Thursdays with Mora: Oklahoma's Creed Humphrey’s NFL prospects

Oklahoma center projects anywhere from the first round to the third, but Jim Mora tells SI Sooners Humphrey will be in the NFL "a long, long time"

There’s a lot for NFL scouts to like about Oklahoma center Creed Humphrey, and a lot of Humphrey’s best traits can’t be revealed on a pro day measuring chart.

“He’s got the intangibles you look for at that position,” Jim Mora Jr. told SI Sooners on a Zoom call Thursday. “You don’t have be the greatest athlete. But you have to have leadership, you have to have toughness. You have to be dependable. It’s crazy to say, but you have to be able to pull a huddle together and get your guys in order — and the can do all those things.”

Mora was a head coach in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons and the Seattle Seahawks, and he was head coach in college with the UCLA Bruins. Now he’s a commentator for ESPN and a draft analyst for Sports Illustrated.

Mora likes almost everything he sees out of Humphrey, the Sooners’ three-year starter who hails from Shawnee, grew up in a wrestling family and became an All-American at OU.

“I think he’s going to be a steady player for many, many years at center,” Mora said. “Probably never a superstar, but a guy that you can depend on week in, week out, year in and year out.

“I think the fact that he’s played so many games as a part of the one of the very best offensive lines in college football — heck, he was probably the best player on an offensive line that won the Moore Award as the best offensive line in college football.”

The 6-foot-5, 315-pound Humphrey is widely projected to be the first Sooner off the board when the NFL Draft unfolds April 29-May 1. The NFL Scouting Combine has been canceled by pandemic, and the draft itself will again be conducted virtually. But Humphrey will perform for a full contingent of NFL scouts when Oklahoma stages its pro day on March 12 in Norman.

Humphrey is currently ranked by NFL Draft Bible as the third-best center available in this year’s draft behind Wisconsin-Whitewater's Quinn Meinerz and Pittsburgh's Jimmy Morrissey, and is projected as a third-round pick. Some mock drafts predict Humphrey could climb into the first round, depending on what teams need.

“I think if there are a couple of things that will hurt him and keep him from being a superstar,” Mora said. “A little of a lack of length maybe (in the) arms. And early in the downs, he’s susceptible to a bull rush, but he’s able to recoup and get his hips up under him and he can stall the bull rush.”

Humphrey learned the trade at OU under o-line guru Bill Bedenbaugh and picked up a lot of offensive football from Lincoln Riley. Humphrey’s upside goes well beyond intangibles. He’s more athletic than he looks, and he’ll get a chance to show that at his pro day.

“I think he’s very savvy and very smart,” Mora said. “One of the functions that you have to be able to handle is making all the calls, making all the protection calls or changing the blocking patterns in the run game, and he is very efficient at that.”

Mora said Humphrey could be a starter at center, or he could learn a new position that will help him stick on someone’s roster. Humphrey has that kind of intelligence and flexibility to move around if needed.

“If he doesn’t go in and become a starter right away, one of the things he offers is versatility,” Mora said. “Because you’re going to activate typically seven offensive linemen for a game, so you’re gonna have an extra offensive tackle and then an extra interior offensive lineman. And I think he could probably learn to play guard and play efficiently if he needed to do so in a pinch.”

“I think he’s gonna be a steady, steady player in the league for a long, long time.”