Seahawks draft prospect profile: OG Landon Turner
By Keith Myers
Seahawks draft prospect profile for North Carolina’s Landon Turner. The offensive guard is a mauling run blocker, but not the type the Seahawks look for.
North Carolina guard Landon Turner sounds like a perfect fit for the Seattle Seahawks. He’s a powerful road grader in the running game, and a bit of a liability in pass protection. That sounds like every other Seahawks offensive linemen, doesn’t it?
Look at the tape though, and you’ll see that Turner isn’t as good of a fit as it first appears.
The Basics
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 330 pounds
Age: 23
pSPARQ percentile: 0.3
The Tape
What I see
Turner is one of the least-athletic offensive linemen you’ll see. His feet are slow, and he lacks that explosion you want to see from the lower half. Instead, he wins with physical strength, though more core strength than from the lower body.
Turner technique is better than most college guards. He uses his hands well. He also shows proper knee bend to consistently get leverage.
Turner plays with a tenacity and attitude that you want to see from blockers. You never see him quit on a play, even if he’s beat. He’ll always work back to QB and look to re-engage defender is possible.
Turner attacks defenders and tries to dictate contact, rather than reacting and mirroring. while this leads to moments of where he looks dominant, it also leads to moments where fails spectacularly.
Overall Impressions
I have serious doubts that Turner will even be on Seattle’s draft board. While his tape matches much of what the Seahawks seem to like (strong run blocking, poor pass blocking), Turner gets there in a manner that is very un-seahawky.
Turner is a guy that would be great in a run-first power blocking scheme. Anything else, and you’re playing to his weaknesses. In fact, the less space that Turner has to work with, the better.
That is the exact opposite of what Seattle does with their zone blocking scheme, where they use lateral motion to generate space for the runner. Give defenders that much space to work with, and Turner will end up losing his blocks far too often.