Damien Lewis NFL Draft 2020: Scouting Report for Seattle Seahawks' Pick

OG Damien Lewis, LSU

STRENGTHS

—Two-year starter after transferring from Northwest Mississippi Community College. 

—Competed in the toughest conference in college football, and LSU faced elite competition in high-stakes environments over the last two seasons.

—Puts the clamps on defenders, screws his elbows into his frame and straight-up outmuscles defenders for vertical displacement at the line of scrimmage.

—Natural at torquing and engaging his entire chest and upper-back into a powerful dominant position.

—Solid posterior chain allows him to engage his hips and lower back as a drive-blocker; elbows, hips, feet work in concert in the run game and help him take powerful, ground-thumping steps into and through contact. 

—Vertical-line, straight-ahead one-on-ones are almost unfair; the kind of player that you run behind on critical downs.

—Has an alpha-dog attitude; looks to assert physical dominance on opponents and has an overall imposing stature. 

—Looks for the knockout shot and finds it more often than most; when he does, it's a make-you-think-twice type of play that discourages defenders from engaging.

—Thick in his lower half and able to easily anchor versus power; recognizes when it's time to drop the weight, sit in his hips and fight pressure square on.

—Good overall awareness in pass protection and doesn't get anxious in his set; gets to his spot and looks for work; comfortable absorbing some contact from twists and remains balanced and in control.

Damien Lewis Highlights

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WEAKNESSES

—Hands play wider than desired; needs to clean up his strike placement to create a more compact punch that gains inside hand positioning.

—Underwhelming lateral agility; won't succeed if he's routinely asked to get wide outside of the box in the run game.

—Only played guard at LSU and may come with some limited positional versatility; flipping to the other side isn't easy, either, so teams may envision him as only fitting a specific role.

—Patience and comfort in pass protection can border on being late; would like to see him get on top of speedy defenders more often. 

—So confident in his power and base that he is too willing to let contact happen; needs to demonstrate he can strike and create separation sooner when needed.

—Doesn't have the short-area quickness to fire off, throw a flipper into pseudo-combo blocks and climb to scraping linebackers; angles become much sharper and tighter than ideal as a result and don't generate the vertical movement and horizontal spacing needed.

OVERALL

Lewis is raw in terms of on-field experience, but there is plenty on tape to suggest he could just be heating up to a dominant career as an interior lineman. He's an absolute mauler in the run game, with the power to overwhelm most of his competition with ease. He excels as a heavy-handed puncher who locks on, starts the motor and doesn't stop until someone is on the turf. Lewis has some athletic limitations that may not be correctable, but he's an NFL-ready prospect who can be an immediate gap-scheme bruiser.

GRADE: 76

PRO COMPARISON: Josh Sitton/Graham Glasgow