Cole Toner NFL Draft 2016: Scouting Report, Grade for Cardinals Rookie

POSITIVES

A National Merit scholar in high school, Cole Toner chose Harvard over the other Ivy League schools and carved out a solid career playing right tackle.

Toner is a versatile offensive lineman, with teams seeing his value at every position, depending on their scheme. Here, he’s ranked at the position that is best for his traits—center. Toner is an intelligent player on and off the field and showed at the Senior Bowl that he has the tools to compete with higher levels of competition.

As either a tackle, guard or center, Toner's first-step power will intrigue NFL teams. He can win with aggression no matter the blocking assignment. Toner’s comfort level as a blocker allows him to look natural while picking up stunts on the edge or down-blocking to wall off a defender on outside runs.

Toner is an upside project, but his ability to be a swing tackle right out of the gate or potentially a center makes him an intriguing candidate in the middle rounds.

NEGATIVES

The obvious concern is that Toner played against some weak competition at Harvard. You might be better off finding quality competition in his practice tape.

Athletically, he can be heavy-footed when operating in space and was rarely asked to recover and counter a pass-rusher. In the run game, Toner was able to lock on and drive Ivy League linebackers out of the lane with ease but never had the opportunity to show great drive power against NFL-caliber defenders. A lack of hip pop and flex in his knees makes you wonder if he’ll ever be able to get the explosion to be dominant at the point of attack.

There are no issues with Toner’s awareness, but his ability to move with NFL speed and power can’t be found on his game tape. He’s a complete projection to the next level, and teams will have varying ideas about how to best use him.

COMBINE RESULTS

Height: 6'5"

Weight: 306 lbs.

40 Time: 5.32s

Arm Length: 33 ⅛"

3-Cone: 7.88s

Short Shuttle: 4.59s

PRO COMPARISON: Hroniss Grasu, Chicago Bears
FINAL GRADE: 5.65/9.00 (Round 5—Backup Caliber)