Branson
Taylor.
Branson
Taylor.
Pittsburgh· 6'6"· 321 lb· 5.28s 40
"A powerful "phone booth" blocker with the girth and torque to excel inside, Taylor's high pad level and injury history are the primary determinants of his pro ceiling."Pre-draft read
Taylor is a wide-bodied blocker who spent his Pitt career at tackle — 18 games at left, three at right — while carrying the build and play style of a guard. His best trait is the jolt on contact: heavy hands into his fit, torque on the near shoulder, defenders uprooted out of the hole on angle-drive blocks.
The pass sets tell the second half. He is best on flat and jump sets against tightly aligned rushers, closing space early, landing first and clenching up with a firm anchor that grinds down the bull rush. On an island his set points shrink and the corner comes up short, and the athletic ceiling is functional rather than special. The signature is contact power in a phone booth.
Power-based, play-action-heavy run game with gap and duo concepts that let him fire downhill into a defender rather than reach and run.
Year 1: interior swing depth and jumbo package. Ceiling: multi-year starting guard in a downhill run scheme.
Wide-zone outside-run offense that asks him to reach the play-side shade and climb on the move — the range and pad level both fail there.
The move inside is not a demotion, it is the whole projection.
Pitt OL Branson Taylor | Pitt Pro Day 2025
Pro day workout and interview ahead of the 2025 draft.
Chargers Select OL Branson Taylor (Rd 6, Pick 199)
Draft-day selection reel from the Chargers.
Pitt OT Branson Taylor Named Team Captain
Feature on his 2024 captaincy and role on the Pitt line.
Taylor is a phone-booth blocker in a tackle's body. Five years at Pittsburgh produced 45 games and 21 starts, almost all of them on the left edge, but the football identity was always interior: girth, torque and heavy hands, with an aggressive demeanor that shows up the moment he gets into a defender's frame. Teams saw a run blocker first and a projection second.
The résumé was uneven by circumstance more than merit. He was a special-teams body in 2021, got four starts in 2022 when Carter Warren went down, then held the job for 11 starts in 2023 across both tackle spots after Matt Goncalves' season-ending injury. As a 2024 captain he started the first six games — 343 snaps — before a knee injury against Cal ended his season and his college career in October. The flags were consistent: a high, rigid pad level that saps his own power, a two-handed strike that leaves him open to inside counters, and shorter arms for the edge.
Boards had him as a Day 3 developmental blocker with a likely move inside, and several teams graded him strictly as a guard. Los Angeles took him at 199 as depth behind Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt with the interior as the real destination — a value swing on power and a position change, not on the tackle tape.
- 01
Contact power
fires into his fit with heavy hands and torque, and regularly uproots defenders out of the hole on angle-drive blocks in the run game.
- 02
Grip strength
once he latches he sustains, keeping rushers at his fingertips and securing the backside lane long enough for the ball to clear.
- 03
Anchor
sturdy, firm base against the bull rush, and he does not get walked backward once he has his hands inside and his weight set.
- 04
Flat and jump sets
excels closing space on tightly aligned rushers, landing the first blow and dictating the terms of the rep before the defender builds speed.
- 05
Positional versatility
21 starts split between left and right tackle at Pitt, with a build and skill set several teams graded as an NFL guard.
- 01
Pad level
plays tall and rigid, which drains the power he generates and leaves him overextended and outleveraged more often than a 321-pound man should be.
- 02
Recovery range
mediocre ability to expand his set points on an island, so speed off the edge creates short corners he is late to close.
- 03
Hand usage
overly reliant on striking with two hands at once, which leaves him wide open to inside counters when the first punch misses.
- 04
Durability and reps
a season-ending knee injury cut 2024 to six games, and the career start total sits at 21 across five years on campus.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.28sp50
- Vertical
- 28.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 104inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.34sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.62sp50
- Bench
- 25repp50
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Pittsburgh | 3 |
| 2021 | Pittsburgh | 12 |
| 2022 | Pittsburgh | 13 |
| 2023 | Pittsburgh | 11 |
| 2024 | Pittsburgh | 6 |
| Career | — | 45 |
Games and starts verified against Pitt official 2024 roster bio; seasons sum exactly to the 45-game, 21-start career line. Offensive linemen do not accumulate box-score statistics, so only participation is recorded. 2024 ended after six starts (343 snaps) with a season-ending knee injury suffered at Cal on Oct. 12.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Day 3 college tackle who found NFL value as a versatile interior body without locking down a job.
Late-round swing blocker who worked into a real starting role after settling on one spot.
Powerful late-round guard whose injury history and technique limits kept him at the back of a depth chart.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Los Angeles did not keep him on the initial roster. Taylor was waived in the August 26 cutdown, re-signed to the practice squad the next day, and spent almost the entire 2025 season there while the Chargers rode Rashawn Slater, Joe Alt and a veteran interior. He was elevated twice late — Week 16 at Dallas and Week 18 at Denver — and the second one turned into his NFL debut and first start, 71 offensive snaps with three penalties called. Los Angeles signed him to a reserve/futures deal on January 13, and the roster now lists him at guard, 330 pounds, which is the position change the pre-draft reports all pointed at.
One start is not an evaluation, it is a data point. What the year did confirm is the read on the tape: he was never going to survive on the edge in the NFL, and the Chargers moved him inside the way most boards said they would. The bet at 199 was cheap and the outcome is still open — he has the power and the grip to hold an interior job, but he has to prove the pad level and the hand timing travel before anyone puts a floor under him. Year two is where this gets decided.
Data note: Games and starts verified against Pitt official 2024 roster bio; seasons sum exactly to the 45-game, 21-start career line. Offensive linemen do not accumulate box-score statistics, so only participation is recorded. 2024 ended after six starts (343 snaps) with a season-ending knee injury suffered at Cal on Oct. 12.