Patrick
Paul.
Patrick
Paul.
Houston· 6'8"· 331 lb· 5.13s 40
"A four-year blindside starter who never gave up the left tackle spot and never gave up the pocket either, drafted less for what he was in 2024 than for the year he would spend learning behind a Pro Bowler."Pre-draft read
Paul is a pure left tackle who never played a snap anywhere else in college, and the tape is built around length and a set that eats ground. He gets depth quickly for a 331-pound man, keeps his hands inside on the initial punch, and uses arms long enough to stop a rush before it ever reaches his frame. Speed off the edge rarely threatens him because his first two kicks cover so much of the arc.
The run game is the unfinished half. He is a wall in the phone booth and can bury a defender once he latches, but he plays tall on down blocks and is a builder rather than a finisher on the climb. The signature is protection volume: he handled a full slate of blindside snaps for three straight years without letting the pocket collapse behind him.
Pass-first offense that lives in dropback and play-action sets, where the left tackle is asked to protect an island edge and the run game is built on zone rather than displacement.
Year 1: swing tackle and developmental starter behind a veteran. Ceiling: decade-long starting left tackle who erases speed rushers and is schemed around in the run game.
A gap-scheme, downhill run offense that asks the left tackle to down block and drive a three-technique off the ball on early downs, or to pull and finish in space.
Build the run concepts away from him and let his length do the work on the backside — his money reps are true pass sets, not displacement blocks.
Film Room: Houston LT Patrick Paul vs Texas
Full-game protection reps against a Power Five front, showing the kick slide and length that defined his college tape.
Patrick Paul Left Tackle Highlights
Houston highlight reel of his blindside work, including the punch timing and anchor against bull rushers.
Film Breakdown: Patrick Paul's Best Pass Protection Performance vs the Texans
NFL film review of his pro pass sets after taking over as Miami's starting left tackle.
Paul arrived as a developmental frame and left Houston as one of the most experienced blindside protectors in the class. Forty-four career starts, all at left tackle, gave him a body of work that few tackles in this draft could match, and the position never moved on him.
His final two seasons were the argument. He surrendered almost nothing in true pass protection, closing 2023 with a single sack allowed on nearly 500 pass-blocking snaps, and he did it against Big 12 competition after Houston's move up in class. The flags were real too: he can lean and lose his base against inside counters, his hand placement drifts when a rusher stacks moves, and the run blocking never matched the pass protection because he does not consistently roll his hips at contact.
Boards had him as a second-round tackle with starter traits and a redshirt year attached — length, size and pass sets that translate, paired with a body that needed pro strength work. Miami had Terron Armstead on a short runway and took the succession plan at 55 rather than reaching for a plug-and-play interior piece.
- 01
Elite length
36 1/4-inch arms let him stop rushers at the point of attack before they can work into his chest or attack his edges.
- 02
Pass-set depth
kick slide covers the arc quickly for a 331-pounder, so speed rushers rarely threaten the top of his set.
- 03
Production in protection
allowed one sack and nine total pressures on 496 pass-blocking snaps as a senior, second-best efficiency among FBS tackles.
- 04
Functional strength
30 bench reps at that arm length shows the raw power to stall bull rushers once he catches them square.
- 05
Positional experience
44 straight starts at left tackle and two captaincies mean no projection about where he lines up or how he handles a room.
- 01
Plays tall
high pad level on down blocks costs him leverage and lets smaller defenders get under his frame in the run game.
- 02
Inside counters
he leans on his length and can be beaten back across his face when a rusher works long-arm to a swipe inside.
- 03
Finish in the run game
he covers defenders up rather than moving them, and rarely drives a front-side block off the ball.
- 04
Recovery balance
when the first punch misses, his weight gets over his toes and the correction comes late against quick hands.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.13sp50
- Vertical
- 29inp50
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- 7.65sp50
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Houston | 3 |
| 2020 | Houston | 2 |
| 2021 | Houston | 14 |
| 2022 | Houston | 13 |
| 2023 | Houston | 12 |
| Career | — | 44 |
Offensive linemen have no box-score production; games and starts only, per the official Houston and Miami Dolphins media guides. All 44 career starts came at left tackle and season games sum to the 44 career total. Honors: first-team All-AAC 2021 and 2022, first-team All-Big 12 2023, two-time team captain.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Big-bodied, dependable left tackle who holds the edge for a decade without ever being the best run blocker on the line.
Long, light-footed blindside protector whose pass sets carry the profile while the run blocking catches up later.
Not the outcome — the low end is a length-dependent tackle who leans and gets exposed inside, closer to a swing tackle than a starter.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Miami redshirted him behind Terron Armstead as a rookie: 17 games, only three starts, two at left tackle and one at right, with the December start against the Jets his best rep — 67 snaps with no sack or hit surrendered. Year two was the handoff. With Armstead gone, Paul started all 17 games at left tackle, played 975 snaps and finished with a 66.2 PFF grade, including a 74.4 pass-blocking mark that ranked 28th among 89 qualified tackles. He allowed four sacks and 25 pressures on the season and posted one of the lowest pressure rates of any left tackle in the league.
In hindsight the pick reads as a clean piece of roster planning rather than a home run. Everything the evaluation liked translated — the length, the sets, the blindside comfort — and everything it flagged is still there: a 58.5 run-blocking grade and nine penalties say the leverage and discipline work is unfinished. He is a legitimate NFL left tackle on a rookie contract taken 55th, which is exactly the return a team hopes for at that slot, but the ceiling still depends on whether he ever becomes a man-mover.
Data note: Offensive linemen have no box-score production; games and starts only, per the official Houston and Miami Dolphins media guides. All 44 career starts came at left tackle and season games sum to the 44 career total. Honors: first-team All-AAC 2021 and 2022, first-team All-Big 12 2023, two-time team captain.