A Cal football scouting report on offensive line commit Casey Roddick

November 20th, 2016 was a busy day for Cal as they secured 2 commitments on the day, one of them being the commitment of 2017 OG Casey Roddick. Roddick, a consensus 3-star OG out of Ventura, CA, will bring an already large frame to Cal as he weighs in at 6’5”, 325 pounds. Roddick’s commitment is an large one (pun intended) indeed as Cal looks to maintain depth on the offensive line. But aside from size, what can Roddick bring to Cal?

Let’s take a look at Roddick’s senior season highlight tape.

Roddick plays left tackle at St. Bonaventure High School, but the recruiting services have him tabbed as an offensive guard, where we should expect to see him play at Cal. As we stated earlier, Roddick certainly has the requisite size to play offensive guard. He simply overpowers opposing defenders. He rarely gets pushed back, instead knocking opposing linemen back with ferocious punches. When he locks in on an opposing defender with his hands, he consistently put them on the ground.

On run blocks, he demonstrates adequate speed to get to the second level, also showing the ability to hit defenders downfield. When asked to pull block, he shows the quickness and the burst to do so. When pass blocking, Roddick demonstrates the lateral agility to stay in front of the opposing rusher. What I like most most when I watch Roddick’s highlight tape, other than his speed and size, is how hard he plays, how he keeps blocking until the whistle blows.

But what really stands out time and time again is his obvious strength. When he’s not pancaking opposing players, he’s throwing them to the ground. Roddick knows how to use his size and strength. It’s easy to imagine him slotting in at offensive guard for Cal in a few years. He will have to spend some more time refining his technique and honing his body with our weight training and conditioning coaches as he won’t have as much as a strength and size advantage at the college level. With a little time, Roddick should develop into a key cog on our offensive line.