Tylan
Grable.
Tylan
Grable.
Central Florida· 6'6"· 306 lb· 4.95s 40
"A high school quarterback who learned tackle on the fly and still tested like a wing player, Grable is the rare Day 3 lineman whose ceiling is a bet on movement, not mass."Pre-draft read
Grable is a converted quarterback who plays left tackle like a former skill athlete: light, springy, and most comfortable when the rep asks him to cover ground. He explodes out of his stance, wins the corner on outside zone, and is genuinely dangerous climbing to linebackers in space, where he adjusts to moving targets instead of lunging at them.
In pass protection he mirrors quick edge rushers with easy lateral slide and surprising grip strength once he latches. The counterweight is leverage: he plays tall, his secondary hand usage is scattered, and bull rushers can walk him back before he resets his base. The athletic ceiling is the signature — few tackles this raw move like this.
Outside-zone and wide-zone run game that asks tackles to reach, climb and block in space rather than grind out double teams.
Year 1: swing tackle and jumbo package blocker. Ceiling: starting left tackle or left guard in a zone-based offense.
A gap-and-duo power scheme that lives on down blocks and vertical double teams, where his high pads and thin anchor get exposed on every early down.
Buffalo's cross-training habit is the best possible environment for a tackle whose athletic tools outrun his technique.
Tylan Grable Pass Blocking Highlights (Left Tackle)
Pass-set cutup showing the lateral slide and the leverage issues against power.
Ultimate Tylan Grable UCF OL Highlights
Full UCF reel: reach blocks, climbs to the second level and work in space.
Wilkinson County alum Tylan Grable reflects on journey to NFL, rookie season with Buffalo Bills
Local feature on the quarterback-to-tackle conversion and his rookie year in Buffalo.
Tylan Grable is a movement tackle with an unusual résumé. A Georgia high school quarterback who broke his foot as a senior and drew almost no recruiting interest, he landed at Jacksonville State, played tight end and tackle in 2019, then moved to the offensive line full time and became an FCS All-America pick before transferring to UCF.
At UCF he started every game at left tackle in back-to-back seasons, 14 in 2022 and 13 in 2023, and earned honorable mention All-Big 12 in his final year against the best pass rushers he had faced. The tape matched the testing: 4.95 in the forty, a 36.5-inch vertical, 9-foot-9 broad jump at 6-foot-5, 306 pounds. It also showed the flags — a high pad level, inconsistent hands, and a power profile still catching up to the athleticism.
Boards treated him as a Day 3 developmental swing tackle with a real starting outcome if a patient staff got two years with him. Buffalo, a team with a long record of building linemen out of raw parts, took him at 204 and immediately began cross-training him inside.
- 01
Elite movement for the position
4.95 forty and a 36.5-inch vertical at 306 pounds, and it shows up live on outside zone and pulls rather than only in shorts.
- 02
Space blocker
comfortable climbing to the second level, tracks moving linebackers and adjusts his path instead of diving at the first body he sees.
- 03
Grip strength
once he lands his hands he can sustain and steer, which is rare for a tackle with his relatively slim build and short time at the position.
- 04
Lateral mirror
quick, clean slide out of his stance that lets him stay square against speed rushers pressing the arc on true dropbacks.
- 05
Developmental runway
a converted quarterback with only four seasons on the line, so his floor of technique still has obvious room to rise with coaching.
- 01
Pad level
plays tall out of his stance and surrenders the leverage battle to shorter, denser defenders working under his chest.
- 02
Anchor
power profile lags the athletic profile; bull rushers can collapse his set before he sinks his hips and resets his base.
- 03
Secondary hands
his replacement and reset after losing initial placement is scattered, which invites both counters and holding flags.
- 04
Age and reps
a 24-year-old rookie with limited line experience, so the development window is narrower than his raw-prospect label suggests.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.95sp50
- Vertical
- 36.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 117inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | UCF | 14 |
| 2023 | UCF | 13 |
| Career | — | 27 |
Season table covers his two UCF years only. He also started 11 games at Jacksonville State (2019-2021) after converting from quarterback and tight end, for 38 career starts, but the FCS games-played splits are not published season by season and are left out rather than estimated.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Cross-trained swing lineman who dresses on game days and starts a handful of games a year without locking down a job.
Late-round athletic tackle from a small starting background who stuck as a plus-athletic starting left tackle.
Developmental Bills lineman whose ceiling stalls at emergency depth if the leverage and hand issues never clean up.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Buffalo did exactly what the pick implied. Grable spent his rookie year as an active game-day reserve, dressing for four games and drawing his first start in the Week 18 finale at New England once the seeds were locked, then sitting behind the veterans through the playoff run. Year two should have been the step forward: he was tracking toward the 53 again before a preseason concussion put him on injured reserve in August. Lingering symptoms cost him most of the season, Buffalo activated him at the end of November, and he did not appear until Week 18, when he started at left tackle and played nearly every snap in a 35-8 win before being inactive in both playoff games. He entered 2026 healthy and cross-trained at guard, in the mix for the vacated left guard job.
The honest read is that the evaluation was right and the clock has been unkind. Buffalo liked the traits enough to keep him active over more experienced swing linemen, and his limited snaps have graded well in protection. But two seasons produced two starts, both in Week 18, and a player drafted at 24 does not have unlimited runway. The talent is real; the reps never arrived.
Data note: Season table covers his two UCF years only. He also started 11 games at Jacksonville State (2019-2021) after converting from quarterback and tight end, for 38 career starts, but the FCS games-played splits are not published season by season and are left out rather than estimated.