Markel
Bell.
Markel
Bell.
Miami (FL)· 6'9"· 346 lb· 5.36s 40
"Massive JuCo-to-Miami left tackle whose 6'9"/346 frame IS the pitch — rare length and surprising foot quickness for the size, with body composition and pad level as the swing."Pre-draft read
Aligns as a left tackle in a mixed gap/zone scheme, dropping into deep pass sets, winning with length projected into an anchor. He keeps hands inside the frame, achieving first meaningful contact. He lets edge rushers move past the pocket, his arm reach covering ground shorter tackles cannot, making length-into-anchor his primary win trait.
His secondary trait is short-area foot quickness for his mass; he mirrors an inside counter without lunging. In the run game, he functions best as a down-block displacer and a hinge on backside cutoffs. Puller reps expose his size by limiting redirection in space. High pad level on straight-line drives gives interior rushers a bull-rush window. Hand independence is developing; his initial punch is strong, but recoil and reset are late.
He's a clean fit for a gap/duo power run game that prioritizes displace blocking, or a vertical pass game that leverages heavy play-action for deep shots.
Year 1 swing tackle or spot starter with the ceiling of a franchise left tackle by Year 3.
An Air Raid or up-tempo spread system that asks their tackles to pull or get into space on a regular basis, which would expose his movement deficiencies.
A mass-and-length specimen that projects as a Day 1 NFL-caliber pass protector against speed and power who needs to refine his technique and body composition to maximize his potential.
Markel Bell Highlights | Miami Hurricanes OT | 2026 NFL Draft Scouting Tape
2025 season Miami cutups — the ACC left tackle package that lifted his Day 2 grade.
Miami OT Markel Bell at Senior Bowl Practice Day 1 | 2026 NFL Draft
Day-one Mobile 1-on-1 reps vs a rotation of Senior Bowl edges — the tape that answered the movement questions.
Miami OT Markel Bell | 2026 NFL Draft Tape
ACC-produced draft-eval cutup with pass-pro and run-block chapters.
Markel Bell projects as a developmental left tackle with succession-plan upside. His rare physical tools and movement skills for his size offer a high ceiling, making him a worthwhile Day 2 selection for a team looking to invest in long-term offensive line stability. His 6'9" frame with plus arm length provides a significant reach advantage, crucial for neutralizing edge rushers.
Bell's collegiate career included two years at Holmes Community College before transferring to Miami, where he initially served in a swing tackle rotation. As a senior, he became the full-time blindside protector for the ACC-champion Hurricanes, playing opposite Francis Mauigoa. His performance in Week 9 against Stanford in 2025 earned him PFF's top-graded tackle honors that week, allowing zero pressures across over 40 snaps.
Evaluators flagged his body composition, noting a tendency to fluctuate toward 350-plus pounds in-season, and his higher pad level as potential hindrances against NFL power. Consensus placed him in the back half of Day 2, and the Philadelphia Eagles ultimately drafted him with the 68th pick in the third round, envisioning him as a swing tackle with long-term potential as a successor.
- 01
Rare tackle length
6'9" frame with plus arm length gives him a reach advantage against most edges; he wins first-hand placement without extending his base.
- 02
Combine movement grade
5.36 forty at 346 pounds is an athletic outlier for his mass; short-area foot quickness on tape matches the number, not the size.
- 03
Anchor vs speed-to-power
When he sets deep and drops his hips, bull rushes die on his chest because length prevents rushers from closing the distance.
- 04
Signature Stanford tape
Week 9 2025 PFF chart had him as the top-graded tackle in the country that week, with zero pressures across 40-plus snap workload.
- 05
Miami development arc
Went from JuCo swing tackle to full-time blindside protector in two years, suggesting coaching stickiness at the next level.
- 01
Body composition
Reports indicate he fluctuates toward 350-plus in-season; conditioning issues appear when drives extend and his pad level rises with fatigue.
- 02
Pad level and leverage
Plays tall on the initial fit against interior stunts; the high strike zone gives rushers a bull-rush lane straight into his chest.
- 03
Movement in space
Puller and screen-block reps expose his mass; he cannot always redirect at full sprint when the play asks him to hit a moving target.
- 04
Hand recoil
Initial punch lands with force, but the reset after a rusher swipes is late; counters into his frame stick longer than they should.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.36sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Miami (FL) | 12 |
| 2025 | Miami (FL) | 16 |
| Career | — | 28 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Long, powerful right-side starter whose anchor was elite but leverage and lower-body conditioning capped him below top-tier tackle status.
Enormous, athletic blindside tackle whose length-plus-foot-quickness combo unlocked a Pro Bowl ceiling after developmental patience — the exact archetype Philadelphia knows how to grow.
One-year Day 2 tackle whose measurables outran a limited starter sample and settled into a swing-tackle role in year one.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
## Pre-draft context Bell's road to the draft was longer than most third-rounders: two years at Holmes Community College in Mississippi before landing at Miami as a raw project with unteachable size. Year one at Coral Gables was a swing-tackle rotation; as a senior he took the blindside job opposite Francis Mauigoa and gave Cam Ward a wall on the ACC-champion Hurricanes. He measured 6'9"/346 with plus length at the Combine and ran a 5.36 forty — a movement grade that turned scouts' heads at that mass. Board consensus landed him in the back half of Day 2 as a developmental left tackle with succession-plan upside and body-composition questions.
## NFL fit — Philadelphia Eagles Philadelphia took Bell at 68 with two clocks running at once: the immediate one is swing tackle behind Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson, and the longer one is heir-apparent to Johnson at right tackle when the 36-year-old All-Pro moves on. He got a real audition early — with Lane Johnson absent from OTAs, Bell took first-team right tackle reps ahead of veteran Fred Johnson, per The Athletic's Zach Berman. Year one projects as swing tackle with meaningful spot-start upside if either bookend misses time; year two-plus is where the Mailata-comp bet gets tested. Philadelphia has a rare track record developing oversized-tackle projects; Bell landed in the ideal spot for the profile.
## Retrospective Too early to grade with no regular-season NFL snaps on tape, but the pre-draft eval was clean on the traits: length and functional movement are real, body composition and pad level are the swing variables. If he wins the swing job outright and holds up in spot starts, the Day 2 grade holds. If the succession plan at right tackle materializes in 2027-2028, the Mailata comp becomes the story.