Ben
Bartch.
Ben
Bartch.
Saint John's (MN)· 6'6"· 309 lb
"A 220-pound Division III tight end who ate his way to 300 pounds on a homemade egg shake and became a two-year left tackle, drafted entirely on movement traits."Pre-draft read
Bartch is a converted tight end who plays offensive line like an athlete first. He gets out of his stance quickly, reaches defenders on zone runs and climbs to the second level with the balance of a player who used to catch passes, which is what he was two years before the draft.
In pass protection he mirrors well laterally and recovers from a bad first step. The strength is still catching up: he can be walked back by power, he lunges when a rusher stalls him, and his hand placement drifts because the technique is young. Against Division III competition he overwhelmed people, so the projection was about traits. The signature is movement skill at 6-6 and 300-plus pounds, an athlete with a guard's future and a tackle's frame.
A wide-zone running offense that prizes movement, reach blocks and second-level climbs over raw interior power.
Year 1 developmental interior backup, with a ceiling as a multi-year starting guard in a zone offense once the strength catches up to the athleticism.
A power and duo run scheme that asks its guards to displace three-techniques with raw strength on every snap.
Ben Bartch Film Breakdown
Analyst film study of the movement traits and technical rawness that defined his evaluation.
OL Ben Bartch, Saint John's vs Edge Azur Kamara, Kansas
Senior Bowl one-on-one reps against an FBS edge rusher, the competition test scouts wanted.
Ben Bartch makes his calorie smoothie at his combine interview
The egg-and-cottage-cheese shake story that defined his pre-draft cycle, told at the Combine.
There is no stranger path in this draft class. Bartch arrived at Saint John's in Minnesota from Salem, Oregon, as a 220-pound tight end, appeared in one game as a freshman and caught four passes for 43 yards and a touchdown as a sophomore. His coaches then asked him to move to offensive tackle, and he gained roughly eighty pounds on a homemade daily shake of seven scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, grits, peanut butter, bananas and Gatorade that became the most-repeated story of his pre-draft cycle.
The football caught up fast. He started all thirteen games at left tackle as a junior in 2018 and earned second-team All-MIAC, then started every game of a senior season in which Saint John's went 11-2 and finished sixth in Division III, earning All-American and first-team All-MIAC honors plus a spot on the AFCA Good Works Team. He played 36 games with 27 starts in four years.
Scouts had to project three levels up. The Senior Bowl was the test, and he held up in one-on-ones against FBS edge rushers well enough to confirm the athleticism was real. The report read as a high-upside developmental blocker with only two years of line experience, most likely a guard in the NFL. Jacksonville took him at 116, making him the 21st Division III player drafted since 1990.
- 01
Rare athleticism for the position
Moves like the tight end he used to be, reaching defenders on zone and climbing cleanly to linebackers.
- 02
Enormous developmental runway
Only two seasons of offensive line experience, meaning almost all of his technical growth was still ahead.
- 03
Senior Bowl validation
Held his own in one-on-ones against FBS edge rushers, answering the Division III competition question directly.
- 04
Frame and length
At 6-6 with room to carry weight, he offers the body type teams want at either tackle or guard.
- 05
Work ethic on record
Added roughly eighty pounds by design to change positions, and earned AFCA Good Works Team recognition for service.
- 01
Raw technique
Hand placement drifts wide and his footwork breaks down against counters, the natural cost of two years of experience.
- 02
Functional strength deficit
Gets walked backward by NFL-caliber power rushers and struggles to anchor when he loses his base.
- 03
Division III competition
Overwhelmed opponents who will never play professionally, so almost nothing on his tape was a true test.
- 04
Position uncertainty
Projected inside to guard by most teams, meaning he had to learn a new spot as well as a new level.
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Saint John's (MN) | 1 |
| 2017 | Saint John's (MN) | 8 |
| 2018 | Saint John's (MN) | 13 |
| 2019 | Saint John's (MN) | 13 |
| Career | — | 36 |
Per-season figures come from NFL club bios citing Saint John's records, which list 36 career games with 27 of them starts. His two starting seasons as listed sum to 26; one club bio credits him with fourteen starts at left tackle as a senior, which reconciles to the published 27, so the extra start is noted here rather than assigned to a season. He played tight end his first two years, catching four passes for 43 yards and a touchdown in 2017 before the position change.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A developmental interior blocker who starts for stretches and becomes a valued swing lineman across several teams.
The ceiling: a small-school athlete who becomes an established, athletic starting guard on a contending line.
A traits-based small-school lineman whose technique never catches up and who fades off rosters within a few seasons.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
He became a useful NFL lineman, which for a Division III tight end is a real outcome. Bartch played thirteen games as a rookie in 2020 with one start, then won the Jaguars' left guard job in 2021 and started eleven of fifteen games. A knee injury ended his 2022 season after five starts, and he split 2023 between Jacksonville, where he appeared in eight games with three starts, and San Francisco.
Since then he has been a swing interior backup on good teams. He played three games with two starts for the 49ers in 2024, six with two starts in 2025, and signed with Detroit for 2026, where he started in Week 2. Through seven seasons he has 57 games and 25 starts. In hindsight the pick worked exactly the way development picks are supposed to: he was never a long-term answer at left guard, but a fourth-rounder from Division III who has held an NFL roster spot for seven years and started 25 games is a return most teams would sign for.