NFL Draft insider makes case for Kadyn Proctor as first tackle in 2026 NFL Draft
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All across its offensive line, Alabama has some of the top returning players at their respective positions in 2025. Guard Jaeden Roberts is viewed as one of the best interior blockers in the country. Parker Brailsford is seen as one of the best centers in the FBS. Both landed Second Team All-SEC nominations in the preseason media poll. And then there’s Kadyn Proctor, who was a first-team pick and could very well be the first tackle selected in next year’s NFL Draft.
Earlier this week, ESPN draft analyst Matt Miller broke down the top prospects for the 2026 NFL Draft cycle at every position. At tackle, Proctor will contend with Utah’s Spencer Fano and Miami’s Francis Mauigoa to be the first player off the board at their position.
Three offensive tackles went in the top 10 during this year’s draft. All 3 players could be top-10 picks next year. But, before the season gets rolling, Miller is siding with Proctor as the top guy on the board.
Miller wrote the following on the Crimson Tide’s rising junior:
Proctor is the biggest (6-7, 360 pounds) and strongest of the group, and the player scouts are the highest on if he can reach his upside. He has the ability to maul defenders in a way that no other tackle in the class can. Proctor’s evolution as a tackle prospect over the second half of the 2024 season has scouts thinking he turned a corner.
‘If you watch him against Georgia or South Carolina, two teams with great defensive lines, he looked like a top-five pick,’ one AFC South area scout said. An NFC East scout added: ‘It’s so rare to see someone that big move so well. There’s not a great player comp for him because of that.’
An anonymous NFL general manager told Miller that each of the top tackles selected earlier this summer might project as better long-term fits at guard, but that’s not the case with the top prospects in next year’s class.
Proctor has been a Day 1 starter for Alabama since stepping on campus. He has already played nearly 1,500 snaps as a blocker — all of them at left tackle — and he showed significant improvement from his freshman to sophomore seasons.
As a first-year player, Proctor was charged with 12 sacks and 36 total quarterback pressures allowed. Last fall, PFF charged Proctor with allowing only 3 sacks and 15 total pressures. He had a 91.4 pass-blocking grade in Alabama’s win over Georgia, an 87.9 pass-blocking grade in the following game against Vandy, and then an 85.0 pass-blocking grade against South Carolina.
Alabama will be looking for more consistency from Proctor in 2025. The Tide had offensive tackles drafted in the first round each year from 2019-22. Andre Neal, the sixth overall selection in the 2009 NFL Draft, is Alabama’s highest-drafted offensive tackle since the start of the Nick Saban era. Evan Neal (2022) and JC Latham (2024) both went seventh in their respective classes.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
