Marcus
Bryant.
Marcus
Bryant.
Missouri· 6'7"· 320 lb· 4.97s 40
"A massive left tackle with rare length and power, Bryant’s NFL future hinges on whether his exceptional anchor can consistently neutralize NFL speed rushers despite his limited lateral agility."Pre-draft read
Bryant is a 6-7, 320-pound left tackle who started at both tackle spots across five seasons, and the defining trait is his set depth: enormous arms and a long, patient kick slide let him ride wide rushers past the pocket without ever opening his gate. He punches late and accurately, and his anchor against bull rush is genuinely stout.
The secondary trait is mass in the run game. He is a positional, wall-off blocker who displaces smaller edge defenders and finishes on down blocks, more effective on gap and duo concepts than on reach blocks in wide zone. Athletically he tested near the top of the class for his size, but the play speed is heavy: short-area quickness lags the timed speed. The signature is length that erases inside counters.
Gap and duo-based run game paired with vertical, deeper-set play-action protections that reward length and anchor over lateral range
Year 1: swing tackle and jumbo package blocker who dresses on game day for special teams. Ceiling: a starting right tackle in a power-run offense that keeps a chip or tight end on his side against elite speed.
An outside-zone, wide-stretch offense that asks its tackles to reach the play-side shade and climb on the move — his first two steps are too heavy to win those angles, and the run game stalls behind him.
Value depends on protection help; in a scheme that leaves tackles on islands versus 4.5 speed, his arc losses become sacks.
Marcus Bryant College Highlights, Missouri OT | New England Patriots 2025 NFL Draft Pick
Game film cut-up of Marcus Bryant's Missouri tape.
Marcus Bryant Highlights First 3 games (O & D)
Game film cut-up of Marcus Bryant's Missouri tape.
SMU Mustangs vs. Tulsa Golden Hurricane | 2020 College Football Highlights
Game film cut-up of Marcus Bryant's Missouri tape.
Bryant is a true left tackle by build and disposition — a long, heavy-framed blocker who wins with reach and anchor rather than movement. He was the mass-and-length piece on two very different offensive lines, and the projection was always about whether NFL speed rushers could beat him around the arc before his length caught them.
The résumé is deep. Four seasons at SMU produced 29 starts, a PFF All-AAC nod in three straight years and a First Team All-AAC selection in 2023, then he transferred to Missouri and started all 13 games at left tackle opposite Armand Membou on a line that allowed only 2.00 sacks per game and finished second in the SEC in red zone offense. Testing at 320 pounds was excellent — a sub-five-second 40, 26 bench reps, near-nine RAS. The flag was on tape: he surrendered 18 pressures on 141 true pass sets in 2024, most of them to speed off the edge.
Boards had him as a late Day 3 developmental swing tackle, with some projecting him undrafted. New England, already committed to Will Campbell at No. 4, spent 220 on a body type it could not manufacture and let him learn behind Morgan Moses.
- 01
Length
34 5/8-inch arms and an 83-inch wingspan let him land first on almost every rush, and inside counters die before they reach his chest plate.
- 02
Anchor versus power
sinks and absorbs bull rush without giving ground, a genuine problem for edge defenders who try to convert speed to power on him.
- 03
Play strength in the run game
a 320-pound wall who displaces edge defenders on down blocks and finishes blocks through the whistle on gap concepts.
- 04
Tested athleticism for the size
a sub-five-second 40, 26 bench reps and a near-nine relative athletic score at 6-7, an uncommon combination in a Day 3 tackle.
- 05
Experience across levels
55 career games and 42 starts at both tackle spots, including a full SEC season at left tackle after four years of AAC production.
- 01
Speed off the edge
his kick slide is long but not sudden, and he surrendered 18 pressures on 141 true pass sets in 2024, most of them to bend-and-corner rushers.
- 02
Short-area quickness
the timed speed does not translate to the first two steps, which shows up on reach blocks and when he has to redirect against stunts.
- 03
Pad level
plays tall at 6-7 and gets under-leveraged by shorter interior-aligned rushers, losing the leverage battle before his length can matter.
- 04
Recovery balance
once beaten early he lunges and grabs rather than resetting his feet, which projects to penalties against NFL-caliber rush plans.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.97sp50
- Vertical
- 31.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 111inp50
- Three-cone
- 8.08sp50
- Shuttle
- 5.03sp50
- Bench
- 26repp50
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | SMU | 6 |
| 2021 | SMU | 10 |
| 2022 | SMU | 13 |
| 2023 | SMU | 13 |
| 2024 | Missouri | 13 |
| Career | — | 55 |
Offensive line: no counting stats are tracked. Games and starts verified against SMU and Missouri official bios; 6+10+13+13+13 = 55 games and 1+6+12+10+13 = 42 starts, matching the career totals published by Missouri (55 G, 42 GS; 42 G / 29 GS at SMU). Pressures and sacks allowed are not listed because only the 2024 PFF figure is verified.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- First Team All-AAC (2023)
- PFF All-AAC (2021, 2022, 2023)
- Dave Campbell's Texas Football All-Texas Second Team (2023)
- AAC champion (2023, SMU)
Big-bodied swing tackle who holds a roster spot for years and starts in emergencies without ever locking down a job.
Late-round, length-and-anchor tackle who developed into a multi-year NFL starter after a slow start as a reserve.
Developmental Day 3 tackle who bounces between the 53 and the practice squad and never earns meaningful offensive snaps.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
New England kept Bryant on the 53 as a rookie rather than stashing him, and he spent 2025 as the emergency swing tackle behind Morgan Moses and Vederian Lowe. He dressed for 12 games, primarily on the field goal and extra point units, and his offensive snaps came in garbage time: right tackle late in blowouts against Carolina and at Tennessee, plus real second-quarter reps at Cincinnati when Moses left injured. He was inactive for the last five regular season games and all three playoff games as the Patriots made a run to the AFC Championship, which is the clearest signal of where he sat on the staff's trust ladder.
The retrospective is short because the sample is short, and that is fine for pick 220. Nothing was disproven and nothing was proven: the length and anchor still look like a viable backup tackle floor, the foot speed against NFL edge rushers has never been tested in a competitive setting. Year two puts him in a swing tackle competition rather than a developmental redshirt, and the honest answer is that a 24-year-old with 42 college starts should be further along than special teams. He remains a body-type bet.
Data note: Offensive line: no counting stats are tracked. Games and starts verified against SMU and Missouri official bios; 6+10+13+13+13 = 55 games and 1+6+12+10+13 = 42 starts, matching the career totals published by Missouri (55 G, 42 GS; 42 G / 29 GS at SMU). Pressures and sacks allowed are not listed because only the 2024 PFF figure is verified.