Film Friday: Physical Gifts Give Jaelyn Duncan a High Ceiling
Let's relive a pair of big games for Jaelyn Duncan on this week's Film Friday.
By now, you guys should know two things about me. One, I love watching the big meaty men slappin’ meat. I love learning the nuance of playing offensive line, and I love to watch a good lineman get in there and beat and bang around. There’s a double entendre in there somewhere, but I’m too lazy to land the plane right now.
I think my love for offensive line play was born out of two things - first, there’s just something visceral about watching the test of wills between offensive and defensive linemen. It fires me up when two big bulls collide, and I’m essentially the Vince-McMahon-falling-back-in-his-chair meme when an offensive lineman ‘splodes somebody at the point of the block (Zach, that’s supposed to be a redneck riff on “explodes,” so no, it wasn’t a typo - actually you can leave this note in so that the readers better understand my slack-jawed hickspeak). But, there’s also a game within the game that few people take the time to truly appreciate - footwork, hand usage, movement, and leverage. It’s fun to watch a craftsman go to work, and it’s fascinating to see when those things when a match-up that is razor thin between equally strong linemen.
Now, the second thing you should know about me by now is that I absolutely love how the Titans have attacked the offensive line need this offseason. I am on the optimistic side of this plan. Would I call Andre Dillard and Daniel Brunskill proven commodities? No. But, the athletic upside feels like a massive upgrade over what the Titans had available down the stretch last season.
I’ve come around on the Peter Skoronski pick from where I was when you guys watched us on A Football Show live during the first round of the draft. I’m fine with Aaron Brewer at center, which I feel is his more natural position. I mean, I’ve been doing cartwheels over this unit ever since the draft.
They don’t have to become the best offensive line in the league in order for this offense to improve. They just have to be marginally better for this offense to improve. But, there’s an awful lot of athleticism among this unit that gives it a much higher ceiling than I would’ve anticipated at the end of the 2022 season. If it’s Dillard-Skoronski-Brewer-Brunskill-NPF, I’m perfectly happy with that, and believe will see marked improvement in 2023.
That’s why I was so jacked out of my gourd when the Titans were able to snag Jaelyn Duncan in the sixth round. It might be my favorite pick of their draft. I was a fan of Duncan after scouting him at the Senior Bowl. By the time the dust settled, he was OT8 and the 53rd overall player on my big board. I wouldn’t have been surprised at all for him to have been a 2nd round pick, but he slid all the way to the 6th round, where he became a tremendous value for the Titans.
But, Duncan also landed in about as perfect of a spot as he could have. We’ll get into the tape, but in a nutshell, he’s got plenty of physical traits, but he’s raw from a technique standpoint. Here, he *fingers crossed* won’t be needed to find a role right away. He ought to have time to develop behind the five guys who are pencilled into the starting roles, and he ought to have time to figure out which position he’s best suited to play.
I could easily see him developing into the “sixth man” lineman that can play at any position they need him to early on, but I see his ceiling as potentially developing into the team’s long term answer at left tackle.
Let’s revisit my initial eval of Duncan before we keep going:
I love the physical traits of Duncan…he’s an athletic, twitchy, speedy and long offensive tackle that has a nice kick and lateral glide. His technique and footwork need some polish, and that means he’s probably not a Week 1 starter, but he has a high ceiling among this group. I want to see him play with a little more pop too…drive the play instead of reacting to it. I noticed him getting plenty of coaching at the Senior Bowl, and as a result, his technique improved from the first day to his last in Mobile. I was disappointed to hear he’d opted out of the OL drills at the Combine, waiting until his Pro Day to run those. I can’t help but wonder if he’s not quite as far along as he should be.
I don’t remember where we heard it, but it seems like Zach and I found out that Duncan had incurred some sort of concussion-esque injury that might’ve had something to do with his opting out of the Senior Bowl, some of the Scouting Combine drills, and in turn, he slid to the 6th round. I usually reserve reckless speculation for SoBros Network (the editor over there is an incredibly loose individual), but I can’t for the life of me find this supposed injury situation anywhere on Google. So, like every good journalist, I’m just going to assume my intuition is right on this one and say that positively addresses my concerns as to why he was absent during the Senior Bowl game and the Scouting Combine.
Note from Zach: After googling “Jaelyn Duncan Senior Bowl Concussion” I found that it was written in Dane Brugler’s “The Beast” draft guide. The Brugs said he suffered the concussion in Senior Bowl practice.
Now, let’s dig into the tape, and I’ll show you guys why I think there’s some real starting potential with Duncan.