Chris Faulk, OT, Louisiana St.
 

Louisiana State left tackle Chris Faulk is getting a lot of hype as a high first-round pick but that sounds absurd after taking a look at his performance in the BCS National Championship game against Alabama. His size (6'6", 325 pounds) is enticing but on tape he didn't do anything to convince me he is worth a high selection in the draft. Is Faulk considered a high pick based on his potential or am I missing something? I'm planning on re-watching Louisiana State's game against Florida from this past season to get another look at him but the thought of him going ahead of tackles such as Ricky Wagner (Wisconsin) and Luke Joeckel (Texas A&M) seems ludicrous. I uploaded Faulk's snaps from the championship game in case anyone hasn't seen him play, which can be found here:



Since I tried to include every single offensive snap in the video clip (aside from one which was a very quick screen pass and added nothing to the video), you can also take a look at any of Louisiana State's other players; right tackle Alex Hurst is also highly regarded (although I haven't focused on him yet.) What do you think of Faulk as a pro prospect?

EDIT: Here is another video of Louisiana State's offense against Florida's defense last year:

This happens every year with OT's - people don't know who to put as the top senior OT so 'they' just pick a guy who's huge, has lots of experience at LT and played at a major program.

How do I feel about Chris Faulk? Yuck. He's a big body but it's sloppy weight (look at his gut). He's slow and uncoordinated, just look how often he hits the ground. He's just flat out not very good.

Ricky Wagner is, in my respects, helped by that same thought at this point in the 2013 draft class evaluation. Now Wagner is a better prospect than Faulk, but Wagner isn't a top 5 or top 10 guy like some people/sites have projected. The Wisconsin name and reputation along with the experience of playing a full season on any extremely productive offense has sent his stock way up.

While I haven't seen Faulk play so I don't have an opinion, its hard to fault anyone for playing poorly against Alabama. Bama's defense is GOOD. How was he in the first game against Bama?

Playing against the highest level of competition is where you'd like to see highly touted players play well, especially against NFL caliber players like Alabama possesses. The fact that he didn't play very well and his weaknesses were apparent have to raise question marks about his value as a prospect, no?

Question marks are good, to discount a prospect based off one game is not.

Later on today I'm going to post a video of Louisiana State's offense against Florida in last season's blowout. I haven't been paying a ton of attention to Faulk during the game (mostly checking out Matt Elam) but that should provide some more film to take a look at.

Yeah, I remember that happening with another LSU OT named Ciron Black. Dude was a 4 year starter on both the left and right side and had prototypical size and weight.

Lotsa folks thought he would go early because he was a veteran of the SEC wars and all.

IIRC He went undrafted and is probably working on a shrimp boat in the gulf or something....

I just finished uploading the Florida game:

From those videos it seemed to me that Faulk was pretty good in pass blocking situations. He does well in pushing the rusher off the edge to create a pocket for the passer.

However, the majority of the plays we see are run plays. He struggles in this department. His problem is he doesn't have very good balance so when he moves towards a defender he falls or gets beat. He has the strength but just can't get into position. When LSU ran right (away from his side) he seemed to do well. He would seal the edge and prevent anyone from chasing the runner from behind, but when they ran on his side he struggled to push Dlineman off the line of scrimmage. Too many times you see him get pushed back from lack of balance and footwork.

I think he has potential though. To be honest, his weight may be hindering him. It may be good for him to lose some weight and work on footwork. He just ends up on the ground too much.

RCA, I agree that Faulk's pass protection looks better than his run blocking, largely for the reason you mentioned (he struggles to make blocks on the move) but also because he struggles to sustain blocks. Faulk's lack of grip strength and inability to maintain blocks is very apparent when compared to Ricky Wagner. Where do you project him to play in the NFL?

To be honest it is the first offensive lineman I have scouted thus far. I'll probably check out Wagner next. I don't think Faulk belongs in the Top 20. Maybe a late first round pick. I'm not sure he could run out on pitches as a guard to catch blocks on linebackers upfield unless he gets some balance. I would start him as a RT. Just my opinion though.

EDIT: By the way thanks for uploading the videos.

I'm currently working on uploading a video of Alabama's offense from the title game; RT D.J. Fluker has a much more impressive game than Faulk (although he still ends up on the ground too often and has a lot of problems sustaining blocks.) RB Eddie Lacy, TE Michael Williams, LT Barrett Jones, and LG Chance Warmack are some other prospects on the Crimson Tide's offense to watch out for. I'll post the upload in a separate topic and link back to it on here.

Agreed. I've seen 3-4 games of Wagner, and I just don't see an upper echelon player at this point.


Learn to love Warmack.

I'm actually really high on Ricky Wagner, although I would like to take a closer look at him before posting some final thoughts. Most of my Wisconsin film analysis last year was focused on Russell Wilson, Montee Ball, Nick Toon, Peter Konz, and Kevin Zeitler. I was impressed with Wagner's size, anchor, grip strength, short-area movement skills, and overall polish though. I would describe him as a better pass protector than run blocker. Nonetheless he should go very high in the draft because of his size, his experience at left and right tackle, and his ability to play in man and zone schemes. Wagner is a far better prospect than Faulk or Fluker.

Here are the clips of Alabama's offense in the national championship game:

http://draftcountdown.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53051

P.S. ATL, I've been looking at Warmack this time around, he looks dominant on some plays and has a big build, is surprisingly athletic, and aggressive finishing blocks. Occasionally it looks like he has trouble finding someone to block but overall he looks like he is athletic enough to succeed as a pull blocker in the NFL as well as strong enough to play in more of an inline scheme.