Here’s Why Packers Rookie Anthony Belton Is Called ‘Big Escalade’

The Green Bay Packers drafted NC State offensive tackle Anthony Belton in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Here’s what the Wolfpack’s strength coach had to say about the “Big Escalade.”

North Carolina State Wolfpack offensive lineman Anthony Belton was drafted by the Green Bay Packers on Friday. | Rob Kinnan-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – It was Summer 2023, and North Carolina State’s returning starter at left tackle, Anthony Belton, was manhandling teammates during a team-run period.

Dantonio Burnette, the team’s director of strength and conditioning, was impressed.

“I started calling him the ‘Big Escalade’ and it stuck, and the majority of the guys called him that as a nickname, as well,” Burnette told Packers On SI on Saturday morning, one day after the Green Bay Packers selected Belton in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft.

“The genesis behind that nickname is that Anthony Belton, he’s a really big guy – 6-foot-6, 336-pound guy – that is very smooth and is an excellent bender. When you see him change direction, it’s like, man, that’s wild that a big guy can move that well and be smooth while still doing it. He’s a big guy that’s very under control, so it was one of those things that, during the team run, he was out there killing the guy that he was going against. It was just one of those nicknames that I came up with.”

After being drafted by the Packers, Belton said of Burnette – aka Coach Thunder, a nickname stemming from his days as a hard-hitting linebacker at NC State: “He drives an Escalade himself so that’s what he always told me – how smooth I could move be like an Escalade, so that’s what that was.”

Belton went from a zero-star recruit who spent two seasons at Georgia Military College to a 32-game starter at left tackle for the Wolfpack.

“He’s a really good kid, really good young man,” Burnette sad. “Very athletic, and I think a lot of that comes from him being a former basketball player. He has some really good feet and things like that. So, that’s where the nickname comes from.”

For some of the league’s bigger linemen, the battle of the bulge is real. Burnette, however, said Belton was “naturally good” at keeping his weight in a good spot. As an example, Burnette noted Belton was 336 pounds at the Scouting Combine. A couple weeks later at NC State’s pro day, Belton was still 336 pounds.

“I will say he does a really good job of managing his weight, and we’ve done a really good job of working with him,” Burnette said. “He’s a guy that when he hones in on staying at a certain weight, he knows how to do that.”

Belton’s more than just a big man. For offensive linemen, his broad jump, vertical jump and 20-yard shuttle ranked in the vicinity of the 75th percentile.

“He’s one of the bigger guys that I’ve had as it pertains to height and weight but, with that height and weight, it’s amazing how athletic he is,” Burnette said. “And, like I said, that goes back to him playing multiple sports as a kid and being a really good basketball player. I think one of the reasons why he was such a late bloomer at football was because he was all about basketball until he started playing football.”

Belton started at left tackle for three seasons. In 2024, according to Pro Football Focus, he allowed three sacks and 12 total pressures. PFF charged him with two sacks and 22 total pressures in 2023.

In the run game, his size and power are on full display at the point of attack in his hunger for pancakes. He’s got the ability to “dominate vs. power” and play “big-man football,” as general manager Brian Gutekunst said after making the pick.

For NC State, this marks the fourth consecutive year in which it’s had a lineman drafted, with Belton being the earliest since Ikem Ekwonu went No. 6 overall to the Panthers in 2021. The Wolfpack have had 21 draft picks overall the last seven years.

Why will Belton maximize his prodigious tools?

“I think he’s going to be a success because he has some really good people surrounding him,” Burnette said. “He’s always been one of those guys that have never got caught up hanging around the wrong crowd. We always say here at NC State, ‘Eagles don’t fly with pigeons.’

“He has a really good support group. I know he spent a lot of time with Ikem Ekwonu and Chandler Zavala and all those guys. He had an opportunity to go out to Dallas and spend time with Duke Manyweather and those guys [at OL Masterminds]. He’s one of those guys that he’s going to put the work in and he’s going to surround himself with the right people. I believe he’s going to have an opportunity to play in the NFL for a long time.”