2024 Draft Profile: Oregon St's OT Taliese Fuaga

Fuaga is a run-game bulldozer who can present plenty for teams to think about.

Between now and April, I plan on looking at as many prospects as I can for the 2024 Draft and will spend 200 snaps with each of them and then share my thoughts with you. I don’t claim to be some high draft authority and will have plenty of missed evaluations, but I watch each of these guys as best I can. I still think it is better to do the work than to shrug and say “nobody knows.” Each of these profiles will be short, but I will attempt to provide a thumbnail sketch as well as some information and videos (borrowed from twitter) to expedite our project.

Today, I finally get to a guy I have been anxious to present you, Oregon State’s absolute giant, Taliese Fuaga.

#75 - Taliese Fuaga - 6’6 - 335 - Oregon State

Why do teams run the ball at all? In a sport where a “good average” run is 4 yards, but a good average pass is 7 yards, it shouldn’t take a calculator to quickly find out which one is more productive. So, why run at all?

Because, football is a game of war of wills. A game of the offense creating space and the defense trying to take it away. It is big men pushing and shoving eachother against their wills and if you only ask your big men to pass protect, then they are never attacking. They only get to defend backwards by retreating to create a pocket around a QB. But, in run plays, they set a tone and send a message to the guys across from them that today is going to be unenjoyable for all of you when you get done with me. However, too many times, our offensive linemen are built for defending and not for attacking in our modern NFL. In other words, we have moved away from the bullies and the bulldozers. Maybe they don’t make them anymore or maybe we stopped valuing them. Who can say?

But, when you spend 200 snaps with Taliese Fuaga from Oregon State, you quickly see that the football factory has made an awesome physical mauler with this guy.