Expert Analysis
4/25/24
4 min read
Taliese Fuaga 2024 NFL Draft: Combine Results, Scouting Report For New Orleans Saints OT
The 2024 NFL Draft is getting close, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the class' best players with scouting reports. Each report will include strengths, weaknesses and background information.
Here's our report on Taliese Fuaga.
Taliese Fuaga's 2024 NFL Combine Results
- Height: 6'5"
- Weight: 324 pounds
- 40-yard dash: 5.13 seconds
- 10-yard split: 1.77 seconds
- Vertical jump: 32"
- Broad jump: 9'3"
Taliese Fuaga 2024 NFL Draft Scouting Report
Strengths
- Outstanding size and mass with light, quick feet. He has a desirable combination of size, tenacity and athletic movement.
- Quick off the ball with strong hands in the run game generating movement. He moved defenders and finished.
- Played with powerful, violent hands that consistently displaced DL. He strikes with a force that generates power.
- Consistently controlled and displaced defensive ends in the run game. He kept his feet moving to sustain strength and power.
- Showed higher-level athleticism and mobility, climbing to the second level in the run game. He has balance and body control.
- Excellent athleticism and mobility pulling outside in pin-pull run game. He has light feet with balance to strike on the run.
- Loose and fluid hips for a man that size. He consistently turned defensive linemen to seal and reach in the run game.
- Featured independent arm technique in pass protection, which allowed him to stay balanced with a firm base.
- Played with excellent balance and body control in pass protection. He has a comfortable kick slide with knee bend.
- Patient in his 45-degree and vertical pass sets. He created more space and waited for pass rushers to come to him.
- Outstanding playing personality with a highly competitive edge. He finished run blocks, driving defenders in the dirt.
Weaknesses
- Given his overall size, you would love his arms to be a little longer. Some coaches may see that as a concern.
- Tendency in pass protection to get wide and high with his hands, allowing rushers to initiate contact in his chest.
- Snaps in which he struggled in pass protection resulted from late hands, allowing the rusher to dictate contact.
- There will be legitimate questions regarding lateral quickness and range to handle explosive edge challenges at the next level.
- Some vertical pass set snaps when he had some balance and body control issues at the top of the arc.
- Can he handle the counter-quickness he will see from the high-level edge pass rushers at the next level?
- Pass protection snaps when he was slow to re-direct laterally with his feet vs. inside quickness/counters.
- Biggest issues in pass protection came vs. inside moves, especially when there were stutters and hesitations.
- Does he have the range in pass protection to play on an island vs. quality NFL rushers?
NFL Transition
Fuaga is one of the best OL prospects in the 2024 NFL Draft with his high-level combination of size and strength and power and athletic movement. There were times I thought he was the best OT prospect in the class with his size/strength/athleticism/nasty demeanor profile.
Let’s start with the run game. Fuaga is a powerful, competitive, take-no-prisoners menace who moved DL and second level defenders and occasionally pile drove them into the ground. Given his size and frame, the athleticism, mobility, balance and body control he exhibited as a reach blocker, cutting off the back side and climbing to the second level and pulling in pin-pull concepts, was remarkable.
He looked like a smaller man in space with light feet and easy movement. What stood out in pass protection was his balance and body control. He was rarely not balanced and in control of the rep, regardless of the pass set technique. Fuaga played with patience and control, effectively deploying the independent arm technique early in his pass set to maintain distance and keep his feet clean to any move made by the pass rusher.
The few times Fuaga struggled in pass protection resulted from late and/or wide hands, which allowed the rusher to be first with contact and get inside of him. That is correctable with coaching and development.
Overall, Fuaga is a high-level prospect who played RT at Oregon State, but he could transition to the next level at either OT position. Some might see him as an OG prospect, lacking the needed range and re-direct ability to be effective as a pass protector vs. the better NFL pass rushers.
However, I believe he can line up at OT and be a quality starter. My sense is Fuaga is somewhat scheme specific. He would profile best as a RT in a more conventional play action based system with the QB working under center as a meaningful foundation of the offense. That would mitigate against the higher percentage of vertical pass sets in which he would be an island vs. quality NFL pass rushers.
Other Notes
Fuaga was a two year starter at RT for Oregon State, and he earned First Team All-Pac 12 honors in 2023. He was not a high-level recruit ranked as the 130th OT prospect in the nation.
Washington game showed some potential concerns with Fuaga in pass protection at the RT position and could well lead some to believe his best transition to the NFL would be inside at guard.
