Why there is a premium on linemen in the transfer portal

The transfer portal sure does not look the same as it did in December and January. 

Three months ago, there was a mad rush to grab skill players on both sides of the ball. Locating a quarterback worthy of challenging for a starting job was a priority. 

Linemen are now having their moment. While a number of programs clean out rosters, offensive tackles and defensive linemen have specifically become top targets for most Power 5 teams. 

Five of the top 10 players in On3’s top 10 available in the transfer portal play on the line of scrimmage, which is not a coincidence. Speaking to a number of collective operators in the space, On3 has learned the going rate for a starting offensive tackle or defensive linemen could start as low as $75,000 to $125,000 annually. Realistically, it’s only an initial number. 

With teams desperate to land talent on the line, the number likely balloons. For an elite EDGE rusher, the starting price jumps to at least $200,000 and could easily reach $300,000. And all those numbers are before an athlete or their agent starts pitting schools against each other. 

“It’s about to get really dirty this week,” an ACC operations official said. “Everybody has found their holes after the spring game, and everybody knows they need linemen. A lot of the top programs are just going to say to their collective, ‘Go buy me a left tackle.'”

But why is there an actual rush on the trenches? The premium is on linemen with experience. With spring camp wrapping up, the calendar is inching closer to the fall. The time to restock or re-tool is running out. 

It’s more intricate than the calendar, though. Projecting talent at the line of scrimmage is just as hard as identifying a quarterback. As On3 previously reported, over the past five recruiting classes, on average, only four of the top 10 quarterbacks in the On3 Industry Rating have developed into a “hit,” or a productive multi-year starter at their initial school.

Even if a program brings in a strong class on the offensive or defensive line, it does not mean the team is going to see a significant difference in play immediately. A freshman wide receiver has a better chance at impacting a team’s trajectory than a linemen. 

“They’re so hard to project,” a West Coast collective operator with personnel experience said. “You have guys that are really good recruits, and might end up being really good players, but they’re just not ready yet. From a depth standpoint, Ok, you have to have five. And then you want to have, you know, three others that you feel good about rotating in. 

“It’s just hard to have eight good players. And then you have injuries and guys leaving for the draft or guys transferring.”

Development takes time. Playing on the offensive or defensive line is essential to winning, but that doesn’t mean athletes commit to playing those positions young. Rarely does a five-star at offensive tackle or EDGE show up on a campus with the necessary technique. A former NFL scout that On3 talked with said the jump on the line of scrimmage from college to the NFL even slows down the first-round picks. 

They also pointed out Colorado’s approach since Deion Sanders arrived in December. The Buffaloes have recruited the portal well, adding key talent on the perimeter. The line of scrimmage has been a different case. Instead, Sanders is shuffling linemen in and out until he finds the right fit. As of Wednesday morning, four Colorado defensive linemen have entered the portal since Saturday. 

“I think there’s probably a debate a lot of coaches are having,” the NFL scout said. “Do we want a couple of elite guys who can make up for the guys who are just Ok? Or do we want five good ones who really know how to play together? Reality is, most of the top linemen are going to the top 10 programs and there’s just not that many.”

Multiple personnel staffers On3 talked with about the rush on the line of scrimmage turned to Alabama and Georgia. In the last 22 years, they are the only programs to win back-to-back national titles. 

Nick Saban, and now Kirby Smart, have built up perennial powers through the line of scrimmage. And it all comes from stacking together recruiting classes. Since Smart started in Athens back in 2015, the Bulldogs have finished with a top five class six times. The worst came in his first full recruiting cycle, when Georgia finished 13th. 

Stacking classes has gotten more difficult in the last 21 months. NIL has become college athletics’ next arms race. It’s how schools are winning on the recruiting trail. The highest bidder is walking away as a winner in the portal. 

“They got to do it year after year after year after year,” the West Coast collective operator said. “The chances of that happening are not very good. And you have to pay for all those guys in today’s day and age. I mean, we’re gonna shell out a good amount of money for freshmen linemen that haven’t played a snap.”

Replacing linemen on the fly is not as easy, either. If a defensive tackle goes down in spring ball with a torn ACL, odds are the other options are not physically ready to ascend to a starting role. With the transfer portal, programs can pluck out names with experience. 

That doesn’t mean it’s easy baiting linemen to leave their current situation. Wyoming offensive lineman Emmanuel Pregnon has already received upward of 20 offers. And on the defensive side of the ball, top programs have no problem outbidding other Power 5 universities even if the athlete isn’t a sure thing. The boost of experience and maturation in depth in the trenches could make a difference come fall. 

For all the rumors of tampering which surfaced during the winter, multiple programs have said they’ve been able to at least chat with prospects who have entered free agency. Some have said it’s because athletes know the premium they’re currently commanding across the college football landscape. 

“Most of these guys, you have a chance to participate in the process,” a collective operator from a top 25 program said. “It is very rare that you don’t have some elite talent that you don’t hear through a back channel or something else. People know we’re aggressive. People want the money.”