Captaining the offensive line for Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts, and Spencer Rattler is no easy task. Creed Humphrey stood his ground and played three full years at center for Oklahoma. With some of the best offenses in the country during his tenure, Humphrey is bound to be a talent in the NFL. With the first-round buzz flying around, the tape must be littered with spectacular plays. Let’s find out if he lives up to the hype.
Make sure to check out all of our other 2021 NFL Draft Scouting Reports.
Player Bio
Name: Creed Humphrey
Jersey: #56
Position: Guard/Center
School: Oklahoma
Class: Redshirt Junior
Height: 6’5”
Weight: 320 lbs
Run Blocking (4.0/10)
Humphrey surprisingly underwhelmed in this category. He may get a pancake or two a game, but they seem to be leverage pancakes on far smaller and shorter defenders (not from power or technique). Humphrey stands awkwardly too tall and generates absolutely no leverage against defensive line talent. In the end, he gets block-shredded quite easily by higher-level talent. Two notes: one, Humphrey holds consistently, and two, this scale has 5/10 as average and 10/10 is the greatest prospect of all time.
Pass Blocking (5.5/10)
If it were not for a few good-looking reps at the senior bowl, this score may be a four as well. Humphrey is an underwhelming blocker. In fact, he may be as bad as Adrian Ealy. Again, he lacks any sort of stopping power which allows him to get driven back easily. When Humphrey is engaged in a block, he rarely has control and has poor stability. To make it easier to picture, imagine his back arched like a banana. That is his combination of standing too tall and having no leverage whatsoever. What is worrisome (and will be discussed later) is his Senior Bowl reps: they were solid and polished, especially the reps at guard, which means he either changed his form in a few weeks or was simply lazy and did not try hard at Oklahoma.
Length (4.5/10)
Defenders seem to get inside Humphrey’s pads consistently. Again, he looks like a banana from a side profile view, because defenders get their hands on him play after play. Humphrey’s arm length isn’t a problem, but he does tend to not have the length to keep defenders at bay.
Footwork (6.5/10)
Humphrey has solid footwork, but it is nothing to write home about. There really is not much more to be said here.
Hands (3.5/10)
This was a disappointment. Humphrey usually has his hands outside of the shoulder pads (which is bad thanks to referees being flag happy). When he engages with his hands, he rarely has control over his defender. This leads to him using armbars to try to slow the defender down from reaching the ball carrier (yes, this did happen every single game). Against Joseph Ossai, Humphrey literally wrapped his arms around him in order to not let Ossai get to Rattler. Beware of holding penalties at the next level.
IQ (3.25/10)
This was by far the greatest disappointment in this entire scouting process. From the second play watched to one of the last plays, Humphrey let in an A-gap blitz clean to Rattler. Just to make it even worse, he blocked absolutely nobody on those two plays. Rattler got plowed by full-speed defenders that should have easily been picked up. The only positive thing keeping this score from being a two or lower is the fact that Humphrey can pass off blocks well and can protect the backside of a run well enough. Just to add another negative, Humphrey also did not block a player on what seemed to be one out of every five snaps as if he could not find anyone despite there always being a player there to block.
Athleticism (6.0/10)
Speed and quickness-wise Humphrey is solid. He can move well and does not look very clunky doing anything. Humphrey’s problem lies in his strength, as was noted many times before. This will be flushed out next.
Power at the Point of Attack (2.75/10)
Yet another disappointing category. Humphrey has no juice. Most defensive backs seem fine with engaging head-on with him. To make it even more clear, defensive backs have pushed Humphrey back. It is scary how little power he produces with his arms. Regardless of what pro-day numbers suggest, his play strength is absolutely a red flag.
Positional Versatility (7.0/10)
Humphrey in all honesty looks great as a guard. He should play there. With his lack of football IQ, he needs to know exactly who to block. This is why he looked so well during one-on-ones during the Senior Bowl. His career will last longer than two years if he decides to play guard and not center.
Competitive Toughness (1.5/5)
He stopped blocking on almost every play that lasted around three seconds or longer. That is a problem, especially for the captain of the offensive line. Although this was already stated, Humphrey also did not block a player on what seemed to be over 20 percent of his snaps even though there were blockable targets. The fact that he looked so great in the Senior Bowl reps just shows that he was taking plenty of plays off.
Injury (4.5/5)
Humphrey never misses games, but he did have a noted injury in the preseason of his redshirt sophomore season.
Player Summary
This may be the biggest disappointment scouting-wise for the 2021 NFL Draft. With the first-round buzz, one would think that he could have any category (if not many) close to 8/10. Humphrey had zero. Whether it was a poor blocking technique or no blocking power, he certainly did not profile well when projecting him to the next level. Humphrey has only one option in the NFL: be a guard. Allowing two A-gap blitzes to come in clean automatically deserves to throw him off many teams’ draft boards entirely as a center. He does have upside at center if he can learn from a mentor. Humphrey’s draft grade is generous; therefore, his comparison will be based on potential.
Final Grade (49/100): Fourth Round
Player Comp: Matt Hennessy
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Main Image Credit: Embed from Getty Images
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