The NFL Draft kicks off with its opening round on Thursday in Kansas City, so Rivals is taking a look back at its projected first-round picks when they were high school prospects. We move on to our projected No. 30 – Florida offensive guard O’Cyrus Torrence, who was a two-star in 2019 and didn't have much recruiting attention from Power Five programs.
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Where they were ranked: The Greensburg (La.) Helena standout was ranked as a two-star offensive tackle in high school and did not have any committable Power Five offers, opting for Louisiana in the 2019 recruiting class.
Recruitment: An offer from Georgia was listed by Torrence but really his recruitment was centered around Louisiana, Southern Miss, Louisiana Tech, South Alabama and others, as Torrence never got the recognition he deserved. However, he also was not much on the national scene to get exposure to Power Five programs, either.
Biggest Draft Question: When it comes to anchoring and blocking people right in front of him, Torrence is phenomenal but when exotic looks come his way can Torrence move in time to get his hands on blitzers?
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Memories: We honestly didn’t know a ton about Torrence as a high school prospect and didn’t see much of him in person but on film he played right tackle and was also very good as a defensive tackle. With someone that size playing in rural Louisiana, Torrence was able to dominate physically on both sides of the line.
He was actually an even more impressive defensive tackle in high school because he had great get-off, shot gaps well and his ability to push the pocket was really disruptive to interior offensive linemen. It was clear Torrence didn’t have the nimble footwork to stay at offensive tackle in college but he was definitely serviceable at the high school level and the two-star was so big that it was difficult for anyone to get around him.
From Louisiana, Torrence followed coach Billy Napier to Florida and that’s when he really emerged as a legit first-round prospect.
As an offensive guard, Torrence has such a wide, low center of gravity, he immediately wins at the point of contact. His hands have shown to be very good and to get around him takes a lot of time and effort. He’s physical and tough and not afraid to battle inside.
Is he going to be the most athletic offensive guard in the class and is he going to get to the second level to block downfield? Not as well as other players at his position in this draft but he’s going to run block as well as anybody and he’s going to protect the interior of that offensive line.
