Combine Offers Laremy Tunsil Chance to Cement Status as Top Pick in 2016 Draft

The Underwear Olympics has begun!

Hundreds of the nation's top college football players have descended on Indianapolis for the 2016 NFL Scouting Combine, where they will be poked, prodded, pushed and put through the paces.

For some, it's a chance to stake a claim that they are indeed worthy of selection in the 2016 NFL draft. Others will try to lock down status as Day 2 picks. A precious few will aim to set themselves up as first-rounders.

Then there's Ole Miss tackle Laremy Tunsil, whose sights are set higher still.

Because with a solid showing in Indianapolis, he will have a strong case to be the first name called when the Tennessee Titans go on the clock April 28.

On Wednesday, the running backs and offensive linemen will take to the podium for their media session and interviews. And when they do, all eyes will be on the 6'5", 305-pound Tunsil.

To be fair, it isn't as if Tunsil is some sort of dark-horse candidate to go No. 1 overall. Hardly. He's the early clubhouse leader to be the Titans' pick (assuming, of course, the Titans keep said pick).

In his latest mock draft, Bleacher Report's Matt Miller predicted Tunsil would get the call as the top pick in 2016:

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The Tennessee Titans must protect quarterback Marcus Mariota. They may do that via free agency by signing someone like Mitchell Schwartz, but as their team needs and the value at the top of the draft stand now, addressing the tackle position with the first pick is an easy dot to connect.

Tunsil is NFL-ready as a left or right tackle, and he brings the kind of athleticism and strength in his hands that make a player a potential All-Pro. And as one NFL scout told me last week, Tunsil compares favorably to Tyron Smith as a prospect.

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ESPN's Mel Kiper agreed, sending Tunsil to the Titans in his second mock draft of the year:

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The No. 1 pick in the 2016 NFL draft could end up being directly tied to the No. 2 pick in the 2015 NFL draft. In short: The Titans have no choice but to improve their offensive line and do whatever they can to make sure Marcus Mariota is on the field for more than the 12 games he played as a rookie. Getting the offensive lineman with the highest upside in the draft is a good place to start.

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At this point, Titans fans might be getting cold sweats. After all, the last time an offensive tackle went No. 1 overall (Eric Fisher in 2013), things went...

Well, things did not go so well.

However, Kiper insisted to colleague Paul Kuharsky that comparing Tunsil and Fisher is like comparing apples and oranges. In fact, not only does Kiper think Tunsil is this year's top tackle prospect, but he thinks the big man is the best tackle prospect to come along in quite a while:

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Tunsil is more the Orlando Pace type than he is the Eric Fisher type. Eric Fisher was forced up to the No. 1 spot. Luke Joeckel was in the mix that year, because there really wasn't anybody else to look at in that spot. It was a weak spot for elite guys in terms of the projections going in.

Tunsil, in any draft, would be an elite left tackle. When he played, he played at a high level and he was as good as any left tackle to come out in recent years. So can he be Walter Jones? That's who he kind of reminds me of, when Walter Jones came out of Florida State. Yeah, he can be one of the best left tackles in the NFL.

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Pop in some tape on Tunsil, and as Jayson Braddock of ESPN Houston tweeted, it doesn't take long to see what all the hubbub is about:

Granted, Tunsil isn't a massive prospect like Auburn's Greg Robinson two years ago. And phrases like "great hand placement," "excellent footwork" and "strong base" may sound like gibberish to casual fans.

However, they start to make a lot more sense when you consider that every battle in the trenches in football is an exercise in physics.

If your footwork isn't good, you'll get caught off-balance. If your base isn't set, you can be shoved backward more easily. And bad hand placement leaves a lineman susceptible to everything from punches to swim moves.

And if any of those things happen, the quarterback, as they say, is toast.

Technique and instincts are every bit as important as strength for an offensive tackle. More important, even. The former can be taught. The latter not so much.

And Tunsil possesses both in spades.

It also isn't like there's any sort of deficiency in strength or athleticism with Tunsil. As Robert Klemko of the MMQB wrote, Tunsil has the hops to dunk a basketball—at over 300 pounds. Ole Miss offensive coordinator Matt Luke called Tunsil a "once-in-a-lifetime-type athlete.”

Luke also said that given how well Tunsil played as a scout-team defensive end, he could be every bit as successful harassing quarterbacks in the NFL as protecting them.

Simply put, when it comes to the on-field workouts and drills in Indianapolis, barring something completely unforeseen, there's no reason to think Tunsil won't perform as advertised.

In many respects, it's the early parts of the combine where he can really hammer home his top-dog status.

During each of his three seasons in Oxford, Tunsil missed time. He suffered a broken leg at the end of his sophomore season and was suspended seven games in 2015 for receiving improper benefits.

That will make the medical exams and interviews with NFL teams vitally important for Tunsil, who told Klemko he's eager to show that he's 100 percent healthy and has put past missteps behind him.

It was during that suspension that Tunsil played scout-team defense in an effort to help the team. "It was an unfortunate situation and I learned from it," Tunsil said. "It was tough to get motivated with all that going on, but I wanted to make the team better any way I could."

That team-first attitude impressed Luke. "He could've been over there pouting, but instead he gave us a look and made his teammates better."

It's an attitude that should impress NFL teams as well, and given the way Tunsil pushed around pass-rushers down the stretch last year, the medical check shouldn't be an issue.

The Tennessee Titans think they've found their franchise quarterback in Marcus Mariota, and if another NFL team views one of this year's young signal-callers similarly, there may be some wheeling and dealing before the draft this year.

However, if the Titans stand pat, grabbing a blindside protector for their franchise quarterback is a viable course of action.

Especially if that young tackle uses the combine to show he's more than just the draft's top tackle—he's the top prospect at any position.

Gary Davenport is an NFL analyst at Bleacher Report, a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and the Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter @IDPSharks.