Kingsley
Suamataia.
Kingsley
Suamataia.
BYU· 6'5"· 326 lb· 5.04s 40
"Everything about him was tools before technique, and the honest question at 63 was never whether the athleticism was real — it was whether the position he played would end up being the one he was drafted to play."Pre-draft read
Two-year starting left tackle at BYU who moves like a much smaller man. Suamataia sets with real burst out of his stance, covers ground laterally in a hurry, and has the length to steer a rusher past the pocket when he lands his hands cleanly. In the run game he is best pulling, climbing and reaching, beating defenders to spots.
The secondary trait is raw power he does not always use — he can uproot a defensive end when he strikes first, but the pads rise and the hands drift, so he wins fewer reps than the traits suggest. Against pure speed he is comfortable; against counters and inside moves he opens up and loses the rep at the hips. The athletic ceiling is top-of-the-class; the signature is that everything is tools before technique.
Zone and pull-heavy run game with quick-game and play-action protections, run by a staff willing to develop a lineman inside at guard rather than forcing the tackle projection.
Year 1: swing lineman and developmental left tackle with a guard fallback. Ceiling: long-term starting left guard whose movement skills let an offense pull and climb on early downs.
A drop-back offense that leaves its left tackle alone on true seven-step sets against premier speed-to-power rushers, with no plan to move him inside when the hands and pad level get exposed.
Shorten his sets and give him a partner. In tight quarters his burst and grip win; on an island the late hands cost him the rep before he can recover.
Film Room: BYU Kingsley Suamataia Vs Texas Tech
Full-game cut-up showing the pass sets, hand timing and movement skill that defined his BYU tape.
Kingsley Suamataia BYU Offensive Tackle Film Room
Pre-draft breakdown of his tackle traits and the technique flags scouts kept circling.
Kingsley Suamataia: The Most Athletic Lineman in the Draft Class
Athletic-profile breakdown built around his movement skills for the size.
Suamataia is a tools evaluation. He is a big-framed left tackle with rare movement skills for the size, long arms, a five-star recruiting pedigree and the kind of first step that shows up on every pull and reach block. What he was not, coming out, was a finished football player: the technique lagged well behind the athleticism, and the tape swung from dominant reps to giving up pressure on nothing but a hand-fighting loss.
The résumé is short. He redshirted at Oregon after one appearance in 2021, transferred home and started at left tackle for BYU in 2022, then played ten games in 2023 while dealing with an ankle issue, earning second-team All-Big 12 and a captaincy. Twenty-three career games is not much of a sample against a jump in competition, and the flags on tape were consistent — hand placement, pad level, and late reactions to inside counters — even as the flashes stayed loud.
Boards had him as a top-fifteen offensive lineman and a clean Day 2 pick, with a split between evaluators who saw a future left tackle and those who saw a guard. Trading up to 63 for him was a bet on traits plus development, made by a team that has historically been willing to move linemen inside if the outside job does not take.
- 01
Movement for the size
Rare lateral quickness and burst out of the stance at 326 pounds; he beats defenders to landmarks on reaches, pulls and screens.
- 02
Length and grip
Long arms and heavy hands let him steer rushers past the pocket and stay attached once he gets a clean fit inside the frame.
- 03
Latent power
When he strikes first and stays low he can uproot an end at the point of attack and finish him into the ground.
- 04
Second-level range
Climbs and adjusts to moving linebackers in space with balance rather than lunging, which fits a zone and pull-heavy run game.
- 05
Position flexibility
Frame, length and quickness gave him a realistic path at either tackle spot or inside at guard, which raised the floor of the pick.
- 01
Hand placement
Hands land wide and late, so rushers get into his chest and he ends up grabbing; it was the single most repeated flaw on his tape.
- 02
Pad level
Plays tall and lets his weight get behind him, which turns winnable power reps into a slow retreat toward the quarterback.
- 03
Counter recognition
Comfortable against straight speed, but inside moves and long-arm-to-swipe combinations opened his hips before he could reset.
- 04
Sample size
Twenty-three career games with an ankle injury inside them; the body of evidence was thin for a player who needed reps more than most.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.04sp50
- Vertical
- 28inp50
- Broad jump
- 110inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Oregon | 1 |
| 2022 | BYU | 12 |
| 2023 | BYU | 10 |
| Career | — | 23 |
Offensive linemen have no box-score production; games only. Season games (1 at Oregon in 2021 before a redshirt, 12 and 10 at BYU) sum exactly to the verified 23-game career total. Per-season start counts are not published in a source verified here, so they are left blank rather than estimated; he was BYU's left tackle in both 2022 and 2023. Honors: second-team All-Big 12 2023, team captain 2023, Senior Bowl invitee, former five-star recruit.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Drafted as a tackle, lives as an interior starter — useful, athletic and steady without ever being the answer at the position he was picked for.
Big, athletic converted lineman who becomes a Pro Bowl guard once he stops being asked to play on the perimeter.
Not the outcome — the low end is a toolsy Day 2 lineman who never settles at one spot, bounces between guard and tackle and ends up a swing body.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Kansas City traded up for him and put him at left tackle immediately, and it did not hold. He opened 2024 as the Week 1 starter on the blind side, struggled through two games, and was replaced in the lineup by Week 3; he appeared in 15 games as a rookie but spent most of the year off the field as a swing piece rather than a starter. The reset came in 2025, when he was moved inside to left guard. It worked. He played all 17 games with more than 1,000 snaps, ninth-most among NFL guards, and graded out around league average with a run-blocking and pass-protection profile that finally matched the athletic traits. He entered 2026 as the starting left guard.
In hindsight this is a scouting lesson about diagnosis rather than talent. The traits were always real; the tackle projection was not. Everything the tape flagged — late hands, high pads, vulnerability to counters — is punished more on an island than it is in a phone booth, and shortening his sets and giving him a second body to work with removed the reps he could not win. Two years in, the pick looks like a hit at a different position than the one it was made for, which is the outcome teams say they plan for and rarely actually get.
Data note: Offensive linemen have no box-score production; games only. Season games (1 at Oregon in 2021 before a redshirt, 12 and 10 at BYU) sum exactly to the verified 23-game career total. Per-season start counts are not published in a source verified here, so they are left blank rather than estimated; he was BYU's left tackle in both 2022 and 2023. Honors: second-team All-Big 12 2023, team captain 2023, Senior Bowl invitee, former five-star recruit.