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#58 - C Jackson Powers-Johnson - Junior - Age 20 - 6’3 - 320 - Oregon
For a player who was nowhere near the draft watchlists last summer to all of a sudden rise up and find his way in the mix for first round consideration. He became well known back in 2021 for his willingness to help out in the Alamo Bowl and switch to defensive line for one special occasion after serving his true freshman year as a reserve.In 2022, he played 400 snaps for Oregon, but only was considered an actual starter once in a rotation type setting and as part of a right guard job share where he played very well. Then, in 2023, he was switched to center and was nothing short of phenomenal. He started every game and was dominant – winning the Rimington Trophy as the top center in college football – as well as First Team All-Pac 12 and All American. He allowed zero sacks, zero QB hits, and just one pressure in an entire season. And pass protection was actually his 2nd best responsibility as he was positively a mauler in the run game.
I was quite excited to see his tape and see if he was what we are looking for. But, first, a thought or two on center.
There are premium positions in this league and center has never been thought of as a good use of a 1st round pick in a vacuum. That said, Travis Frederick, Tyler Linderbaum, Frank Ragnow, and Ryan Kelly would all qualify as proper values in the 1st round, so we should certainly not get carried away with hard rules. Non-premium positions like RB, C, G, LB, and S all have exceptions and those guys can even be franchise-altering. One rule we should have on this matter is that there are no absolute rules that cannot have exceptions. But, if we are going to take a center in the top round, he better be special.