Alabama Tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. Selected 10th in the 2020 NFL Draft

Crimson Tide anchor at right tackle a top draft pick, could end up playing on the left side in the NFL

It might have been a little bit of right place, right time, but Alabama right tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. isn't going to argue the point. 

Thursday night, the former 5-star prospect out of the state of Kentucky was selected in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.

He'll be close to home with the Cleveland Browns at No. 10 overall  

“This is a guy, very athletic," ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said. "You look at the movement he gets in the run game. He was a key guy for their running game. He very rarely let up any pressures. He keeps that frame between the defensive end and the quarterback. 

"Very skilled. Very innately smart pass blocker. He just has a knack. He cuts off angles. He’s really good."

Aided by having basketball-type footwork, Wills was a rock on the right side of the Alabama for the past two seasons. He played in 11 games during his first season in 2017, with his first official start when Alabama used a sixth offensive lineman on the first snap against Ole Miss. 

The starting job went to him when veteran Matt Womack suffered an injury during fall practice. Wills started all 15 games as a sophomore, and all 13 last season while landing second-team All-American and first-team All-SEC status. 

Per Alabama, he graded out at over 91 percent, allowing only one sack all season and only 3.5 quarterback hurries while missing only seven assignments in 771 snaps. It added up to a success rate of 99.0 percent.

"Jedrick Wills is just a natural knee-bender who's very explosive," Daniel Jeremiah of the NFL Network said. "He can get himself in bad positions and find ways to recover with his athleticism.

"Just very explosive, very athletic player who I think he's a top-10 pick in just about any year in my opinion."

Count Nick Saban among those who feel that Wills could probably make the switch to left tackle, which is where most NFL teams play their best lineman, as well.  

“I think he’s got all the physical tools and physical abilities to do that," the Alabama coach said. "I think it’s a comfort level for every player. [Some] people feel more comfortable in a right-handed stance, especially if that’s how they played for many, many years, which Jedrick played right tackle in high school, too. It was always best for us to play him at right because Tua was left-handed, so that was like our left tackle. 

"So I do think he has all the physical attributes, the athleticism to be the kind of pass blocker you need to be on that side of the line. But I don’t know how he’ll transition to it. Nobody knows how anybody will. I just know he’s capable and smart enough. I think it will just be him getting enough repetitions that he develops a comfort zone.”

Courtesy of Alabama Athletics