PFF pegs Florida's Jake Slaughter among nation's top interior lineman
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Pro Football Focus is tripling down on Florida center Jake Slaughter. The redshirt junior has been praised by PFF this offseason and it continued this week.
In February, the sports analytics company included Slaughter among the top returning interior linemen for 2024. He was the only UF player ranked by PFF in the top 10 at their position.
Slaughter came in at No. 8 nationally.
“Slaughter played sparingly for Florida over his first couple of seasons before breaking out in his redshirt sophomore campaign. His 81.2 grade in 2023 ranked second among Power Five centers to Oregon’s Jackson Powers-Johnson. Slaughter’s 82.4 run-blocking grade on zone runs tied for fifth among that same group.
The only reason Slaughter doesn’t place higher on this list is because he wasn’t the Gators’ preferred option at center. In fact, his breakout year was a result of initial starter Kingsley Eguakun missing most of the season due to injury. In the four games when Eguakun was healthy, Slaughter was relegated to the bench. With Eguakun now off to the NFL, expect Slaughter to build on his eye-opening 2023 as a full-time starter.“
PFF showed Slaughter some more love in the past week. He was named as one of the top interior linemen to watch the 2025 NFL Draft by analyst Max Chadwick.
The social media account for Pro Football Focus then turned part of Chadwick’s section on Slaughter into a graphic Monday.
“As a full-time starter in 2024, expect Slaughter to become much more of a household name,” he said.
Jake Slaughter on his 2023 season
Slaughter made eight starts in 12 games played last season. His PFF grade (77.8) ranks eighth among returning interior linemen and third on the UF team.
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“Every week it just kept getting better for me,” Slaughter said of his 2023 campaign. “Everybody around me helped me. I felt like I was able to make improvements because the guys were so important to me.”
The Gators lost their top two guards from a year ago, but Slaughter has confidence in right tackle Damieon George making the move inside and the young players at the position. He’s also very high on transfer offensive tackles Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson and Devon Manuel.
“I think we have an awesome room,” Slaughter said. “We brought in two guys that are super high character guys who have a lot of in-game experience and are more than capable football players. So, two new faces right there right off the bat. I think that young guys are coming along at a really rapid pace. Bryce Lovett, Rod Kearney, obviously Knijeah Harris. He was able to contribute as a freshman, which is unfathomable to me in my career. You know, there’s so many young guys.
“Caden Jones is going to be a monster football player. It’s one of those things, like, playing offensive line is such a development-based and development-oriented position, you know what I mean? Not everybody is like Knijeah Harris, where he is mentally and physically gifted enough to go out there and strap it up day one with the ones. Coach Sale, Coach Decoster, Coach Stapleton, what they were able to pour into us and how they helped and how they developed us, that was the biggest thing.”
