Jason Pinkston Profile

Position: OT

College: Pittsburgh

Height, Weight: 6’3″, 317 lbs.

10 Yard Split: 1.86

Bench Reps: DNP

Projected Round: 2-3

NFL Comparison: Mike Gandy

My Take: Jason Pinkston isn’t the most athletic lineman in this year’s draft, but he will surely find many teams interested in what he has to bring to the table. For the most part, he was the lone bright spot along Pittsburgh’s porous line this past season. Although the team as a whole was disappointing, Pinkston still flashed enough ability to warrant second round consideration

Pinkston does a really good job moving defenders in the running game. Anybody who saw Dion Lewis explode onto the scene as a freshman knows that he can be the driving force behind a running attack. He can get into defenders and blow them off the ball when he gets a good jump. That can be an issue, though, as he can be a little slow out of his stance on occasion. That’s something that hopefully is correctable. Despite being sluggish at times, Pinkston does have decent agility getting out in zone blocking and getting to the second level. One thing I noticed is that he has to be careful to not go downfield when trying to sell play action fakes, because you might be able to get away with being a yard or two downfield in college but not necessarily in the pros.

Pinkston is a good but not great pass blocker. The first thing you notice is that he has a powerful punch. He always has his hands in a position to attack and is more willing to punch and re-punch than to clutch and grab. I’m not sure he has good enough feet to go toe-to-toe with the best pass rushers, but against ends with lesser speed he generally won the battle. He also needs to work on his recognition on stunts and blitzes. Despite being shorter than the ideal height at just 6’3″, his arms are not too short at 34″. That’s adequate and it’s good to see his arms aren’t too short. Overall he could use some work but I like some of his raw ability.

Pinkston is certainly outside of that first tier of tackles. He’s a nice player, but he’s just not as good or as consistent as players like Gabe Carimi or Derek Sherrod. He would seem to fit better in a team with a power running scheme like the Steelers with his thick if compact body. Personally I think Pinkston might be a passable left tackle, but I’d be much more comfortable with him on the right side. His feet are just a little too slow to man the blind side and he would quickly become very comfortable again on the right side. He was a starter at Pitt as a sophomore at right tackle for three games before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury, then shifted to the left side for the next year. If he were to move back there, he should be a starter within a couple years, maybe even this year depending on the situation. My feeling on him is that Pinkston would be a very quality pick to play right tackle in the third round.

-Tom

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