Mbow’s offensive line coach at Purdue believes the fifth-round pick will succeed wherever the Giants put him
Shortly after being drafted by the New York Giants, Marcus Mbow told media he thought he could “succeed at all five positions” on the offensive line.
Mbow’s offensive line coach at Purdue, Marcus Johnson, doesn’t doubt that.
“Where do you need him?,” Johnson, who is now the offensive line coach at Ohio State, said. “I think he was a really damn good guard when I got to Purdue, but we needed him at tackle.
“He was the most athletic individual in the room and had the best feet in the room. (6:19) So I felt like we needed him to be outside on the edge to protect the quarterback more so than inside. That was one of the reasons I moved him outside to tackle.”
Giants head coach Brian Daboll indicated after the draft that Mbow would begin his career as a tackle.
“He did a good job playing tackle. He’s athletic. He can bend,” Daboll said. “I think he’s got some position flexibility to move inside if we need him to.”
Johnson said he has “no clue” what the best way for an NFL team to use Mbow would be.
“I think he has the talent and the gift to play all five positions up front,” Johnson said. “Being honest with you, there’s very few guys that can do that.
“The thing about him, wherever you ask him to play he’s not going to bat an eye.”
Mbow has not played center in game action, but Johnson said he could “given the time and the training” to learn it.
The Giants selected Mbow in Round 5, 154th overall, after GM Joe Schoen said they had debated selecting him at No. 104 when they opted to take running back Cam Skattebo.
“When you take these guys, sometimes you get texts from around the league from other personnel people or general managers if you took a guy they were going to take, and he’s one that there were a lot of texts, just the value where we got him,” Schoen said. “I’m not really sure what happened, but glad he was there.”
Mbow had a second-round grade on the Big Blue View Big Board and a third-round grade in the draft guide from Dane Brugler of The Athletic.
“I thought he would be at least a second-round pick. So it did shock me that he got drafted in the fifth,” Johnson said. “I thought he would go much earlier.
“But like I always tell people too, people can what they want and go off of these projections, but you’re not in those rooms hearing those conversations so you don’t know what they need. Even for instance the whole Shadeur Sanders thing. You don’t know until you know.”
Mbow is listed at 6-foot-4, 302 pounds. He is considered small for an NFL offensive lineman.
In studying his film, BBV’s Nick Falato said that Mbow “must improve his anchor in pass protection.” In his Mbow prospect profile, Chris Pflum listed size, length and play strength as Mbow’s worst traits.
“I didn’t worry about that with him,” Johnson said. “I didn’t feel like he got in trouble as far as strength, in my opinion.
“I think he can get movement at the point of attack in the run game. I thought he did a really good job getting movement at the point of attack, and he held his own for the most part against one-on-one pass rushes.”
Johnson said that it’s not strength that causes Mbow to occasionally struggle with the bull rush. Rather, it is a technique issue.
“One of the things I used to coach him on was reacting to the bull rush and not guessing on it because at times you’ll see him get his feet back behind his hips in an anchoring position before the bull rush occurs,” Johnson said.
At 302 pounds, Mbow is likely lighter than the Giants would want him to be if they were move him to guard. Johnson said the 22-year-old can continue to “get bigger, thicker, stronger” and that Mbow was above 320 pounds when he played guard in 2022.
If Johnson were writing a scouting report on Mbow, it might read something like this:
“I think he’s an athletic individual. He’s extremely athletic with really good feet. I think he can get himself out of bad situations if he gets caught in one, essentially doing some of the things you can’t coach. It’s just God-given ability and DNA.
“I think he’s phenomenal with his hands. I do think he loves to mix his technique up. He’s not going to sit there and do the same thing over and over and over. I think he’s great at mixing his technique up.
“Whether it be his pass sets or his hands or backside cutoffs on outside zones. At times he may cut you on the backside of outside zone. At times he may slingshot you. At times he may trap you. At times he may just simply cut you off if he knows he’s more athletic than you are.
“I think he uses independent hands. I think he uses two-hand punches. I think he traps, he swipes, he lifts. Independent hand lifts. So I think he’s an individual that believes in mixing up his technique a lot in the run and pass game.”
Johnson said that how good Mbow can be is up to him.
“I think he can be as good as he wants to be, as long as he puts in the time and effort,” Johnson said. “He’s a very talented young man. He’s still young, and he’s very coachable, so I think he can go as far as he wants to go.”
