Aaron
Banks.
Aaron
Banks.
Notre Dame· 6'5"· 325 lb· 5.32s 40
"A Notre Dame guard drafted for anchor and mass, with feet that raised second-level questions — the Kyle Shanahan wide-zone fit was the one that had to answer for the mobility gap."Pre-draft read
Aaron Banks is a phone-booth power guard who plays with length, weight and quiet feet in pass protection. His primary win trait is anchor — 325 pounds of core strength married to 34 3/8" arms, which lets him stop bull rushers cold and re-set his base without giving ground. His hands are heavy and independent, and he lands his punch on the front half of a rusher's chest more often than not; when he times it, he stops a rep before it starts.
In the run game he is at his best as a down-blocker and short-pull option, generating movement on inside zone and A-gap combos, but he is not a creator in space. He drifts on longer pulls, loses angles versus quick 3-techniques when asked to reach, and can bend at the waist chasing counters.
Shanahan outside zone run scheme built around wide zone principles and play-action passing, emphasizing agile offensive linemen capable of reaching and pulling.
Year 1 starter at left guard in a power/gap scheme, eventually developing into a plus starter and strong interior presence.
A true wide zone scheme that frequently asks its guards to execute difficult reach blocks or lead block in space on extended pulls.
Banks is a powerful interior run blocker best suited for schemes prioritizing anchor in pass protection and vertical movement in the run game, rather than lateral agility.
Aaron Banks — Notre Dame Highlights
Official ND channel: pre-college highlight package showing frame, length and mauler traits.
Welcome Aaron Banks — 2021 NFL Draft
College highlight compilation used in scouting circles pre-draft — pass sets, down blocks and pulls.
49ers Select Aaron Banks with the 48th Overall Pick
Draft-night reaction and highlight cutup covering pass-pro anchor and inside-zone reps.
Aaron Banks is primarily a plug-and-play guard prospect whose game centers on his imposing size and anchor ability in pass protection. His 34 3/8" arm length allows him to manage interior rushers effectively, making him a safe bet for teams needing an immediate contributor to stabilize their interior offensive line.
He served as the anchor of Notre Dame's offensive front, starting 25 games at left guard from 2018 to 2020 and earning second-team All-American honors as a senior. He played a significant role in the 2020 ACC title game, demonstrating consistency against high-level competition, though his role did not often require extensive movement in space.
Evaluators recognized his mass and length, but concerns about his lateral quickness and potential for bad weight tempered his projection. Consensus boards generally placed him as a mid-Day-2 pick, signaling a trade-off between his undeniable power and questions regarding his agility before he was selected in the second round.
- 01
Mauler run-blocking profile
aggressive interior blocking and powerful at the point of attack; drives defenders off the line in gap schemes, finishes through the whistle.
- 02
Pass-protection anchor
heavy base with real functional strength versus interior bull rushers; sinks his hips, re-anchors and delivers a stable pocket.
- 03
Length and mass
long arms for the position, keeps 3-techniques off his chest and shows the tools to disengage on the run and reset on interior stunts.
- 04
Hand strength and latch
heavy hands with real jolt at contact; locks out defenders once he wins the first punch and rarely gets stacked and shed.
- 05
Football makeup
three-year Notre Dame starter, praised for work ethic and locker-room fit; low-risk cultural addition and technical improver year over year.
- 01
Foot quickness in space
heavy-footed mover on pulls, reach blocks and screens; average lateral quickness limits his fit in a wide-zone menu.
- 02
Body composition
carried extra weight during his college tenure and pre-draft workouts; conditioning consistency is a real question.
- 03
Recovery when beaten inside
average lateral agility when interior rushers win with quickness; can be worked half-a-man on stunts by twitchier players.
- 04
Level of interior rush competition
modest exposure to premier interior speed-power rushers; how his footwork holds up against pro-caliber players is a projection.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.32sp50
- Vertical
- 31inp50
- Broad jump
- 100inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.69sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.89sp50
- Bench
- 24repp50
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Notre Dame | 13 |
| 2019 | Notre Dame | 13 |
| 2020 | Notre Dame | 12 |
| Career | — | 38 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Realistic outcome — a big, technique-sound LG who anchors pass pro and generates real movement on gap runs without ever hitting All-Pro
Ceiling case if the pass-pro floor holds and he cleans up second-level work — a decade-long plus starter at left guard
Floor case is a solid, well-paid interior starter whose lateral limitations keep him from the top tier at the position
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Solid hit. Rotational as a rookie, full-time LG from 2022, PFF top-25 guard grades 2022-24. Signed 4-year, $77M extension with San Francisco in 2024. Not a Pro Bowler, but a durable and reliable starter — the frame plays, the feet caught up.
**Pre-draft context.** Aaron Banks arrived at Notre Dame as a four-star Bay Area interior lineman with rare mass and length for a guard prospect. Listed at 6'5" and 325 pounds with 34 3/8" arms, he anchored a veteran Irish front from 2018 through 2020, starting 25 games at left guard, earning second-team All-American honors as a senior, and playing a central role in the 2020 ACC title game against Clemson. Banks did not test at the combine and his pro day athletic markers were modest, so the board consensus placed him as a mid-Day-2 mauler: massive size, obvious pass-protection anchor, but real questions about lateral quickness in space and whether the frame carried true bad weight. Most public boards had a fringe 2nd/early 3rd grade before Kyle Shanahan's 49ers moved up in the 2nd round.
**NFL fit — 49ers.** San Francisco viewed Banks as a plug-and-play left guard behind Trent Williams in a wide-zone/gap-heavy scheme that valued length and pass-pro floor. He barely played as a rookie (one start in 2021), then took over the LG job in 2022, starting 13 games as a functional if unspectacular starter. Banks broke out in 2023 — a full 16-game season with clean pass-pro grades and legitimate power on down blocks, protecting Brock Purdy on a Super Bowl run and cementing himself as one of San Francisco's core O-line pieces. The 2024 season was uneven and injury-affected, and with a large cap number looming, the 49ers let him walk. Green Bay signed him to a four-year, $77 million deal in 2025 to start at left guard next to Elgton Jenkins.
**Retrospective.** Banks is a real 2nd-round hit — the archetype worked. A big, technique-sound Power-5 guard with elite length and no character flags projected to a functional NFL starter, and that is exactly what he became: three years as a legitimate LG on a Super Bowl team, then a top-of-market free agent contract at his position. The evaluation flags — pedestrian lateral quickness, occasional heavy feet on the second level — showed up on tape in the pros but never disqualified the profile. This is what a "safe" interior line pick is supposed to return.