Mason McCormick scouting report: Exploring the South Dakota State interior offensive lineman’s strengths and weaknesses

In the 2018 season, Mason McCormick played in three games before redshirting. The following season, he started in the final two games as the Jackrabbits suffered a loss in the FCS Championship.

Ever since 2020, he has been a consistent presence in the starting lineup at left guard, starting in 57 consecutive games and contributing to SDSU’s consecutive national championship wins. He was also a team captain for three consecutive years and received first-team All-FCS honors in the last two years.

Scouting Report for Mason McCormick

Offensive Line Run-blocking:

• Comes out of his stance with urgency and great pad level, digging his hands under the rib cage of D-linemen and taking them for a ride regularly
• Provides significant vertical displacement on combos with his center and frequently rides nose-tackles into the lap of middle linebackers
• For his wide build, McCormick’s ability to cover ground laterally and seal or reach-block A-gap defenders on the backside of run concepts is impressive
• Makes sure to bump first-level defenders over to the opposite gap as he arrives for quick combos on inside zone before instantly progressing to the linebacker
• On the backside, he delivers a forceful help hand against three techniques to allow his tackle to secure scoop blocks
• Does well to ID the defense shifting or bringing down a linebacker late into the quarterback’s cadence and adjusting his assignment as the ball is snapped
• Has plenty of torque to twist defenders out of the lane late
• SDSU loved to use him on skill pulls and short pulls on off-tackle plays, where he would bury some linebackers trying to fill
• It’s almost weird to see a guy with McCormack’s square-like build fly out towards the perimeter and get a piece of safeties on wide receiver screens, oftentimes after throwing by rushers

Security Measures for Data Protection:

• Built like a brick wall and tough to go through in passing situations
• Those hands are like cinderblocks, stone-walling interior rushers and then attaching them to their numbers to shut those down completely
• It never feels like McCormack to moves defenders are throwing at him, sitting back and watching them go nowhere as he calmly slides in front of them
• Independently uses his hands to stab at and square up rushers in front of him
• With his arms being 34 inches, he has a longer reach than many guards to guide rushers off track when they swat his hands away late
• Quickly closes that space towards his center when he sees the guy over him loop across the formation, to pick up D-tackles slanting his way
• Put together an incredible Shrine Bowl week, where he was able to shut down a talented group of interior pass-rushers, mirroring multiple moves on several occasions, along with pushing people around in the run game
• Across 1605 pass-blocking snaps in his career, McCormick was only charged with three sacks and 24 additional pressures (zero sacks, three pressures in 2023)

Areas for Improvement:

• Will just launch himself into D-tackles on angular blocks and slip off already against FCS competition, which will be a bigger issue against more skilled NFL linemen with their hand usage
• Has rather heavy feet and rarely had the edges of his frame challenged by twitchy interior rushers
• Doesn’t fit his hands nearly as well when defenders slant across his face and there’s not a lot of surface area to attach to
• Whether in the run or pass game, there’s some stiffness to adjusting to moving targets and redirecting as he needs to shuffle back over to the center after setting outside initially
• Despite his massive amount of experience (3411 career snaps), only 15 of those snaps didn’t come at left guard, offering limited positional flexibility potentially

I was thrilled to have finally watched both South Dakota O-line prospects, McCormick and left tackle Garret Greenfield, prior to Shrine Bowl week. They were undoubtedly two of the most exceptional performers during practices. Based on my (limited) tape evaluation, I was impressed by his ability to block runs and his unexpected agility for his size.

Despite my belief that he will face lateral challenges in the NFL, I still have faith that he will make the jump to compete at that level. This is due in part to his impressive RAS score of 9.97 and his near-perfect performance as a senior, which shows his potential as a pro player.

Rank: Late second round