2007-nfl-draft
Marshal Yanda, 6’ 4” 305 lbs. Iowa
Sticking to the offensive line theme, I want to highlight an excellent NFL Prospect for the 2007 NFL Draft from Iowa named Marshal Yanda. He is a good sized, well coached prospect with excellent mobility and athletic ability. Yanda is still learning and improving, so he will be a little bit of a project, but he has good upside because he has improved so much in so short of a time, there is every reason to think he can continue improving. Yanda played just two years of Division I Football, his first two collegian years he played Junior College Football with Northern Iowa Area Community College in Mason City. He has started every game for the Hawks since his transfer, and in his first year (2005) he started at left guard and won the Hawkeye Hustle Award. Last season (2006), he moved to right tackle and performed brilliantly; he was a pre-season second team all-Big Ten selection by The Sporting News and was named 18th best tackle in the nation by The Sporting News. Mel Kiper loves this kid; he was even on his infamous big board for a while. I mentioned earlier that he was well coached, well his former head coach was a former NFL offensive line coach (Kirk Ferentz), and he was also tutored this season by former Nebraska assistant coach Dave Gillespie. Most “draft gurus” have him listed as a tackle, but in my opinion his position in the NFL will be guard. I project him to be a quality late-second to early-third round pick in the 2007 NFL Draft. He does look a little soft to me though. He will need to get in the weight room and start doing some serious power lifting to be a force in the NFL, but one good off-season in an NFL strength and conditioning program should do the trick. Check out an excellent highlight video of Yanda here: Marshal Yanda Video
