentality will be the perfect fit for the majority of NFL locker rooms. In Zierlein's analysis, he stated that McKivitz's best asset is his mentality.
3.) Somewhere between BOOM or BUST and special teamer...
NFL.com ranked him with an overall combine grade of 5.99, meaning that he is somewhere in the middle of a boom/bust type of player, or a lifelong special teamer. Either way, the respected draft experts of NFL.com are giving McKivitz a hefty compliment, just by stating that he should make an NFL roster.
4.) Must Improve
Along with every other college athlete that went through the combine, McKivitz has a lot that he must improve upon in order to make an active roster. NFL.com featured the most notable weak points - short arms, lower half tightness, narrow radius at power zone, too slow. Barring an unexpected growth of his arms, McKivitz won't be able to improve in that area, but he can get quicker and, like every great offensive linemen, find ways around those "weak points". If he can do that, I will be getting to write about McKivitiz a lot more in the near future.
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