Ezra Cleveland‘s rookie season is off to a great start. Thrust into action at right guard for the last two games due to injuries to Pat Elflein and Dru Samia, Cleveland has flashed elite athleticism and fantastic awareness as a pass protector and has been even more impressive as a run blocker. Despite some tough matchups against Grady Jarrett and Kenny Clark, and despite being forced to switch over to the right side and play out of position, Pro Football Focus currently ranks Cleveland 40th out of 118 guards who have played 100 snaps this year — solidly above average, and a huge upgrade from Samia who ranks 117th. Among rookie offensive linemen, Cleveland ranks 5th of the 20 linemen who have played 100 snaps.
Cleveland’s play against the Packers last Sunday was particularly impressive, grading out as the fifth-best performance by a Minnesota Vikings guard in the last five years:
Cleveland still has a long way to go, however. His pass protection is very much a work in progress: He gave up a bad sack and three QB hits against Atlanta with poor technique and made some additional mistakes in Green Bay. And while Cleveland has impressed as a run blocker, playing next to Brian O’Neill with Dalvin Cook taking handoffs has made Cleveland look better than he is just yet.
Here are a handful of plays that showcase both what is so exciting about Ezra Cleveland and what he still needs to work on:
ELITE ATHLETICISM
By far the most impressive thing about Ezra Cleveland is his athleticism. We wrote this past summer that he was not only arguably the most athletic tackle in his draft class, but also one of the most athletic tackles drafted in the last decade. That athleticism shows up all over the place, but particularly in the screen game — Cleveland played a huge role in setting up Dalvin Cook’s 50-yard touchdown screen:
[videopress azJZgKjq]Cleveland does a great job here setting up the fake by setting and patiently waiting to release until the very last second, then throwing his defender behind him and sprinting upfield. Bradbury and Cleveland both throw fantastic cut blocks downfield, each taking their defender completely out of the play with perfectly-aimed blocks, and Cook only has to make one defender miss to take this 50 yards to the house.
But that athleticism looks just as impressive with Cleveland executing tough pulls or reach blocks in the run game, or showing great agility in the passing game. Take Dalvin Cook’s second rushing touchdown last Sunday — as Brian O’Neill pins his defender inside, Cleveland has to pull out and block the linebacker:
[videopress 3AzURY05]Cleveland gets over there in a blink and lands a great block with low pads, leaving a wide gap for both Dalvin Cook and C.J. Ham, his lead blocker, to plow through for the score.
That kind of athleticism pops off the screen, whether reaching Grady Jarrett on wide zone runs, pulling on power runs or picking up TEX stunts in pass protection:
[videopress kmSDaYq5]FANTASTIC AWARENESS
That last play above also highlights the other trait that really flashes on Cleveland’s tape — his mental processing and awareness. The stunt shown as that last play above is designed to pick on Cleveland by throwing a looping defensive end at the rookie, but Cleveland picks it up and has the burst to push the looper out of the play.
That awareness shows constantly in pass protection, with this next rep being perhaps the best example:
[videopress NRyPCiwT]The Falcons mug the A-gaps, with the two linebackers showing blitz above the center, and in response, the Vikings slide the protection right, with the back and in-line tight end responsible for blocking the left side. That leaves Cleveland initially matched up with Grady Jarrett, but Jarrett slants inside, and Cleveland does an excellent job blocking and passing Jarrett off to Bradbury, leaving Jarrett stopped in his tracks. Cleveland then immediately works back to help Brian O’Neill, who is struggling with Dante Fowler Jr.’s bull rush, and Cleveland just wallops Fowler Jr. out of his cleats. And as if that were not enough, Cleveland then immediately picks up the corner blitz. It’s a five-man fire zone blitz, and Cleveland alone blocks three defenders on this play.
And that is hardly the only example of Cleveland showing great awareness and providing great help:
[videopress JW1qhvqL]We wrote over the summer how impressive it was that Cleveland’s athleticism and awareness allowed him to easily recognize, redirect and pick up stunts in college, and so far as a rookie that has been even more true in the NFL. As a guard, Cleveland gets to put that mental processing and agility to use even more than at tackle, and it’s been a big part of Cleveland’s success despite the position switch.
IMPRESSIVE STRENGTH
But we knew Cleveland was a terrific athlete with great mental processing coming out of college, and it has been no surprise to see Cleveland continue to flash those traits. What has been a surprise is Cleveland generating much more vertical push on combo blocks and drive blocks.
