Prospect Profile: Jonah Savaiinaea, OT, Arizona

Protecting the Passer

The first thing you notice about his pass protection is undoubtedly his footwork, which is quick and efficient. He can match all ranges of athleticism in edge rushers on the outside and is rarely beaten upfield. His hands as a pass-protector require more explanation. As a Right Tackle, he predominantly worked with independent hands, using an outside strike as his go-to move. This strategy works for him early in games and he can keep lots of college competition at bay with this. However, when he faced edge-rushers who had a plan, as the game wore on, they were able to set him up for inside moves. He currently doesn’t have an effective power-step and when he overly uses his outside strike – which is often well-timed, powerful and accurate, edge-rushers with a plan can start to set him up and/or target his the timing of his outside strike. He can start to get beaten regularly because of this, he starts to lose the half-man relationship and it even allows some rushers to target his usually solid anchor against outside pass-rushers. He has to add more tools to his box so that he can use different strategy with his hands to keep edge-rushers guessing. When he moved over to the left side, his overall protection looked better, he wasn’t as dominant with his hands as he could be in isolated reps on the right side, but using his inside strike more (as this was now his dominant hand on the left side) meant he was pushing defenders up the arc where he could use his superior footwork to chase them past the Quarterback. It is extremely hard to corner on him because of his upper-half mass and his quick feet, all types of players have trouble with it around the outside. He still gave up inside pressure but it wasn’t as frequent. He did however have less leverage to deploy when anchoring against power moves and so his anchor was compromised a bit more. He has the tools to be a solid Offensive Tackle, and I think his best bet will be on the left side because of what I’ve just explained but he just generally needs to add more variety to his pass protection strategy and have a more refined gameplan to beat the opponent. He could be more aware of stunts and games, and generally process the game more quickly to allow him to react faster. Finally, he did seem to be beaten more often later in halves, and later in long drives, raising some questions about his conditioning that I would ask him about with evidence in interviews.

Run Blocking

On the move: He positions exceptionally well in space, he is able to explode out of his stance and locate most second level defenders. When he has an angle he can take most types of defender out of the game. Those with superior athleticism, good lateral quickness and IQ to anticipate, can get underneath his block without him laying a hand. He is excellent on double teams, he’s able to generate excellent pop at the line of scrimmage before moving to the second level, where he can use his explosion to change direction quickly if needed. Generally in space he will cover ground quickly to get to his man, and uncoil his leverage, demonstrating some explosive strength. This does disappear slightly at the end of a half where he seems more physically spent and pushes more than snapping into contact.
Run blocking the big dude across from you: He’s excellent in the power running game, he has good footwork to position for these type of blocks, he fits both Down and Drive blocks well, can roll his hips on contact and his leg drive helps him to maximize his play strength and finish. There is some nasty and competitiveness to him in this phase of the running game and he will sustain blocks downfield.

DRAFTED RAVEN COMP
More athletic, with better feet (and therefore better chance to stick at OT) but less powerful Kelechi Osemele

PRODUCTION
JR: 345 snaps at LT, 364 snaps at RT
SO: 693 snaps at RT, 195 snaps at RG
FR: 790 snaps at RG
INJURY: JR: Minor ankle injury, missed final game

RAVENS FIT
Expl. Athleticism 5
Ftbl Intelligence 2
Vrsatility 3
Grit 4
Scheme 5