Top Offensive Tackles in NFL Draft: Tristan Wirfs
Iowa’s outrageously athletic Tristan Wirfs checks in at No. 2 in our ranking of the top offensive tackles in the NFL Draft.
When he’s selected in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, the legend of Iowa’s Tristan Wirfs will grow even longer.
During his final year at Mount Vernon (Iowa) High School, he was an All-American in football, state champion in wrestling and state champion in the shot put and discus in track and field, including an amazing worst-to-first performance at the state meet.
“Wrestling, it’s a pretty big thing in Iowa, and I think the biggest things you can take away from wrestling in football are body control and awareness and hand movement,” Wirfs said at the Scouting Combine. “Being able to do that shows teams how competitive I am. It takes a lot to be a wrestler, and people from Iowa will attest to that. And they’re two individual sports, you versus another guy, and I hate losing, so I’m not going to let another man beat me. I’m going to do whatever I can to stop it. You’ve got to do the same thing on the offensive line.”
Video: Wirfs at the Combine
Wirfs didn’t lose often. He was a two-year starter, mostly at right tackle but with three starts at left tackle during an All-American final season. He was voted the Big Ten’s best offensive lineman. According to Pro Football Focus, he allowed two sacks, two quarterback hits and three hurries for seven total pressures. He allowed a pressure rate of 1.5 percent, which is one of the best in the draft class. He saved his best for last with just one pressure in the final seven games. He was guilty of one hold and two false starts.
At the Combine, Wirfs (6-foot-4 7/8, 320 pounds) put on a show with a 4.85 in the 40, 4.68 in the 20-yard shuttle and lineman-record showings in the broad jump and vertical jump. With athleticism, length (34-inch arms) and a standard of excellence in a strong league, Wirfs put himself in position to be the first lineman off the board.
“The competitive aspect, you want to be the best. Second’s the first loser,” he said. “I want to be the first tackle taken.”
Wherever he’s selected, it will be a happy ending for his family. His mom has been working at Target for 28 years, starting when she was 16.
“Growing up, I’d see her on the phone with her sister, and she’d be crying about stuff, bills,” Wirfs said. “She’d have to buy me a new baseball bat, buy me a new baseball glove, cleats, and as a kid you don’t notice that. But as I got older, I figured it out, why would I make [her sacrifices] go to waste, and it motivated me. I was going to do my best in every sport to make it worth it. That’s definitely been a big part of the motivation for me, because I love her more than she knows. Getting to hopefully pay that back to her someday would mean a lot.”
What we like
With athleticism, good-enough length and lower-body strength, good luck beating Wirfs to the quarterback. Right tackle is a vital position in today’s NFL. Gone are the days when the defense’s best pass rusher lined up on the right side and attacked only the left tackle. His ability to win on the perimeter from Day 1 could make him the first blocker off the board. A three-year starter, he was guilty of just one hold.
What we don’t like
Some of this is the quality of runner in the backfield, but Iowa’s backs averaged 2.8 yards before contact on runs behind Wirfs with a success rate of 46 percent, according to Sports Info Solutions. Both of those rank in the bottom half of our top 14 tackle prospects. Wirfs has knocked plenty of opponents on the ground; by the same token, he winds up on the ground too much.
Bill Huber’s Offensive Tackle Profiles
No. 1: Louisville’s Mekhi Becton
No. 3: Georgia’s Andrew Thomas
No. 4: Alabama’s Jedrick Wills
No. 5: Louisville’s Josh Jones
