With the Dallas Cowboys season now fully in draft mode, this is a good time to continue looking at the biggest needs for Dallas. We are looking at the key prospects in the first round the Cowboys could take with either of their Day 1 picks. In this edition, we look at the offensive tackle position.<\/p>\n
Mauigoa is a power-built right tackle who wins the simple way – with a strong base, heavy hands, and good technique. PFF grades him as one of the best tackles in the country in 2025 with a 83.1 overall grade and a 86.4 pass blocking grade that ranked sixth among all tackles. He anchors against bull rushers, re-sets his hands well, and doesn\u2019t get walked back into the pocket often. In the run game he has a mauler temperament with powerful explosiveness and violence on contact.<\/p>\n
The main concerns are more about fit and refinement than ability. His range and balance versus speed is more adequate than dominant, meaning quick, bendy edge rushers can stress him if his feet get out of sync. There\u2019s still plenty of room to clean up the occasional loss he had this season.<\/p>\n
Mauigoa profiles as a high-floor NFL starter because his pass protection is already pro-ready and his play strength shows up every week. The question is whether he\u2019s a long-term right tackle or an All-Pro-caliber guard depending on team preference. His extensive starting experience will be a key factor, and his extremely low damage allowed over the past two years (three sacks in over 1,000 passing sets), places him among the early top prospects in this years draft.<\/p>\n
Fano is a steady, pro-ready right tackle who wins with clean technique and strength. He keeps his base under him, gets his hands inside early, and doesn\u2019t panic against stunts or blitz looks. He did not allow a single sack in 2025 and gave up only five total pressures on 382 pass-blocking snaps. In fact, the last time he allowed a sack was in Week 1 of the 2024 season. He\u2019s also a legit tone-setter in the run game and takes good angles with enough athleticism to get to the second level. That\u2019s the reason why he became the Outland Trophy winner this year and a captain for Utah.<\/p>\n
Most concerns are about his NFL projection details rather than effort or toughness. Most of his toughest reps came versus bendy edge rushers, where his hands can get fail to find the mark when he has to recover late. He\u2019s also a little lighter than most NFL tackles playing at less than 300 pound, so continuing to add lower-body strength helps him stay rock-solid against power rushers over long games.<\/p>\n
Fano is the kind of tackle coaches trust because the pocket stays clean. He\u2019s consistent, technically sound, and strong enough to handle power without needing constant help. With an impressive 2025 season, plus major recognition winning awards and All-America honors, he projects as an early NFL starter at right tackle. A high floor, low drama, and reliable protection week to week.<\/p>\n
Proctor is an absolute unit, a monstrous left tackle, listed at 6\u20197\u201d, and 366 pound. At that size it\u2019s easy to say he wins with sheer size and power. When he lands his hands first, he can stop rushers in their tracks and keep the pocket from collapsing. He also has strong 2025 protection metrics, logging just two sacks, 21 total pressures, and two penalties on 985 total snaps.<\/p>\n
His technique can be inconsistent for a player with his gifts. Essentially he\u2019s a boom-or-bust type because his footwork and hand placement can lead to some losses in pass protection. Another weak point to his game is his stamina, which you can attribute to his size. As the game wears on his pad level can rise, and when he feels threatened he will begin to grab at defenders. On availability, he had a shoulder injury that required surgery in September 2024.<\/p>\n
Proctor is a mountain-sized tackle with real starting upside because the power, length, and anchor are already there. When he\u2019s on, rushers bounce off him and runs behind him look easy. The question is how consistently he can keep his feet and hands synced against top rushers for four quarters and a full season.<\/p>\n
Lomu is a true left tackle with prototypical NFL size and build. He stays balanced, keeps rushers at the end of his arms, and usually wins by simply not giving defenders a clean path to the quarterback. In his three years at Utah, Lomu has allowed only two sacks and even more impressively, only 25 total pressures. He\u2019s also a high-end run blocker for a tackle with good movement skills and a natural ability to stay attached.<\/p>\n
The main questions are about power and finishing strength, not effort. There\u2019s concerns about play strength in the run game, and although his strength has improved, it needs to keep trending up to finish blocks more consistently. In simple terms, he\u2019s already very good in pass protection, but some teams would have wanted to see him consistently move people in the run game against NFL-sized defenders before taking him with a premium round draft pick.<\/p>\n
Lomu\u2019s profile is straightforward. He\u2019s a pass-protecting left tackle with strong technique and a calm play style who had zero sacks allowed and very few pressures in 2025. He will need to keep adding strength and finishing blocks with more force, but he projects as the kind of NFL starter who helps keep an offense on schedule because the quarterback isn\u2019t constantly under stress from the blind side.<\/p>\n
Freeling has the size and movement you want in an NFL tackle. He listed at 6\u20197\u201d, 315 pound, and he knows how to use his size on bulky defenders. When his hands land first, he can clamp and steer rushers past the pocket, and he\u2019s athletic enough to work in space on screens and wide-zone angles. The production is solid in 2025 with 891 total snaps, only two penalties, nine pressures and three sacks allowed.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s still relatively inexperienced at being a starting left tackle. He was a backup tackle in 2023 and only had five starts in 2024, so the r\u00e9sum\u00e9 is shorter than most top tackle prospects. He also had shoulder surgery after the 2024 season that limited his 2025 spring work, so teams will review medicals and conditioning. On tape it\u2019s easy to see he needs to sharpen his recovery against smart edge rushers, that\u2019s where the pressures show up most.<\/p>\n
Freeling is a high-upside tackle with the build, athletic traits, and baseline pass protection to project as an NFL starter, he just needs more seasoning and continued refinement. Even with the limitations he\u2019s still shown enough in 2025 to be a legitimate early draft because the tools are obvious and his last season in Georgia was extremely productive. It\u2019s literally down to the experience level, which is lighter than some of his peers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Dallas Cowboys season now fully in draft mode, this is a good time to continue looking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,437,2461,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-689334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-cowboys","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys-draft","12":"tag-dallascowboys","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115923305367508607","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}