NFL Draft
3/17/25
5 min read
Connor Colby 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For Iowa Hawkeyes OG
Height: 6060 (verified)
Weight: 309lbs (verified)
Year: Senior
Pro Comparison: Jon Runyan Jr.
Scouting Overview
Iowa Hawkeyes offensive guard Connor Colby is a scheme-specific talent who could be a developmental starter for a zone-oriented rushing offense. Colby is a well-tenured and experienced player who's got a defined role at guard. He shouldn’t be confused for someone with positional variety.
He offers good fluidity and movement ability on outside zone concepts while also offering some gap scheme execution as a puller. His pass protection resume is hindered by a lack of length and only modest lateral agility, but if you can protect him with bumpers and play a net-positive game script with consistency, he can be a contributor up front.
2025 NFL Combine Results
| Position | Name | School | 40-Yard Dash | 10-Yard Split | Broad Jump | Vertical Jump | 3-Cone Drill | 20-Yard Shuttle | Bench Press |
| OL | Connor Colby | Iowa | 5.11 | 1.78 | 110 | 28.5 | 7.78 | 4.63 |
Positives
- Showcases a good understanding of zone tracks and picking up opposite color as it declares to him
- Boasts enough physical toughness to create knockback and displacement when aggressive out of the blocks
- Showcases awareness of the value his hands offer to seal gaps and wall off defenders
Negatives
- Anticipation in pass protection to handle blitz schemes and games leaves him out of position too often
- Does not have the length to play with an extensive gravitational pull or offset defenders early in the rep
- Shows some hip tightness and lag when needing to unlock his hips and flash across his momentum
Background
Colby is from Cedar Rapids, IA, and played high school football for Kennedy HS. There, he was a 4-star recruit (247 Sports) who collected offers from a slew of prominent Midwest programs, including Michigan, Ohio State, Minnesota, and Nebraska. He ultimately decided to play for his home state and enrolled at Iowa as a member of their 2021 recruiting class.
Colby was the program’s first true freshman to start on the offensive line since 2017 — he collected 11 starts at right guard in 14 games for the school that season. The Hawkeyes spread his opportunities around out of need in 2022. He started the first six games at right tackle and the next seven at left guard. Colby returned to right guard full-time in 2023 and was named Third Team All-Big Ten for his performance in 13 starts.
He eclipsed 50 career starts in 2024, starting another 13 games at right guard while being named First Team All-Big Ten.
Tale Of The Tape
Colby is an NFL-caliber offensive lineman with a pedigree at one of the best pro pipelines for the offensive line in the country. A four-year starter with 50 starts at Iowa, Colby offers a good understanding of run game mechanics and the necessary angles he needs to hit his landmarks.
As a run blocker, Colby is fairly refined and shows sticky hands, enough punch power, and movement ability to stick to defenders at the point of attack. He understands the value of washing defenders out while using their momentum against them or, alternatively, when to pin and seal.
He offers tight hands and good timing to set the hook. He needs both, as he lacks the arm-length and wingspan that you’d ideally find for an interior blocker trying to out-reach bodies. The lack of length and reach shows up more often in pass protection, where explosive rushers or multi-man games inside can pull him out of position and then test his edges when he’s unable to work his base back into position for a proper fit.
Colby can be a bit overactive prior to contact, and when needing to unlock his flips and compress away from where his eyes initially set, he can be a touch late. He’s much more of a momentum athlete who can play with power and efficiency on shallow angles than a static blocker with quick-twitch agility.
His lack of length compounds his pass protection issues, and as such, he’s not a player who should be considered a desirable isolation blocker in protection. He’ll likely have a hard time in a true pass-set environment that charges him with protecting space on either side of him without help unless he experiences an awakening of his pass-protection instincts.
There are times as a rep unfolds in which Colby can get himself in trouble with a lack of leverage; you’d love to see him stay more vigilant with his pad level to sustain his push longer throughout the rep. However, when he’s down on his haunches or when able to anchor firmly against defenders trying to split him down the middle, he does offer enough anchor and functional strength to not only survive but win real estate.
This doesn’t feel like a glamour prospect with supreme natural ability. But he’s strong enough, fluid enough, technical, experienced, and tough. That’s plenty to appeal to the right offensive system as a developmental party along the offensive front, but he may ultimately not be for everyone.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Colby projects as a developmental starter for an outside zone rushing offense. He’s diverse enough in his run-game ability, but his warts in pass protection will be offset by playing in one of the Shanahan-style OZ schemes that leans into play pass-oriented passing games.
Grade: 69.50/100.00, Sixth Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
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