With the NFL Draft a few weeks away, our College Football expert Thor Nystrom shares his official Center rankings. Read on for Thor’s player comps and analysis on the next crop of pro football centers.
Thor Nystom’s 2024 NFL Draft Center Rankings
Tier 1: Round 1 Grade
1. Graham Barton (Duke)
6053/313 | RAS: N/A
Player Comparison: Cody Whitehair
With the NFL Draft a few weeks away, our College Football expert Thor Nystrom shares his official Center rankings. Read on for Thor’s player comps and analysis on the next crop of pro football centers.
Thor Nystom’s 2024 NFL Draft Center Rankings
Tier 1: Round 1 Grade
1. Graham Barton (Duke)
6053/313 | RAS: N/A
Player Comparison: Cody Whitehair
2. Jackson Powers-Johnson (Oregon)
6033/328 | RAS: N/A
Player Comparison: Stefen Wisniewski
Notes: Graham Barton was a stud LT the last three seasons after starting five games at OC as a freshman. A lack of length — Barton’s arms would have tied for shortest among my top 30 OT prospects — is what has had the NFL working him on the interior during the pre-draft process. Whether at OC or OG, Barton will be a standout starter in the NFL for a long time.
Jackson Powers-Johnson was tremendous at center last season for a strong Oregon team after playing RG and RT the previous two seasons. He had an extremely impressive Senior Bowl week, stone-walling all comers in one-on-ones. Headed for center at the next level, Powers-Johnson also provides OG versatility in a pinch.
Tier 2: Round 2 Grade
3. Zach Frazier (West Virginia)
6025/313 | RAS: N/A
Player Comparison: Tyler Biadasz
Notes: A dominant high school wrestler, Zach Frazier took his grappling skills exclusively to the gridiron in college. Tough, smart and lauded for his leadership, Frazier was a team captain and an All-Big 12 Academic selection three times at WVU. He’s a handful in the run game, with the leg drive and technique to win in a phone booth and the quickness and lateral agility to take out linebackers and be used as a puller.
Frazier’s lack of reach — 32nd-percentile arm length — comes into play more in pass-pro, where longer interior players can get into his frame and quicker ones can evade his ability to recover on counters. While this may cap his ceiling he will still be a rock-solid NFL starter.
Tier 3: Round 3 Grade
4. Beaux Limmer (Arkansas)
6045/302 | RAS: 9.8
Player Comparison: Ben Hamilton
5. Hunter Nourzad (Penn State)
6031/317 | RAS: N/A
Player Comparison: Matt Skura
Notes: Beaux Limmer has proven three-position versatility — he was superb at OG for three seasons and at OC in 2023 in the SEC — and is coming off a sparkling pre-draft great process. His 39 bench press reps were the most of any prospect at the NFL Combine. Limmer became the first prospect in combine history with at least a 36.5″ vertical and 39 bench reps — only one prospect had ever posted a 36″ vertical with 35 bench reps before him. Limmer’s 9.8 RAS was accrued while doing every test. Not only that, but he squats 700 pounds.
He’s a very, very good run blocker who fires low and consistently wins the leverage game. At this time, he’s more comfortable coming forward than letting the action come to him in pass-pro. Technical fine-tuning will help, beginning with widening his base in that phase. That would improve his balance against power and his lateral agility against quickness. Either way, Limmer is an underrated prospect who should start in the NFL for a long time.
Tier 4: Day 3 Grade
6. Tanor Bortolini (Wisconsin)
6042/303 | RAS: 9.76
Player Comparison: John Sullivan
7. Sedrick Van Pran (Georgia)
6041/298 | RAS: 7.58
Player Comparison: Geoff Hangartner
8. Nick Samac (Michigan State)
6040/307 | RAS: N/A
Player Comparison: Jake Grove
9. Dylan McMahon (North Carolina State)
6033/299 | RAS: 9.92
Player Comparison: Luke Wypler
10. Drake Nugent (Michigan)
6014/298 | RAS: 6.64
Player Comparison: Brian Allen
Notes: Topping the list are one guy I like more than most (Tanor Bortolini) and one guy I’m lower on than most (Sedrick Van Pran). More would see Bortolini as I do had he not regressed in 2023. Some of that is attributable to shifting from OG to OC in one offseason where he was simultaneously learning a new system that was opposed to the old one (power-run to spread). Bortolini is a stud athlete who particularly shines in the areas most analytically-conducive to next-level success on the interior — weight-adjusted speed, splits and agility.
As for Sedrick Van Pran, he may be getting propped up in the pre-draft process by his college situation. A three-year starting center at Georgia, Van Pran has plenty of experience in high-leverage spots. His play did noticeably improve as a senior. But he’s also a sub-300-pounder with short arms and below-average agility. And while he allowed zero sacks the past two seasons, Van Pran’s advanced data tells a different story, with an 11th-percentile pass block grade on true pass sets since the start of 2022. He might not have the lower-body bend to improve his leverage against power, nor the lateral agility or length to improve against quicks and counters. Confined to center, Van Pran doesn’t have much margin for error. His margin for error to return investment on the second-round grade some give him is very small.
2024 NFL Mock Drafts
Here are a few early predictions for the 2024 NFL Draft. We’ll continue to add our 2024 NFL Mock Drafts leading up to the start of Round 1.
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