SI writer predicts one free agent to follow Kellen Moore

madsaint1967 said

Don’t understand the Guard talk, there are probably a hundred Tackles that can be excellent guards in the NFL. Tackles are usually the best athletes on the offensive line and because they may have shorter arms or their 40 time is too high they aren’t getting picked to play tackle at the NFL level. The pool for Guards is astronomically larger than Tackles. Remember Carl Nicks and Jahri Evans were Tackles in College.

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Guard and Tackle play differently and require different skills. You do see a lot of people talk almost as if the position switch is interchangeable, but its not. As you pointed out, it always seems tackles become guards, and never the other way around. People talk like its easy, but in truth your hands and break are different. Some people, after playing years at tackle form habits and struggle to break those habits which could hamper their switch to guard. This makes coaching very important, but also the players ability to be adaptable.

The change also becomes easier if in college playing tackle if their scheme is run heavy. A run heavy tackle in college is likely to adapt to guard at the NFL level over a pass heavy tackle in college. It's akin to changing a DB from CB to FS. Not all will succeed, but a zone CB can make that change better than a man-to-man CB usually.

It's not big changes, but it comes into question on an individual level how an person's brain is capable of distinguishing the differences and similarities and can easily adapt to the changes on a natural level. A fraction of a second of hesitation off an old habit is enough to give any opponent leverage and enough to give someone like Jalen Carter a big edge over them. This is why struggling guards and tackles are your biggest false start contributors. It's an eye blink to us couch coaches, but its everything to them.