Charlie
Heck.
Charlie
Heck.
North Carolina· 6'8"· 311 lb· 5.16s 40
"A 6-8 converted tight end with 34-inch arms who gave up one-third of a sack all season at left tackle — reach and movement, with the leverage questions that come free at that height."Pre-draft read
Heck is one of the longest offensive linemen in any draft class — 6-8 with 34-inch arms — and his game is built around that length. He sets tall, keeps rushers at the end of his reach and rarely lets speed turn his edge, which is how he gave up a third of a sack all senior season.
He is a converted high school tight end, and it shows in space. He climbs to linebackers, pulls and connects to blocks on the move, which gives him value as a sixth lineman in jumbo packages. The leverage battle is the problem. A frame that tall struggles to sink and anchor against power, and low-handed bull rushers can walk him back. The signature is reach and athletic tools, a developmental swing tackle with a starter's pass-protection radius.
A wide-zone offense that asks tackles to reach, climb and work in space rather than drive defenders off the ball in a phone booth.
Year 1 swing tackle and jumbo-package lineman, with a ceiling as a starting right tackle in a zone scheme that keeps him moving and protects him from pure power.
A gap-and-power run scheme that asks him to anchor down and displace nose tackles and heavy ends on double teams every snap.
Senior Bowl Profile: Charlie Heck
Pre-draft profile of his length, pass set and the leverage questions at 6-8.
Charlie Heck vs Duke 11/10/18
Full-game cutup from his junior season at right tackle.
Charlie Heck, 2020 NFL Draft: 4th Round, 126th overall, Houston Texans
Draft-day breakdown of his college tape and projected NFL role.
Heck is a project with pedigree. The son of a longtime NFL tackle turned offensive line coach, he arrived at North Carolina as a tight end from Kansas City and grew into a 6-8, 315-pound offensive tackle, which meant his best football was always going to be ahead of him.
He became a fixture once he settled in, starting 34 of Carolina's 36 games over his final three seasons and appearing in 43 overall at both tackle spots. He started eleven games at right tackle as a junior for a line that allowed only 0.91 sacks per game, seventh nationally. As a senior he moved to left tackle, started all twelve games he played, missed one after breaking his hand, and surrendered a third of a sack all year while leading the team with 43 knockdowns. He was second-team All-ACC and the conference's offensive lineman of the week after the opener against South Carolina, protecting an offense that ranked twelfth nationally in total yards.
The evaluation was straightforward. The length and the tight end background gave him a rare pass-protection radius and real movement skill; the height gave him leverage problems against power and a high center of gravity to fix. His pro day was cancelled by the pandemic, which cost him a chance to answer questions. Houston, needing tackle depth, took him at 126.
- 01
Exceptional length
At 6-8 with 34-inch arms he keeps edge rushers at the end of his punch and closes the corner before they can turn it.
- 02
Elite pass-protection production
Surrendered only a third of a sack across his entire senior season at left tackle in a pass-heavy ACC offense.
- 03
Positional flexibility
Started at both right and left tackle in college, the swing versatility that keeps a day-three lineman on a roster.
- 04
Movement in space
A converted tight end who climbs to the second level, pulls and connects to moving targets better than his size suggests.
- 05
Football pedigree
The son of a longtime NFL tackle and offensive line coach, with a technical grounding that shows in his hand placement.
- 01
Leverage and anchor
A 6-8 frame struggles to sink its hips, and low, powerful bull rushers can walk him into the pocket.
- 02
High pad level
Plays upright by build, which lets defenders get under his chest plate in the run game and stall his drive blocks.
- 03
Functional strength
Needs to add play strength to finish blocks rather than simply shield defenders away from the ball.
- 04
Lost pro day
The cancelled pro day left his testing profile incomplete at a position where athletic confirmation matters on day three.
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
- 5.16sp50
- Vertical
- 28inp50
- Broad jump
- 112inp50
- Three-cone
- 8.02sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.86sp50
- Bench
- 21repp50
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | North Carolina | — |
| 2018 | North Carolina | 11 |
| 2019 | North Carolina | 12 |
| Career | — | 43 |
North Carolina's draft release states he appeared in 43 career games and started 34 of the program's 36 games over his final three seasons; the 2018 and 2019 start totals are published directly, so the 2017 figure of eleven is the remainder of that three-year total. His 2016 season and his 2017 games-played count were not published and are left empty. Offensive linemen are tracked by games and starts only.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A tall, long swing tackle who stays in the league for years starting whenever the line gets hit by injury.
The ceiling: a long right tackle who holds a starting job for the better part of a decade on reach and reliability.
A high-cut tackle whose anchor never comes and who gets exposed the moment he has to start.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Heck became exactly what the fourth round hopes for: a long-term NFL swing tackle. He got on the field as a rookie in 2020, then started thirteen of fifteen games at right tackle in 2021 for Houston, his one run as a full-time starter. He played all seventeen games in 2022 with three starts, including snaps as an extra lineman, and in 2023 he lost eleven games to the physically unable to perform list before returning for six games and four starts at right tackle in Bobby Slowik's offense.
Houston released him in August 2024 and the journeyman phase began: Arizona's practice squad, seven games with Arizona, then San Francisco off the practice squad in December, where he started two games at left tackle. Tampa Bay signed him in 2025 and he played all seventeen games with six starts at right tackle, protecting Baker Mayfield through some of his most efficient games of the year. Miami signed him in March 2026 to reunite with Slowik. Through that point he had played 67 career games with 29 starts across six seasons. The evaluation held up almost exactly: not a franchise left tackle, but a genuinely useful one.