The long and the short of it - tall offensive tackles with long and short arms

There have been 143 offensive tackles at the NFL combine who have measured 79” tall or taller and Mike McGlinchey is one of them. For those who don’t math very well, 79 inches is six foot seven. Some of them, like Trent Brown have extremely long arms. Having really long arms is good for an offensive tackle because it allows you to generate space and separation with your punch in pass protection particularly if you have longer arms than the defender who you are blocking.

On the flipside, having really short arms, usually means you don’t play tackle. Of the the 20 OTs at the combine this year (fewest since 2002), the shortest arms are 32 and 3/8” (Connor Galvin from Baylor). Not surprisingly, most draft watchers predict that he will be moved to guard in the NFL. Lance Zierlien at NFL.com

He might find that teams prefer him as an interior blocker due to his lack of desired arm length.

However, despite his “short” arms, Oliver Hodgkinson at the Draft Network says this about him

There aren’t many examples on film where he isn’t able to keep his opponent from getting into his chest. In fact, there are plenty of good examples of him being able to lock out his arms to manipulate his opponent.

So maybe Galvin is that rare offensive tackle who can survive in the NFL with short arms.

The average OT at the 2023 combine had 34.0” arms. Which is exactly how long Mike McGlinchey’s arms are. McGlinchey’s 34.0” arms are little below average for his height among OTs at the combine (look at the trendline below).

Of those 143 tall OTs some have really short arms and some have really long arms, In general the short armed ones have not been good NFL players, but there are some exceptions which will be discussed later. Some of the long armed ones were/are good while others had fatal flaws that limited them in the NFL. A few of these will be discussed.

Hall of Famer, Orlando Pace, was just under 79” at the combine (78.9”) so he get honorable mention with his 36.25” long arms. Fellow Hall of Famer, Tony Boselli, was also just under 79” inches at the combine. His arms are only 35.0 inches long.

There are also some shorter OTs who have really long arms. This article lists almost every NFL player with 36” or longer arms (as of 2019) - they left off Alejandro Villanueva who reportedly had 37.75” arms but was not invited to the combine. Few of the players listed in that article were really good in the NFL, showing that just having long arms is not enough. Those long arms have to be attached to a body with quick feet, strong/quick hands, a powerful lower body, and a quick mind. No other position in football requires this combination of skills to be elite. Many a college tackle with slow feet, has become an NFL guard.

The average offensive tackle at the NFL combine is 77.5” tall. Since the “tall” OTs are 1.5” taller than average at 79”, “short” OTs would be 76” tall, 1.5” shorter than average. 76” tall is six foot four, which sounds strange to consider short (outside of the NBA). Offensive tackles who were under 77” but had 36” long or longer arms are: OT - height, arm length both in inches

1. Roman Oben - 76.0, 36
2. Frank Omiyale - 76.25, 36
3. Larry Tharpe - 76.9, 36
4. Rashad Butler - 76.63, 36

None of these guys were great in the NFL, but Oben had the best career spending eight years as a starter in the NFL for the four different teams. Omiyale spent two seasons as a starter for the Bears. Tharpe also had two seasons as a starter - one for the Cards and one for the Lions. Butler only started four games in his career.

The tall guys with comically short arms

There are a number of guys for whom I could find no arm length data despite being invited to the combine. I found data at www.relativeathelticscore.com for others that I find dubious, but I am using here, because the RAS site was the only place I could find the data on some OTs. Almost all of these comically short arms are from RAS data. Sixteen OTs were 79” or taller with arms that are 32.5” or shorter including former Bronco, Tyler Polumbus.

Giacomini probably had the best career of the 16, but Polumbus and Walker were comparable. Polumbus started 57 games while Giacomini started 86. Walker started 82.

Gallery is one of the biggest draft busts in a long-line of them that the Faiders have compiled. Terry and Wand both started 18 games in their careers. Murtha started four. Britt started two. Leonard and Keim never started a game in the NFL. Dalan, Pfeifer, Cavka Comstock and Carnahan never played in the NFL and were not drafted.

Kellen Diesch is currently on the Bears practice squad, but has yet to play an NFL snap. The 6’7” 300 lb OT from Arizona State was a “priority UDFA” for the Dolphins in 2022. He got a $20k singing bonus and $120k guaranteed which is a good contract for an undrafted guy. The Phins let him go after he spent the season on their practice squad and the Bears liked him enough to sign him to a two-year vet minimum deal despite him having never played a snap in the NFL.

It will be interesting to keep an eye on his career. Tall lean OTs with short arms can have decent careers in the NFL, but they rarely turn into starters.

Honorable mention should go to Michael Roos, who isn’t tall enough to make the cut at 78.6”, but he has only 32.0” inch arms. He made the Pro Bowl and first team All-Pro in 2008 as a tackle for the Titans.

