Clearing the Smoke: Peter Skoronski

Is he a Guard or a Tackle?

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On Tuesday, I started a little series where I am clearing the smoke about some prospects. Giving my thoughts on the narratives surrounding them, and my overall feeling of their NFL success. Today I am going to talk about Peter Skoronski. A top talent in this year’s draft who is in quite the predicament that is out of his control.

It’s funny to me that there are loads of fans and local media who have been clamoring for this team to use analytics more in their decision making process, but now that there is decades old data to show why a player won’t have a high as ceiling as others, or won’t succeed, they just have to ignore it, cause they like that player. Make it make sense.

Sure, data isn’t everything, but there are some non-negotiables in the NFL that can’t be ignored. Not because the player isn’t talented, but because of the player’s opposition. Skoronski is a good example of this, and this is why he is a guard.

Peter Skoronski is a Guard. Period.

Peter Skoronski’s best chance at immediate and long-term sustain success is playing Guard at the NFL level. There isn’t really a need to die on a hill otherwise. This is a great career projection and will benefit any team. It’s been the overwhelming consensus on him, and thus I don’t see a real reason to push the tackle agenda.

This is to not say that Skoronski isn’t talented. I am not even saying that his tape isn’t high quality. He is talented and it shows up on tape, but part of the draft process for analysts and teams, is projecting what will and what won’t translate to the NFL on Sundays.

When playing football at the college level, your talent can allow you to overcome size limitations. After all, not everyone you line up against or play is NFL caliber level talent. However, there is just too much data out there, available for free, to show you how traits just limit what you can be at the next level. Skoronski is a perfect case study for this.

Reach does have a massive impact on the outcome of any given play. Like in boxing, whoever has the reach advantage gets to control the terms of engagement. So, the NFL average EDGE rusher is going to have 33.5” arms, which means that they’re always going to have a reach and length advantage versus Skoronski. Football has always been called a game of inches, and this extends not just from the play results but to the players as well.

There are ways for a tackle to overcome this, but I am going to talk about those later, first let’s dive into his physical attributes how they are going to limit him as a tackle, whereas the sky’s the limit at guard. Here’s what I mean:

• Height: 6’4” (8th percentile)

• Weight: 313 lbs. (49^th)

• Wingspan: 79.5” (9^th)

• Arm Length: 32.25 (4^th)

There isn’t a player out there with those kind of numbers that has been a successful tackle at the NFL level. For whatever reason, the NFL gods will not let a player succeed at tackle with less than 33” arms. It just doesn’t happen.

“But the tape! And he said at the combine that NFL teams could see him being a tackle!” Yeah, okay, but none of that truly matters. The tape is great, but the NFL size and speed is just different. You’re going to see players lined up against him that are bigger, stronger, and faster. The physical limitations of Skoronski do not translate to stop this.

He lacks NFL tackle strength and when your arms are short as his, you’re going to have a hard time generating power. It showed up at his pro day.

The reviews on offensive lineman Peter Skoronski were solid but not spectacular. The Northwestern offensive tackle looked smooth and fluid in position drills, and he displayed next-level footwork. One criticism I heard was Skoronski did not display a powerful punch during bag drills.

That’s something you don’t want to hear from a guy whose arm length at the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine came in a tad over 32 inches as teams decide whether to put the junior on their tackle or guard board. - Tony Pauline, ProFootballNetwork

So, one of the ways a guard with short arms could overcome the length disadvantage would be through NFL level strength. You grab and pull a player into your chest and you can smell what he had for lunch, then the arm length advantage for the defender doesn’t matter anymore.

The other way is to punch his arms and get them out of the way towards get the sky. But both of those things require NFL strength and power, and while Skoronski’s agility and speed are off the charts, the strength doesn’t sound like it’s there.

I think solid but not spectacular is how you can describe Skoronski’s NFL outlook at tackle. That is his best outcome at tackle. The worst is you wasted your time and his, and he is a bad tackle. Are you drafting Skoronski in the top-10 cause you want the ceiling of “a solid tackle”? Cause that is his ceiling at left tackle in the NFL. No, a team is, or more accurate may be should, be drafting him to be a guard with an elite guard ceiling.

Prior Examples of the College Tackle/NFL Guard