Hunter
Nourzad.
Hunter
Nourzad.
Penn St.· 6'3"· 317 lb
"A zero-star Ivy League right tackle who earned an engineering degree at Cornell, transferred to Penn State and made himself an All-Big Ten center in one season — the flexibility is the player, not a footnote."Pre-draft read
Nourzad is a compact, leverage-first interior blocker who finished college as a full-time center after two seasons starting at right tackle in the Ivy League and a year bouncing between both guard spots. He is at his best on the move: quick out of his stance, clean on reach and combo blocks, and comfortable pulling and climbing to intersect a linebacker in space.
The hands and grip strength are real, and he has a snatch-trap counter that punishes rushers who lean. What he does not have is mass. At 317 pounds with average length he can lag getting his anchor set against heavy bull rushers, and his footwork on base and back blocks drifts. The separator is positional flexibility — five-position value from one roster spot.
Outside and mid zone running game with heavy use of pulls, combos and screens, where the interior line wins with quickness, angles and second-level work rather than displacement power.
Year 1: the sixth interior lineman and gameday swing backup who can cover center and both guard spots. Ceiling: a multi-year zone-scheme starter at center or guard on a line that protects him from isolated power.
A gap-and-power line that asks its center to anchor solo against 340-pound nose tackles and drive bodies off the ball in short yardage; that job attacks his mass directly.
Value is concentrated in the roster math — one active spot covering three or four positions on Sunday.
Film Room: Penn State Hunter Nourzad Vs Illinois
All-22 cutup of his center reps against Illinois, showing reach blocks and second-level climbs.
Film Room: Hunter Nourzad Vs Michigan: All Pass Blocks
Every pass-protection rep against Michigan, the best test of his anchor against pro-caliber interior power.
Scouting Kansas City Chiefs 5th Round Pick, Penn State C Hunter Nourzad
Post-draft scouting breakdown of the fit in the Chiefs' zone-heavy interior.
Nourzad is a five-year, four-position offensive lineman whose entire evaluation lives on flexibility and football intelligence. A zero-star recruit who started at Cornell, earned an engineering degree there while starting at right tackle, then transferred to Penn State and reinvented himself inside, he arrived in the draft as a technician rather than a mauler.
The tape shows a zone-scheme blocker with quickness, contact balance and quality grip strength — reach blocks, combos and second-level work are all comfortable. He started all 13 games at center in 2023 and was second-team All-Big Ten in his first year at the position, adding Ivy League Offensive Lineman of the Year honors from his 2021 season at right tackle. The flags are size and power: below-average mass shows up as a slow anchor against long bull rushers, and his aiming points on base blocks let defenders slip him.
The board had him as a Day 3 developmental interior piece, typically a fourth-to-fifth-round grade with an East-West Shrine Bowl invitation on the resume. He did not test at the Combine, which capped the athletic upside argument. Kansas City taking him at 159 was a scheme-specific bet: an Andy Reid line that values movement skills and interchangeable bodies behind an established starting five.
- 01
Positional flexibility
Started games at right tackle, left guard, right guard and center across five seasons, giving a roster five-position insurance from one gameday spot.
- 02
Movement skills
Quick out of his stance on reach blocks, comfortable pulling and clean climbing to the second level to intersect a moving linebacker.
- 03
Grip strength
Latches and sustains once his hands land, and he strains through the whistle to steer and finish blocks rather than falling off contact.
- 04
Snatch-trap counter
Punishes top-heavy power rushers who overextend, using their momentum to pull them past the pocket instead of absorbing the blow.
- 05
Football intelligence
An engineering graduate who took over line calls at center in his first year at the position and earned second-team All-Big Ten doing it.
- 01
Below-average mass
At 317 pounds without the girth of a true anchor center, he loses ground and gets walked back by heavy interior bull rushers.
- 02
Base block technique
Inconsistent aiming points and hand placement on base and back blocks let defenders slip across his face on the backside.
- 03
No testing profile
He did not run or jump at the Combine, leaving teams with no athletic confirmation for the quickness the tape suggests.
- 04
Late positional experience
Only one full season snapping the ball before the draft, so the center reps came with limited runway against pro-level fronts.
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Cornell | 0 |
| 2019 | Cornell | 9 |
| 2021 | Cornell | 10 |
| 2022 | Penn State | 11 |
| 2023 | Penn State | 13 |
| Career | — | 43 |
Offensive linemen accumulate no box-score production, so only verified games and starts are listed; unverified splits are omitted rather than zero-filled. No 2020 row is published because the Ivy League canceled the season. Sources: FootballDB career table (game-level), official Cornell and Penn State bios for awards and start distribution.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- Second-team All-Big Ten (2023)
- Ivy League Offensive Lineman of the Year (2021)
- First-team All-Ivy League (2021)
- Second-team AFCA FCS All-American (2021)
- Second-team All-Ivy League (2019)
- East-West Shrine Bowl invitee
Multi-position interior swing lineman who starts in stretches when injuries force it.
Undersized, smart zone center who parlayed positional flexibility into a long run as a quality starter.
Late-round interior body who lives on the roster fringe as depth without ever locking down a job.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Kansas City used him exactly as the pick implied. Nourzad was active for all 17 games as a rookie in 2024 without a single start, working as the swing interior backup behind Creed Humphrey, Trey Smith and Joe Thuney and contributing on jumbo and field-goal units through a Super Bowl run. The 2025 season was choppier: he was inactive for the first five weeks, played 11 games as the roster churned around a 6-11 Chiefs team, and finally made his first NFL start at the Week 18 finale in Las Vegas. Through two seasons he sits at 28 games and one start.
In hindsight this is a fair fifth-round return, no more. Nourzad has done the job a late Day 3 lineman is drafted to do — survive two rosters, learn every interior spot, be dressable on Sunday — but he has not pushed a starter or forced snaps when injuries opened the door. The concern that showed on tape is the concern that has limited him: not enough mass to hold up in a full-time role against NFL interior power. Blocked by one of the league's best center-guard groups, he remains a swing backup whose next real chance likely comes somewhere else.
Data note: Offensive linemen accumulate no box-score production, so only verified games and starts are listed; unverified splits are omitted rather than zero-filled. No 2020 row is published because the Ivy League canceled the season. Sources: FootballDB career table (game-level), official Cornell and Penn State bios for awards and start distribution.