Caedan
Wallace.
Caedan
Wallace.
Penn State· 6'5"· 314 lb· 5.15s 40
"A four-year right tackle whose game is built on placement instead of punch: clean feet, quiet hands, and a body of work that asks whether the left side is a projection or a stretch."Pre-draft read
Wallace is a four-year right tackle in a balanced, zone-leaning offense, and the tape is built on placement rather than power. He sets with short, controlled kick slides, keeps his hands inside the frame, and re-fits quickly when the first punch misses, which is why his 2023 ledger stayed nearly spotless against Big Ten edges.
In the run game he is best on down blocks and combinations that climb to the second level, where his feet let him cover up linebackers on wide zone. Power is adequate rather than displacing; he seals more than he moves. The athletic ceiling shows on pulls and screens, where he covers ground for his 6-5, 314 frame. The signature is patience — he treats a rush as a series of adjustments, not one collision.
Outside-zone or balanced play-action offense that lets him reach and climb instead of asking him to displace defenders at the point of attack.
Year 1: swing tackle and RT insurance. Ceiling: multi-year starting right tackle in a zone scheme, with a guard conversion as the floor.
Gap-and-duo run offense that needs a left tackle to win one-on-one against premier speed-to-power rushers on true drop-back protection.
His feet buy him a job; his anchor decides which side of the line it is on.
Caedan Wallace College Highlights, Penn State, OL | 2024 NFL Draft Pick
Full college highlight reel of his right tackle work at Penn State.
Film Room: Penn St Caedan Wallace Vs Michigan: All Pass Pro
Every pass-protection rep against Michigan, the best edge test on his 2023 schedule.
Breakdown Of Penn State Right Tackle Caedan Wallace In All-22 Film
All-22 study of his sets, hand placement and second-level climbs.
Wallace is the kind of lineman who wins the argument slowly. He arrived at Penn State as a four-star New Jersey recruit, redshirted, then spent four seasons as the answer at right tackle in an offense that asked him to fit outside zone, hinge on boot, and hold up in true drop-back protection against the best edge rooms in the Big Ten. His identity is technique and composure rather than violence.
The production backs the profile. He played 47 career games and made 40 starts, every one of them at right tackle, and the 2023 season was the cleanest of the group — 13 starts, honorable-mention All-Big Ten, and one sack allowed on 359 pass-blocking snaps. The flag is not effort or football character; it is play strength and the flip side. He can be walked backward by long-levered bull rushers, and he had never taken a meaningful snap on the left side, which turns any left-tackle plan into a projection rather than a read.
Boards had him in the third-to-fourth-round band as a plug-and-play right tackle with a guard fallback. New England took him 68th with a stated intention of moving him to left tackle, which was the bet: pay third-round money for developed right-side technique and hope the footwork transfers to the blind side. The technique was real. The transfer was the gamble.
- 01
Pass-set mechanics
short, controlled kick slides with inside hand placement, and he rarely oversets or opens the gate against speed-to-power conversions.
- 02
Redirect and recovery
when the first punch misses he re-fits rather than lunging, which kept clean pockets intact even on reps he technically lost early.
- 03
Second-level climb
light enough on his feet to cover up linebackers on wide zone and combination blocks, a real asset in an outside-zone run game.
- 04
Experience and durability
40 career starts at right tackle in a Big Ten schedule, tested weekly against pro-caliber edge rushers with no red flags off the field.
- 05
Space work
moves well on pulls, screens and reach blocks for his size, and finishes those reps under control instead of falling off the target.
- 01
Anchor strength
long, heavy bull rushers can walk him into the pocket, and he gives ground on speed-to-power before he can reset his base.
- 02
No left-side reps
every college start came at right tackle, so any blind-side projection rests on footwork theory rather than on tape.
- 03
Displacement in the run game
he seals and covers rather than moving bodies off the ball, which caps his value in a gap or duo run scheme.
- 04
Late-rep hand resets
he can carry his hands wide once a rusher counters, letting defenders into his chest and turning wins into stalemates.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.15sp50
- Vertical
- 31inp50
- Broad jump
- 116inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Penn State | 4 |
| 2020 | Penn State | 9 |
| 2021 | Penn State | 13 |
| 2022 | Penn State | 8 |
| 2023 | Penn State | 13 |
| Career | — | 47 |
Games by season verified via Penn State athletics and Sports Reference; 40 career starts, all at right tackle, per school and NFL draft records. Season starts for 2021 and 2022 are not individually verified and are left blank rather than estimated. Allowed one sack on 359 pass-blocking snaps in 2023.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Serviceable right tackle who starts on technique and gets exposed by power on the edge.
Same profile of clean feet and positional flexibility, with real starting stretches when healthy.
Talented mover whose availability and anchor kept him in the swing-tackle tier.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
New England drafted him to solve left tackle and never got a clean look at the experiment. He opened his rookie year in the swing-tackle role, saw his first extended work in September, and was on injured reserve by October 4 with an ankle problem that cost him most of the middle of the season. He was activated in late December and finished 2024 with six games and two starts. In 2025 the plan changed around him: the Patriots spent the fourth overall pick on Will Campbell at left tackle and kept Morgan Moses on the right, pushing Wallace back to swing duty. He appeared in four games without a start. Two New England seasons produced 10 games and two starts — one at left tackle, one as a sixth lineman — and on August 10, 2026 the Patriots sent him to Miami with a 2029 seventh for a 2028 sixth.
In hindsight the evaluation was right and the deployment was optimistic. Wallace was always a right tackle with clean feet and a guard-sized power profile, and asking him to become the blind-side answer removed every margin the anchor question needed. The ankle took the year he needed to prove the position change, the Campbell pick took the opening, and a third-rounder drafted to fix a specific problem returned a late-round trade chip instead. He lands in Miami at 26 as depth with a live path back to right tackle, which is the job the tape always described.
Data note: Games by season verified via Penn State athletics and Sports Reference; 40 career starts, all at right tackle, per school and NFL draft records. Season starts for 2021 and 2022 are not individually verified and are left blank rather than estimated. Allowed one sack on 359 pass-blocking snaps in 2023.