Eagles Film Room: Chance Warmack isn't a good starter right now but has potential to improve

I didn't scout prospects or follow the draft as closely when Chance Warmack declared for the draft, so I must admit I can't remember the hype surrounding him as a prospect. That means I have no bias when watching Warmack as I've never watched him before though. Seeing as he only played 2 games last year, I've watched those games and a few games from the 2015 season. As always, I'll show the good and the bad and then conclude with my overall thoughts on the player at the end. Warmack is at right guard in all of these clips by the way.

The Good

Warmack looks like a pretty good athlete on tape and that didn't surprise me considering where he was drafted. In the running game, Warmack shows good explosiveness coming out of his set and good balance at the point of attack. He has the strength and power to force defensive lineman backwards too and create holes for the running back but he doesn't really dominate his opponent consistently.

Here you can see his athleticism and just his general size and strength. He takes a really good angle, a skill that is massively underrated when we talk offensive lineman and has a strong base when initiating contact. He shows he has the strength and punch to drive the linebacker away from the running back. His hand placement is good here too, he gets a strong punch to the linebacker's chest.

Here once again you can see the power that Warmack possess. He has a really solid base and he gets his hands straight on the lineman's chest and forces him backwards and then eventually slams him to the ground. He has the strength and power to dominate at the point of attack in the run game and you can see that here.

I really like this play from Warmack. Firstly, he helps out the tackle to block the 3 technique and then comes off his block at the perfect moment to get to the linebacker. From that point on it's just all about power and play strength. He completely stops the linebacker who is running at speed in his tracks, if you just watch the linebacker it's like he's running into a brick wall. Then Warmack just drives him backwards and finishes the play off by sending the linebacker flying to the ground. You love to see this from an offensive lineman.

Warmack had issues in pass protection throughout his career, but this play shows what he can do when he has good technique. He gets his initial punch swatted away by the defensive lineman who tries to spin away from him but Warmack shows good balance and footwork to recover and stop the lineman in his tracks. He seems to possess a very strong lower half and when he doesn't lunge and has good technique he has the ability to stop bull rushes and spin moves when one on one with a defensive lineman.

I put two plays together here because they show the same ability. I must confess before I started watching Warmack I assumed he was big, athletically talented but not really there mentally. I didn't see that on tape, though. Warmack handled stunts like this really well in almost every game I watched and that's something that a lot of guards struggle with. He has really good instincts and identifies pressures and stunts really quickly. On top of that, he has the quickness and athleticism to come off the lineman he is blocking and then redirect and get to the blitzer or the defensive end coming on the stunt. The next clip shows this perfectly.

This is a hell of a play. Firstly, he shows his power and play strength and helps get the defensive lineman on the ground. However, here he actually didn't pick up the stunt as quickly as he normally does. Despite this, he shows just how good of an athlete he is. Not many players would be able to pick up a stunt so late and still have the athleticism and ability to change direction and block the defensive lineman on the stunt. This is a really impressive play that just shows how talented Warmack is.

The Bad

Right, so after reading the first half you're probably wondering why he's considered a 'bust'. The reason why though is pretty obvious when you watch him. He has some major issues with his technique. When he gets beat, he gets beat badly. Shout out to my good friend Tyler Aston (@Astonia67) on twitter who helped me break down Warmack's technique. Tyler is my offensive lineman expert as he's played the position and understands the technique better than I do.

So when I said he gets beat badly, I meant very badly. He ends up on the floor far too much for someone his size. This is just flat out awful. He gets thrown to the ground like a 320-pound ragdoll. He completely stops his feet and lunges into contact. I mentioned lunging when breaking down Isaac Seumalo as I think it's one of the easiest ways to separate good offensive lineman from bad ones. As he lunges and doesn't move his feet, he's completely off balance which makes it easy for the lineman to chuck him to the ground. When he actually makes contact with the lineman, he's bent over and looking at his own feet. He has no chance of making this block.

Here again, it's the same situation. He doesn't end up on the ground but he gets thrown away with ease. You can't afford to have an offensive lineman starting when he gets beat this quickly. When you get beat this quickly you basically end the play before it's even begun. Warmack's poor technique ends up in Marcus Mariota getting sacked. When in your pass set, you need to 'sit in the seat' and stay back while keeping your back straight. If you don't do this and lunge forward like Warmack does, then you end up getting rag dolled. Worryingly, my offensive line expert Tyler said that he had this same issue in college but he compensated by just being more athletic and stronger than everyone else. I liked his quote that he sent to me, 'college bullies don't work without technique'. Honestly, there are a lot of examples like the one above. I would say he gets beat that badly about 4/5 times every game that I watched.

I don't even know what this is. He lunges at the defensive lineman again and just completely misses him. It's so easy for the defensive lineman to just throw him to the ground. For such a big and powerful guy, it's remarkable how often Warmack ends up on the ground. When you're that big and on the floor that frequently, it just shows that you have major problems with your technique.

This is just bad again and he ends up holding the defensive lineman because once again he ends up on the ground. You can see how far he lunges forward on this play. Why is he making contact with the lineman when he's that far away? It's just weird. He should never drop his head like he does on this play and after 4 years in the NFL you wouldn't expect him to have such lapses in technique. It's odd because he's not consistently bad, he just has a few plays every game that makes you wonder what he's doing.

Right it's boring showing the same issue over and over again so I'll make this the last one. But what is he doing here? Once again, he lunges forward and drops his head so far forward when trying to make the block. It doesn't matter on this particular play but he has no idea where the defensive lineman is and of course, he ends up on the floor again.

Overall

Warmack is an odd player to watch. He looks good and impressive on 80% of the plays but he has these plays that are just so bad they leave you wondering if he can ever start. I would be absolutely stunned if he starts the 2017 season as a starter. I think right now, Brooks, Seumalo, Wiz and Barbre are all better guards than he is. You just can't start someone who gets beat so badly so frequently because it just blows up the play and can get your quarterback killed too.

I'm not giving up on Warmack at all because the talent he has is obvious on tape. He's clearly big, strong and athletic with pretty good movement skills. There's always a place for someone with that much talent on your roster in my opinion. Even if you spend a few years developing him and it doesn't work, what's the downside? It is worrying that his technique is so bad after 4 years in the NFL and you have to wonder if he really can improve that much after so long in the NFL.

I don't think Warmack is a starter based on his current tape. However, every team will teach offensive line technique differently and every team has a different way of coaching players. As you probably know, Jeff Stoutland, the Eagles offensive line coach, was Alabama's offensive line coach when Warmack was there. It's a good sign that Stoutland wants to coach him again and it doesn't surprise me at all when you consider the talent he has. It is possible that Warmack responds well to Stoutland and ends up being a better player here than he was in Tennessee. As I've said, I am not writing off Warmack as a future starter, I just think that he has a long way to go still and I wouldn't get your hopes up too much. That being said, the talent is obvious and if he does sort out his technique and stops getting beat so easily, and so frequently, then he clearly has the ability to be a good quality starting guard.