One of Cleveland’s biggest weaknesses coming out of Boise State was a lack of functional strength as a blocker — he could win zone blocks with his speed but when tasked with moving his guy from point A to point B, he would rarely generate much push and too often would settle for stalemates. But he and Brian O’Neill have put together some fantastic combo blocks that have led to better success in short-yardage situations:
[videopress 0J43BeH8]Granted, it’s easy to generate vertical push when it’s two blockers against one, but O’Neill and Cleveland do a great job latching onto the defender (so he can’t shed or split the block), lowering their pads and churning their feet to move the line of scrimmage.
And Cleveland has had his fair share of pancake blocks in one-on-one situations as well:
[videopress SaMaUr6R]Some of Cleveland’s pancake blocks are assisted by a defender tripping or losing their balance, but either way it’s always a good sign when an offensive lineman can pin their defender to the turf.
STILL A WAYS TO GO
All that said, the rookie is still a long ways away from being a good starter, and the PFF grades probably overstate his performance. Cleveland has struggled as a pass protector especially, and his struggles to anchor at the college level have reared their ugly head in the NFL as well:
[videopress LqnzAvwt]Cleveland’s hands are a little too passive here and he ends up catching Allen Bailey, who lands a heavy long arm down Cleveland’s chest. Cleveland lacks the anchor to absorb the shock, his pads go up and he stumbles back, flailing at Bailey to try and dislodge the long arm. Despite the poor catch and the relative lack of anchor, Cleveland could have prevented the sack by immediately countering the long arm with a corkscrew, but Cleveland instead is late to react and tries to uppercut the long arm. By the time he finally clears the long arm off his chest, Bailey is ready to pounce on Cousins.
And that is hardly the only bad pass protection rep for Cleveland. He wasn’t exposed as much in the Packers game because the Vikings were so run-heavy, but when left one-on-one against Atlanta there was more bad than good:
[videopress T3xPt2xf]There are all kinds of mistakes being made here:
- On the first rep, Cleveland doesn’t set wide enough, putting his outside hand down the middle of Grady Jarrett’s chest, leading to a predictable result as Jarrett chops and rips the poor punch en route to a QB hit.
- On the second rep, Cleveland oversets and Jarrett pounces on the inside counter opportunity (although Cleveland’s athleticism helps him recover somewhat).
- On the third rep, Cleveland punches air and the defender lands a nice arm over, and Cleveland is lucky to get help from Bradbury.
- On the fourth rep, Cleveland again catches and Jarrett punishes Cleveland with a nice push-pull move that gets Cleveland stumbling.
- The last rep has Cleveland get his initial punch swatted, and when Cleveland quickly turns his head to check on O’Neill, the defender gets a nice rip in. Cleveland recovers well but the pocket is compromised.
Some of these mistakes stem from Cleveland being forced to switch from tackle to guard: Catching defenders punishes you more on the inside, and having new landmarks can make it easy to over or underset (although Cleveland did struggle with oversetting and undersetting at tackle in college). For that reason I am still more optimistic about Cleveland as a long-term tackle. But wherever Cleveland winds up, he will need to improve his pass sets and punch timing, and he’ll particularly need to practice having immediate counters so that not every initial mistake costs him.
And Cleveland has made similar mistakes in the run game, particularly when failing to climb to the second level or failing to sustain blocks on the move:
[videopress c4XOPaoP]Some of these mistakes look like rookie mistakes resulting from not knowing the playbook and his assignments well enough, as in the first play where he practically leaves the defensive tackle unblocked, or in the second play where an unusual defensive front leaves Cleveland confused and blocking no one. The third and fourth blocks show Cleveland not getting enough of the linebacker at the second level on wide zone runs. These are smaller mistakes in comparison to Cleveland’s pass protection, but they matter very much to a team that builds its identity off being able to execute wide zone to a T.
Of course, the bright spots certainly outweigh the mistakes for the rookie, as the run block highlights above show, and there are plenty of examples of Cleveland succeeding one-on-one in pass protection:
[videopress MBgEKH6f]THE HYPE IS DESERVED, BUT DON’T GO OVERBOARD
So far, the early returns on Ezra Cleveland are very encouraging: His athleticism and mental processing pop off the screen, he’s already shown improvement from his college tape and, despite some serious rookie mistakes, has still managed to be a noticeable upgrade over Dru Samia in pass protection.
When we wrote about Cleveland over the summer, we said, “Like O’Neill, it may take a few games [before Cleveland starts], and it will likely be a trial by fire — don’t be shocked if Cleveland plays poorly as a rookie. But given his elite athleticism, intelligence and work ethic, don’t be shocked either if in a few years’ time Cleveland is playing at a Pro Bowl level.” Two games in, Cleveland is so far exceeding those expectations. We’re still a long, long ways away from claiming Cleveland as a franchise cornerstone, but if Cleveland can keep this development up and continue to follow in Brian O’Neill’s footsteps, the Vikings will be well on their way to having one of the NFL’s better offensive lines.
