The Lions Draft Prospect of the Day moves into the defensive interior to kick off the week before the NFL Scouting Combine.
The focus is on players who should hold some appeal to the Lions in the draft, with a focus on the more likely positions the team will be targeting. If you’re looking for quarterbacks or upper-echelon running backs, you’re probably not going to find those here. Outside cornerbacks, defensive linemen, interior offensive linemen, maybe some wide receivers and offensive tackles figure to appear along the path to April’s draft. Not all of the players will be top-100 prospects, either.
Today’s prospect is a versatile offensive lineman who helped himself with a very nice Senior Bowl week.
Isaiah Adams, OL, Illinois
Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 316 (measured at Senior Bowl)
Adams has an interesting path to being a 2024 NFL draft prospect. A native Canadian, Adams spent two years playing for Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario. He then spent a year at a JUCO before finding a home at Illinois, where he was a starter for his final two college seasons.
He split his time for the Illini between left guard and right tackle, with one random start at left tackle mixed in. Adams was a team captain and a two-time Academic All-Big Ten performer. The 23-year-old told me that he met with the Lions in Mobile during Senior Bowl week.
What I like
- Natural core strength and lower-body power to anchor inside
- Started over 10 games at both left guard and right tackle at Illinois and also played both tackle and guard at the Senior Bowl
- Has extensive game experience in a gap/duo blocking scheme but also has worked some inside zone
- Explosive off the snap with very good initial leg drive
- Pulls as a run blocker like it’s what he was born to do
- Showed improvement in initial hand placement and overall pass protection technique in 2023
- Does not back down or quit until the officials make sure he stops
- Uses his long wingspan well to steer rushers on a wider tack than they’d like, both from the inside and outside
- Good “look for work” blocker in pass protection
What worries me going into the NFL
- Gets taller in his stance the longer a play goes on
- Inconsistent at keeping his feet churning while engaged in pass protection; rushers who can get into his pads can out-quick him
- Adisa Isaac (Penn State EDGE) outclassed him with speed and fluidity as a wide-aligned edge (Adams played RT in that game)
- Better at getting out into space than actually engaging blocking targets (think Graham Glasgow)
- Limited short-range quickness in recovery blocking
Best game I watched: Kansas
Worst game I watched: Penn State
Overall
Adams definitely brings the requisite “grit” to the table, and he’s an effective run blocker with relevant schematic experience. He’s probably a guard-only in the NFL due to his lack of lateral range and athleticism on the outside. There is more than a little of Graham Glasgow’s game to Adams from when Glasgow was a third-round pick out of Michigan back in 2016.
Adams generally still projects in the fourth or fifth round in most mocks, though that range is largely variable at this point. He’s an NFL-ready reserve with definite starting upside with some improved technique. Adams is a better, more polished prospect than Lions 2023 fifth-rounder Colby Sorsdal was at the same point.