NFL Center Position Becoming More Important Than Ever

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16) talks to center Frank Ragnow (77) before a snap against Los Angeles Rams during the second half at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, September 8, 2024. USA TODAY Sports

NFL Center Position Becoming More Important Than Ever

Originally posted on The 33rd Team | By LeCharles Bentley | Last updated Sep 16, 2024 3:17 PM ET

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In the read-and-react world of the NFL, one of the most significant reactions taking place is to the evolution of interior defensive linemen. Players like Dexter Lawrence, Vita Vea, and Chris Jones are just three examples of the bigger, quicker, stronger, more explosive players on the interior of the defensive line. The new era of defensive tackles are collapsing the quarterback pocket from the middle while stuffing the run game. The league’s adjustment will be the most significant in the last decade, outside of how defensive coordinators gameplan for the modern quarterback. How teams react to the evolution of the interior defensive lineman will be a momentous driver of how offensive lines look in the future, and how the center position looks and plays.

As a result, requirements for the center position are undergoing a dramatic transformation. And it’s a challenge, because we don’t yet know what the prototype is; we just know what it used to be.

In the past, the center was a strong, squatty, cerebral player counted on to anchor the middle. Now the center has to be just as strong, quick, agile, and explosive as the linemen across from him. The change is similar to the evolution of the offensive tackle, who suddenly realized they had to block players like Lawrence Taylor, Derrick Thomas, Kevin Greene, and Jason Taylor.

This new reality forced a shift in search of a 2.0 version body type in NFL left tackles. Players like Jim Covert, Bruce Matthews, Jonathan Ogden, and Joe Thomas became the new prototype, future Pro Football Hall of Famers that were swimming much closer to the gene pool of their defensive counterparts.

Teams are searching for that same fit at center. Nothing illustrates the difficulty of this search better than the numbers: Since 2022, 24 centers have been drafted, and 34 signed who were not drafted. That shows teams don’t know what they are looking for, though they continue looking. The Bucs even drafted a left tackle from Duke in the first round this year with the intention of moving him to center, which they did.

It’s unimaginable that an NFL Club invested precious draft capital into an elite college left tackle to then convert him into an NFL center. But it’s a new era in NFL football, and the center position is on the brink of becoming the NFL’s new left tackle.

This article first appeared on The 33rd Team and was syndicated with permission.

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