Jason Peters has similarly short arms (33.13”), but he is shorter than Roos. PFR lists Peters as 6 foot 4. Peters will be in the Hall of Fame five years after he retires. He is one of the best offensive tackles to play this century despite his “short” arms. He is also the guy that everyone brings up to show that you can find elite offensive tackles who don’t get drafted. All 32 teams passed on the Razorback in every round in 2004.

Tall OTs with crazy long arms

Seventeen OTs have arms that measured 36 inches or longer at the combine. Some of them have been really good in the NFL while others have been marginal players and still others have never played a down.

Jake Long and Mekhi Becton both just miss this list with their 35.8” arms. Long had a good career that was cut short but injury. Becton appears to be the next in a long line of draft busts for the Jets.

Dawand Jones is currently in the draft and he is projected to be a late day one or day two draftee.

J’Marcus Webb spent four years as a starter and started 73 games in his career.

Josh Davis never played in the NFL and was undrafted.

Terrance Pennington lasted two seasons in the NFL and started nine games.

Trent Brown is still active and started 16 games for the Patriots in 2022. Brown made the Pro Bowl once.

Anthony Clement was drafted by the Cardinals in 1998. After being released by the Cardinals in 2004, he would bounce around a few teams before leaving the NFL in 2008. He started 107 games during his career.

Matt Waletzko played one offensive snap for the Cowboys last season as a rookie fifth round pick. The Cowboys are hoping he can develop into a starter for them. Other NFL franchises have this strange notion that drafting OTs on day three so could develop into starters is a good and useful thing. I wonder if the Broncos should try that approach...

Bernard Williams only lasted one season in the NFL after the Eagles took him with the 14th overall pick in 1994. He started 16 games in 1994, but was suspended after his rookie season for testing positive for marijuana and never played another down in the NFL. He would play in the CFL, Arena Football League, and XFL. He skipped the USFL, because it did not exist at that time.

Tra Thomas was another first round pick of the Eagles (11th overall in 1998). He had the best career of this group making the Pro Bowl three times and being named second team All-Pro once. He started 168 games during his NFL career and went eleven straight seasons starting 15 or 16 games with the exception of the 2005 season when he was only able to start 10 because of injury.

Alex Taylor entered the league as an undrafted player in 2020. He is still in the NFL despite having been on four teams in three seasons. The Cowboys signed him to a futures contract earlier this year. He and Waletzko would be an interesting arm-wrestling match to watch.

Robert Hicks was a starter for the 1999 Bills after they took him in the 3rd round in 1998. He only lasted three seasons and only started 23 games in his career.

Fabbians Ebbele and Mike Rockwood were not drafted and never played in the NFL.

Marcus McNeil was the 50th overall pick in the 2006 draft and made the Pro Bowl in his first two seasons. McNeil suffered season-ending injuries in 2010 and 2011 that would cut his career short. He retired after the 2011 season.

Phil Loadholt was a second round pick of the Vikings in 2009 and he was a solid starter for them for six seasons before injury cut his career short. He retired after the 2014 season. His mass took a huge toll on his knees and hips.

Cornelius Lucas is still in the NFL and has been since 2014 after going undrafted out of KSU. The journeyman OT finally earned a starting gig last season for Washington when he started 12 games. Prior to that his career high had been eight. Lucas has been involved in an astounding 80 team transactions. He started one game for Sean Payton’s Saints in 2018. Lucas has essentially made a career out of being the “swing tackle” for about one third of the teams in the NFL.

Finally Alex Barron spent six seasons in the NFL starting mostly for the Rams on the other side of the OL relative to Orlando Pace. Those Rams teams probably had the longest combined arm length for any starting tackles in NFL history. Barron’s arms are tied for the second longest in NFL history at 37.75”. Only defensive end John Harris had longer arms at 38.5”.

Barron’s career would be similar to Loadholt’s in that he was a full time starter for multiple seasons until a nagging injuries essentially ended his career. The Rams traded him to the Cowboys prior to the 2010 season and he started exactly one game for Dallas. He would hang around the NFL for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 seasons, but he never appeared in a game after 2010. After the Cowboys let him go, he hung around the Saints in 2011, the Seahawks in 2012 and the Raiders in 2013.

Conclusions

In general tall tackles with long arms have had better careers than tall tackles with shorter arms. No tall OT with short arms who was invited to the combine has ever made the Pro Bowl while there are multiple examples of good to great tall OTs with really long arms.

If you use 35” arms as the cut-off among tall (79” or taller) OTs you have:

• Orlando Brown
• Jake Long
• Trent Brown
• Bernard Williams
• Andrew Whitworth

If we relax the height to 78.5” you also get Orlando Pace, Tony Boselli, Brian O’Neill.