Green Bay Packers: 3 Day Two IOL Prospects

Ben Cleveland – Georgia

Ben Cleveland is very different from Myers in a lot of ways. For starters, he has plenty of power, but not the agility or speed that many others do. He’s a great combo blocker and gets up to the second level efficiently but whiffs pretty often on linebackers. Even so, just his pure size is enough to make linebackers go around him, and that’s often enough extra time for his running back to knife through.

What he does do well is reach block. He’s got a good first lateral step and reliably cuts off his man from where the play is going. This makes him great on either the backside or frontside of zone runs, and he has the experience in zone schemes as well. When he’s used as a pulling guard, he is absolutely lethal. This probably won’t come into play much if he’s in Green Bay as Matt Lafleur doesn’t like to pull his guards much, but it could be thrown in for him as a mixup from their usual looks.

As a pass blocker, he’s big enough that simply getting in the way can be enough. It may have been the Georgia protection scheme, but he was always looking hard inside, which left his outside gap between him and the tackle exposed, and that was something that was attacked successfully a few times with teams looping a tackle around to that gap.

Cleveland may not be the perfect fit in this offense with some of his lack of speed and agility, but he does great in the trenches, using his power and size to open up plenty of holes, and A.J. Dillon running behind him could be fun.

So who’s your favorite interior offensive lineman prospect for the Green Bay Packers? Personally, I answered yes to a lot of those opening questions about Meinerz as a current Whitewater student, so I’d love to see him in green and gold.