With the ninth pick in the 2022 NFL draft, the Seattle Seahawks select Mississippi State OT Charles Cross.
It’s a bit bittersweet that the Seahawks are using one of the picks they got in the Russell Wilson trade to select the best pass-blocker in this class, considering the mostly horrible offensive linemen Wilson had to deal with, but whoever plays quarterback for the Seahawks in 2022 and beyond will have a killer blindside protector. And he’s a better run-blocker than you may think, or Pete Carroll wouldn’t touch him with a 2000-mile pole.
Height: 6’4 1/2″ (45th) Weight: 307 (34th) 40-Yard Dash: 4.95 seconds (94th) 10-Yard Split: 1.73 seconds (83rd) Bench Press: N/A Vertical Jump: 26 inches (28th) Broad Jump: 112 inches (91st) 3-Cone Drill: 7.88 seconds (40th) 20-Yard Shuttle: 4.61 seconds (75th)
Wingspan: 81 inches (56th) Arm Length: 34 1/2 inches (80th) Hand Size: 10 3/4 inches (92nd)
Bio: A top national recruit at Laurel High School in Laurel, Mississippi, Cross was a five-star offensive tackle per Rivals and 247Sports, and a four-star recruit per ESPN. Cross had just 22 overall reps and 11 pass-blocking reps in 2019, his first season on the field at Mississippi State, but his involvement in the Bulldogs’ offense took a serious uptick when Mike Leach became the head coach in 2020. Then, Cross had 720 snaps, struggling at times, but he cleaned things up in time for the 2021 season, when he became one of the NCAA’s best overall blockers, showing consistent good work against the best defenses the SEC had to offer.
Stat to Know: Cross allowed six sacks and 44 total pressures on 574 pass-blocking reps in his first collegiate starting season of 2020; he knocked that way down to two sacks and 16 pressures allowed on 719 pass-blocking reps in 2021. No tackle in this draft class had more pass-blocking snaps in 2021. Cross’ Mississippi State bookend Scott Lashley ranked second with 680, and Alabama’s Evan Neal ranked third with 650.
Strengths: While we’re going to talk a lot about Cross’ attributes for pass-blocking (which are the best in this class), we should not ignore his ability to run-block. Cross has a good nasty streak, he locks on well to defenders through the play, and his mirror abilities show up when he’s moving defenders around, too. And when he gets to the second level, where a lot of tackles get lost in space (we’re going to talk about this extensively when we get to Trevor Penning), Cross targets efficiently and effectively. He keeps his body under control, he doesn’t over-extend, and because of all that, he’s ready to start grappling right when it’s time. He’s timely and aggressive with his hands; Cross wants to beat you to the punch.
And when you need your left tackle to get on the hoof and seal the edge in space? He’s got that on lock. If Cross wasn’t a good pass-blocker at all, his ability to manage open space to the detriment of the defender would make him a second-round developmental prospect.
As a pass-blocker, Cross has what I call “match feet.” Which you want and expect from defensive backs, not necessarily 307-pound offensive tackles. But if you’re trying to cross his face, or beat him to either side, you’d better be on your game that day, because Cross can catch anything you throw at him very quickly. The footwork is just obnoxiously good.
Charles Cross: OT1 💥 @HailStateFB pic.twitter.com/2vSUUri9Zn
— PFF Draft (@PFF_College) March 14, 2022
Cross moves with quickness and control through the arc, and even if a faster edge-rusher beats him through to the pocket, Cross can recover quickly enough to at least mitigate the damage. Not every pass-pro rep is going to be letter-perfect, so you want a guy who can recover and make the ugly protections work. You need a left tackle who can keep his quarterback healthy even when it’s not going to look good on film day. His quickness also shows up when he needs to pinch inside in the run game or with an RPO. There just aren’t a lot of times where you see Cross getting overwhelmed from a physicality/agility sense. Everyone is going to give up pressures. What you don’t want is someone who can’t dance with who brung him, so to speak.
Weaknesses: This is not to question Cross’ toughness, intensity, or nastiness at all… but you’re an NFL offensive line coach who demands a glass-eating ass-kicker above all, he won’t be your guy. He’s more a “completer” than a finisher — he’s going to go through the reps efficiently over and over, but you’re not going to see a ton of cockroach blocks and other kills. That’s not his intention. If you’re a defensive opponent, Cross doesn’t want to embarrass you; he wants to make you invisible (which is even more embarrassing, in a way). He will get rocked back at times by more powerful defenders, but again, the recovery ability is generally elite.
Cross won’t always keep his hands on his defender through the entire rep; he’ll back off near the end at times, and that could be because he’s looking elsewhere for work or he doesn’t want to be penalized. But that’s something to monitor at the NFL level.
Conclusion: Deciding on your OT1 in this draft class is going to be a matter of preference, and I could make arguments for three guys here. If you want a tackle who can flip to any position on the line and become elite in a short time, Alabama’s Evan Neal might be the one. If you want a tackle who defined his offense with a killer instinct, you might be all over North Carolina State’s Ikem Ekwonu.
But the reason I choose Cross is pretty simple — the NFL is a passing league with very few team exceptions, and Cross has the best and most complete attributes to pass-block at the NFL level in everything from quick game to seven-step drops. While most first-year NFL tackles struggle when they have to face the league’s best professional edge defenders for the first time, I think Cross has enough on the ball to make NFL pass-blocking look… well, if not “easy,” certainly less complicated than other tackles in this class. For that alone, he’s my OT1, and by a pretty decent distance. He’s also yoked up enough to get things done in the run game, which completes the picture.
NFL Comparison: David Bakhtiari. Like Bakhtiari, the Packers’ three-time Pro Bowler and two-time First-Team All-Pro, Cross tends to make everything look easier than it really is with an NFL-ready quiver of skills. If your offense is pass-heavy with concepts from RPO to all-go, and you need a tackle to get freaky in space when it’s time to run the ball as an ancillary idea, there’s no better option in this draft class.
Also, if current ESPN analyst and former Patriots, Lions, and Jets lineman Damien Woody agrees with a D’Brickashaw Ferguson comp, who am I to argue?
— Damien Woody (@damienwoody) April 1, 2022
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