Kt
Leveston.
Kt
Leveston.
Kansas St.· 6'4"· 326 lb· 5.38s 40
"Kansas State's left tackle was never really a left tackle — he was a guard's hands and a guard's temper stuck on the edge, and the seventh round is exactly where that argument gets settled."Pre-draft read
Five-year Kansas State lineman who finished his college run as the Wildcats' left tackle even though most evaluators projected him inside. He plays through heavy hands and genuine grip strength: when he lands first and gets square, the rep is decided, and he can displace a defensive tackle on down blocks and duo in Kansas State's gap-heavy run game.
The secondary trait is a wide, sturdy base that gives him a legitimate anchor against bull rush, which is why he survived on an island longer than his testing said he should. He is far more comfortable in a phone booth than in space, and edge speed forces him to overset and open the gate. The signature is functional strength — he wins by making contact, not by beating anyone to a spot.
Gap and duo-based power run offense that lets him fire off downhill and finish, paired with a pass protection plan built on quick game and help to his edge
Year 1: developmental backup guard and emergency swing tackle, active on game day for jumbo packages. Ceiling: starting-caliber power guard, or a genuine sixth-man tackle who can survive a half on the edge in a run-first plan.
A wide-zone offense that asks its linemen to reach-block a three-technique from a tight split and climb to linebackers in space — his stance-to-first-step quickness cannot win those angles, and dropback-heavy passing games leave his edge exposed to speed
His NFL value has come exactly where the projection pointed: on the interior in college terms, but Cleveland has used the frame at tackle in run-heavy sets.
Film Room: KT Leveston Vs Texas: All Pass Pro
Every pass-protection rep against Texas — the best look at his anchor, his hand placement and the oversets that got him in trouble.
KT Leveston Left Tackle Highlights
Kansas State cutup of his left tackle work: down blocks, duo displacement and finishing in the run game.
Is There Any Way the Browns Can Help KT Leveston on the Offensive Line? - Sports4CLE, 11/20/25
Mid-2025 Cleveland discussion of how the Browns schemed help around him during his first NFL starts.
A developmental blocker with starter-caliber power and Day 3 movement skills. Leveston redshirted in 2018, worked his way up through rotational duty, and closed his Kansas State career as the trusted left tackle on a Big 12 championship-era roster, earning honorable mention from the conference coaches twice. He is a grip-and-drive lineman first, and his best football came in the run game the Wildcats built around him.
The evaluation question was never toughness or want-to; it was whether his feet could keep up with NFL edge rushers. He tested as a below-average athlete at the Combine, and the tape matched: he was late out of his stance against wide alignments and had to survive with recovery strength instead of position. The counterargument was that all of that power projected cleanly to guard, where the space shrinks and his hands become the whole rep. Durability helped too: a long run of consecutive starts to close it out.
Boards treated him as a late-seventh-round or priority free agent name, a swing-inside project rather than a plug-and-play piece. The Rams took him with pick 254, the last of their ten selections, betting on a two-position frame and a run-game demeanor they could develop behind an established front. At that price the pick was a free roll on strength.
- 01
Grip and finish
Once his hands land inside the framework, he latches and steers; defenders rarely disengage cleanly, and he plays through the whistle on every down block.
- 02
Anchor strength
A wide, low base and real weight-room power let him absorb bull rush and reset his depth instead of collapsing the pocket into his quarterback's lap.
- 03
Run-game demeanor
Best as a displacement blocker on duo and gap concepts, where he can generate movement off the snap rather than mirroring in open space.
- 04
Positional flexibility
Logged his last two seasons at left tackle while carrying the frame and mentality of an NFL guard, which gave him two ways onto a roster.
- 05
Availability and toughness
Closed his Kansas State career with a long run of consecutive starts at left tackle without missing time, a real Day 3 tiebreaker.
- 01
Foot speed in pass pro
Late out of his stance against wide alignments; NFL speed rushers can threaten his outside shoulder before he has finished his kick slide.
- 02
Overset habits
When he feels beaten to the edge he opens the gate early, which invites the inside counter and puts him in constant recovery mode.
- 03
Movement in space
Not a natural puller or climber; he arrives at the second level a beat late and struggles to adjust to moving targets in the open field.
- 04
Below-average testing profile
A 5.38 forty and 27.5-inch vertical at 326 pounds put hard limits on the range of schemes and alignments that fit him.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.38sp50
- Vertical
- 27.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 108inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- 4.89sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Kansas State | 4 |
| 2020 | Kansas State | 10 |
| 2021 | Kansas State | 9 |
| 2022 | Kansas State | 14 |
| 2023 | Kansas State | 13 |
| Career | — | 50 |
Offensive linemen do not accumulate box-score statistics. Games played by season come from Tankathon's participation table and sum exactly to the 50-game career line (2018 was a redshirt year with no action and is not listed). Per-season starts are left null on purpose: StatMuse lists a 44-game/32-start career that does not reconcile with the 50-game participation table, and Kansas State never published a per-year starts breakdown. The only independently reported figure is a long run of consecutive starts at left tackle closing out his career (Wichita Eagle).
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Undrafted-tier swing lineman who stuck for a decade because he could fill in at guard and tackle without sinking a game plan.
Late-round power guard whose hand strength and durability made him a long-term starter far above his draft slot.
Late Day 3 tackle who got starts out of necessity, was exposed by NFL speed and drifted into camp-body status.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The Rams never got a look at him as a rookie. Leveston hurt his ankle in early August 2024, opened the season on injured reserve, and Los Angeles chose not to activate him in December, so his first NFL year finished with zero regular-season games. On August 26, 2025, as part of final roster cuts, the Rams traded him to Cleveland for a 2028 seventh-round pick. He made the Browns' 53-man roster, debuted on September 14, 2025, and then did something almost no pick 254 does: he played all sixteen remaining games of the season and started seven of them, including the final four in a row down the stretch. He entered 2026 as an active-roster tackle in Cleveland at 335 pounds.
In hindsight this is what the seventh round is supposed to look like. The pre-draft flags were correct — he was overmatched by speed in a few of those 2025 starts, and the film-room criticism was loud enough that local coverage debated how much help he needed. But a lost rookie season and a trade for a 2028 seventh turned into a real NFL swing tackle inside eighteen months. The Rams got nothing out of him and the Browns got a starter's worth of snaps for the cost of a late pick, which is less a scouting miss than a reminder that health and opportunity decide these picks more than grades do.
Data note: Offensive linemen do not accumulate box-score statistics. Games played by season come from Tankathon's participation table and sum exactly to the 50-game career line (2018 was a redshirt year with no action and is not listed). Per-season starts are left null on purpose: StatMuse lists a 44-game/32-start career that does not reconcile with the 50-game participation table, and Kansas State never published a per-year starts breakdown. The only independently reported figure is a long run of consecutive starts at left tackle closing out his career (Wichita Eagle).