The 2024 NFL Draft is getting close, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the class' best players with scouting reports. Each report will include strengths, weaknesses and background information.
Here's our report on JC Latham.
Latham is one of the better OL prospects in the 2024 draft class after starting at right tackle for two seasons at Alabama. He brings a desirable combination of size, play strength, power, movement and competitive toughness.
Power is the foundation of Latham’s game. It comes in a frame with outstanding size and mass, with long arms and a powerful core and lower half. That was especially effective in pass protection, where he consistently played with excellent balance and a firm base, setting a strong anchor to stone speed-to-power pass rush. He showed the needed athletic ability and range with active feet to seal the edge.
In the run game, Latham easily converted contact strength to movement power as a down blocker to create displacement. As a base blocker, he could control and displace with impactful, initial contact and sustaining foot movement. Latham is a big man with natural power throughout his body and surprisingly light balanced feet for a man that size.
His dominant play strength and commanding anchor consistently showed up on tape, especially in pass protection. There are two concerns in pass protection that could be more exposed at the next level, and that is his occasional issue with quick inside counters that cross his face and his vulnerability to detailed rushers with stutters, hesitations and nuance.
Overall, my sense is Latham is a RT prospect who could make the transition to LT, and it would not surprise me if some teams see him as an OG with his strength and power to dominate in the run game.
Latham came out of IMG Academy in Florida as a consensus five-star recruit, the top ranked OL and No. 2 prospect in the nation regardless of position. He played his first two years of high school football in Wisconsin as a DE before transferring to IMG and making the switch to OT.
Latham became the starter at RT in his sophomore season of 2022 and finished his college career with 23 starts. Latham physically overpowered Michigan DT Kris Jenkins on Jase McClellan's 34-yard TD in the national semifinal game. Overall, Latham had a dominant game versus Michigan, especially in pass protection.
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