Silver And Black Pride
Breaking down the third-round pick’s game
Las Vegas Raiders general manager John Spytek was playing the long game in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft by using the 99th overall selection on William & Mary offensive tackle Charles Grant.
Granted dominated his competition last season, earning a 91.2 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, which led all FCS offensive tackles. He posted a mark of 90.4 as a run blocker (second-highest) and 88.1 in pass protection (seventh-best), while surrendering just nine pressures (two sacks) in 12 games.
However, the William & Mary product will be making a steep jump in competition and needs to improve his technique before he’s ready for action in the NFL. Luckily, the Raiders don’t have an immediate need at offensive tackle with Kolton Miller and DJ Glaze returning this season, and Grant’s athleticism and 34¾-inch arms give him a high ceiling.
So, let’s dive into the tape and see what he can bring to the table.
Grant can be a very effective zone run blocker as his tape is littered with impressive reach blocks and backside cut-offs, as the latter is seen above.
The Tribe call an outside zone run to the right, which makes him responsible for cutting off a 2-technique defensive tackle, lined up head up on guard.
That means the offensive tackle is at a significant disadvantage pre-snap since he has to cover a lot of ground laterally while the defender can just work straight up the field. Granted, Grant does get some help with the defensive tackle slanting into the B-gap post-snap, but the defender still has inside positioning to tilt the battle in his favor.
That’s where Grant’s quickness and agility come into play as he works across the defensive tackle’s face, flips his hips and seals the defensive tackle outside to help create a backside cutback lane for the running back.
What makes this rep even more impressive is that Grant false steps out of his stance, where he steps inside his stance with his right foot instead of gaining ground laterally or using a bucket step, yet he still effectively executes the block. That will need to get cleaned up at the next level, but the movement skills are there to work with.
This time, Grant is on the front side of the outside zone call and shows off some impressive strength.
He’s responsible for reach blocking the defensive end, but this time, he doesn't get to the edge to seal the defensive end. Instead, the offensive tackle shows off some impressive upper body and core strength to generate some torque and toss the defender out of the way to execute his assignment; get the defensive end out of the C-gap.
Now, this type of move is going to be a lot harder to pull off against NFL-level competition. But the strength to pull this off, even at the FCS level, is good to see as it helps lay the foundation for him to build on...
