Cesar
Ruiz.
Cesar
Ruiz.
Michigan· 6'3"· 307 lb· 5.08s 40
"The youngest and cleanest center prospect in the class, a twenty-one-year-old with thirty-one Big Ten starts whose hands were more ready for the NFL than his feet in space."Pre-draft read
Compact, powerful pivot who played with his feet under him and rarely lost the snap-to-set rhythm. He fired off the ball on gap schemes, hit the first level with a flat back and generated real movement on down blocks, and he had enough range to reach a shaded nose or climb to the second level on zone.
As a pass protector he anchored well against bull rushers and worked in tandem with his guards, which is where the pre-draft grade came from: the highest pass-blocking center grade in the country as a junior. The looseness showed in space, where he leaned and lunged at moving targets. The signature was a twenty-year-old who had already started thirty-one Big Ten games.
Gap and duo run game with a pro-style protection scheme that lets him work in tandem on double teams instead of reaching defenders in space.
Year 1: immediate interior starter at center or guard. Ceiling: a decade-long anchor and protection caller in the middle of the line.
Wide-zone offense that asks him to reach a shaded nose on the move and climb to second-level linebackers in open space every snap.
His hands and anchor are ready for the NFL; his work in space never was.
Cesar Ruiz C Michigan 2020 NFL Draft
Pre-draft cut-up of the interior reps that produced the top center grade.
Cesar Ruiz Highlights
Michigan career highlights at center and guard.
Raw Footage: Cesar Ruiz, Michigan (2019)
All-22 style raw footage of his junior season snaps.
Ruiz entered the 2020 class as the clear top center on the board and one of its youngest starters, a true junior who turned twenty-one the summer before the draft. He started five games at right guard as a true freshman in 2017 and then began twenty-six consecutive starts at center across 2018 and 2019.
The resume was clean. Second-team All-Big Ten in 2019, third-team in 2018, Rimington and Outland Trophy candidate, and according to PFF College the highest-graded pass-blocking center in the country as a junior. Michigan ran a pro-style protection scheme that put the identification calls in his hands, and evaluators liked both the football intelligence and the guard-center flexibility that came with it.
The questions were about play in space and hand placement. He was heavy-footed reaching moving targets on the second level, lunged at linebackers in the open field, and let his hands drift outside the frame against long defensive tackles. Some teams also debated the value of the position itself in the twenties. New Orleans took him 24th overall to replace Max Unger, then immediately moved him to right guard, which told you where the real projection lived.
- 01
Anchor
Sinks his hips and absorbs the bull rush from nose tackles, holding the pocket's middle without giving ground into the quarterback's lap.
- 02
Pass-protection grade
Finished as the highest-graded pass-blocking center in the country as a junior according to PFF College.
- 03
Positional flexibility
Started five games at right guard as a true freshman before moving to center, offering three interior spots from day one.
- 04
Protection calls
Ran Michigan's pro-style identification system, so the mental load of an NFL pivot is already a proven part of his game.
- 05
Youth and starts
Entered the league at twenty-one with thirty-one career Big Ten starts, an unusually early combination of age and experience.
- 01
Work in space
Lunges and leans at linebackers on the second level, missing fits on climbs that should be routine for a center this athletic.
- 02
Hand placement
Lets his strike drift outside the frame, which long defensive tackles convert into control of his chest plate.
- 03
Recovery balance
When his initial punch misses he plays from behind, with limited ability to reset his feet and regain leverage mid-rep.
- 04
Positional value
A center taken in the twenties has to become a top-five player at the position to justify the capital, a thin margin.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.08sp50
- Vertical
- 33inp50
- Broad jump
- 113inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.91sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.64sp50
- Bench
- 28repp50
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Michigan | 10 |
| 2018 | Michigan | 13 |
| 2019 | Michigan | 13 |
| Career | — | 36 |
Michigan athletics confirms 36 career appearances, 31 starts, and 26 consecutive starts at center across 2018 and 2019 with five starts at right guard as a true freshman; the 2017 game total is derived from those published totals. Offensive linemen do not carry statistical lines, so only games and starts are recorded.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Durable, above-average interior starter who earns a second contract without ever reaching an All-Pro conversation.
The ceiling: a first-round center who becomes a multi-time Pro Bowler and the unquestioned anchor of a line.
The downside if the hand placement never cleans up: a first-round interior lineman who bounces between spots and teams.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
New Orleans drafted him to be a center and spent six years playing him almost everywhere else. He started nine games as a rookie, mostly at right guard, moved to center for stretches, and eventually settled at right guard as his permanent home. He has been consistently available and consistently solid: 17 starts in 2021, 14 in 2022 before a December trip to injured reserve, 16 in 2023, 13 in 2024, and all 14 he played in 2025 while missing three games with an ankle injury. The Saints signed him to a four-year extension on September 9, 2023, the clearest possible statement that the organization considered him part of the core. Through Week 2 of 2026 he has appeared in 91 games with 85 starts, opening games at right guard, center and right tackle.
The verdict sits between the two extremes. He never became the All-Pro center the Rimington candidacy suggested, and the space and hand-placement issues in the file never fully cleaned up, which is why his best football has come at guard where the assignments are narrower. But he has been a six-year starter on his original team, earned a second contract, and played three positions on the line without complaint. For a pick in the twenties that is a fair, unspectacular return. Positional value made this a debatable selection on the night; six years of starts made it a defensible one.
Data note: Imported from Wikipedia 2020 NFL draft player selections table.