Lucas
Niang.
Lucas
Niang.
TCU· 6'6"· 315 lb
"A right tackle who went 28 straight starts without allowing a sack, then played a full season on a torn hip labrum and let the medical file, not the tape, decide where he went."Pre-draft read
Niang is a 6-6, 328-pound right tackle whose game is size, length and positional discipline rather than movement. He fires off the snap, bends his knees better than most linemen his size and stays square, using long arms to steer rushers past the pocket. He plays angles well and mirrors inside counters without lunging.
The second element is power in the run game. He turns ends off the line and finishes blocks with weight behind them. The footwork off the edge is not fluid and he is minimally effective climbing to the second level, so he is a gap-scheme right tackle rather than a zone mover. The signature is the sack streak: 28 consecutive starts at TCU without allowing one.
A gap and power run scheme with a vertical passing game that keeps him in a phone booth, protecting the right edge with length rather than asking him to reach or climb.
Year 1 swing tackle while the hip heals, with a ceiling as a decade-long starting right tackle in a power scheme.
A wide zone offense that asks tackles to reach-block the play side and work to linebackers in space every snap.
Lucas Niang TCU Highlights
Team-produced college reel released after the draft, covering his right tackle work at TCU.
NY Jets Draft Profile: Lucas Niang
Pre-draft breakdown of the pass-protection technique and the hip injury question.
TCU Offensive Line vs Texas 2018
Full-game line cutups from the season he started all thirteen games without allowing a sack.
Niang had around 40 scholarship offers, including Penn State, Auburn, Miami and Georgia, and chose TCU. He played twelve of thirteen games as a true freshman in 2016, then took over at right tackle midway through his sophomore season, helping the Frogs to their first Big 12 Championship Game appearance and a win in the Alamo Bowl.
The junior year was the resume. He started all thirteen games at right tackle, did not allow a sack all season and was named second-team All-Big 12. Across three seasons as a starter he made 28 starts without surrendering a sack, with two holding calls and no false starts, a discipline record that stood out more than any physical trait. He entered his senior year as a first-team preseason All-Big 12 pick, with Todd McShay projecting him as a first-round selection and the best tackle in the class.
Then the hip gave out. He played seven games on a torn labrum, was advised to have surgery, and shut it down in late October to protect his draft stock. The evaluation became a medical question rather than a football one: teams liked a 6-6, 328-pound right tackle with length, power and a clean technical record, but nobody knew how the hip would hold. Kansas City, needing a long-term answer at right tackle in front of Patrick Mahomes, took him at 96.
- 01
Size and length
A 6-6, 328-pound frame with the arm length to engulf edge rushers and keep them from getting into his chest.
- 02
Elite pass-protection record
28 consecutive starts at TCU without allowing a sack, with two holding penalties and zero false starts.
- 03
Plays with leverage
Bends his knees and maintains pad level despite his height, staying square instead of leaning at the point of contact.
- 04
Run-game displacement
Uses hands and hips together to turn defensive ends off the line and finish with real power.
- 05
Handles games and stunts
Recognizes blitzes and twists and redirects cleanly, the awareness piece that usually takes rookies years.
- 01
Torn hip labrum
Played the entire 2019 season on it, had surgery in October and left the medical question unanswered on draft day.
- 02
Heavy-footed off the edge
Lacks natural fluidity in his kick slide, so speed rushers with a plan can threaten the corner.
- 03
Limited range in space
Minimally effective climbing to the second level or pulling, which narrows the schemes that fit him.
- 04
Right side only
Started exclusively at right tackle and never showed he could handle the blind side, capping his positional value.
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | TCU | 12 |
| 2017 | TCU | — |
| 2018 | TCU | 13 |
| 2019 | TCU | 7 |
| Career | — | 32 |
Offensive linemen carry games and starts only. His 2016 appearance count of twelve games with no starts and the 28-start career total across 2017 to 2019 come from his Wikipedia biography, which matches TCU and Star-Telegram reporting; the 2017 start figure of eight is the remainder after the verified thirteen starts in 2018 and seven in 2019. His total 2017 appearances were not reported by any source checked and are left null rather than guessed, which is why no career games figure is given. The seven-game 2019 season ended with surgery on a torn hip labrum.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A functional starting right tackle who holds the job for several seasons without ever being a strength.
The ceiling: a technically disciplined right tackle who becomes an immediate starter and one of the best in the league at the position.
A tackle drafted on tape and a medical gamble whose injuries limit him to a handful of starts across a whole career.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
He never played a rookie snap. Niang opted out of the 2020 season under the league's COVID provision, which meant two full years between his last football game and his NFL debut. He came back in 2021 and got his shot, starting nine of thirteen games at right tackle for a team that went to the AFC Championship, before tearing his patellar tendon in December and ending the season on injured reserve.
That knee cost him the job. He appeared in three games in 2022 and four in 2023, playing a single offensive snap across those two seasons and living on special teams, and Kansas City won Super Bowls in both years with him on the roster. He has been a free agent since. The final ledger is 33 games, nine starts and two rings across three seasons. In hindsight the medical flag was the whole story. The tackle who never allowed a sack in 28 college starts got one nine-game audition, played it reasonably, and then lost the position to an injury he never recovered from.
Data note: Imported from Wikipedia 2020 NFL draft player selections table.