Cordell
Volson.
Cordell
Volson.
North Dakota St.· 6'6"· 315 lb· 5.27s 40
"A six-year North Dakota State starter from a town of 27 people who allowed roughly half a sack in his entire college career, and whose only real question was whether the power moved inside."Pre-draft read
Volson is a 6-foot-6, 315-pound right tackle who plays like an interior lineman trapped on the edge. His game is contact strength and finish: he fires off low, lands a heavy two-hand punch and runs his feet through the whistle, and North Dakota State's run game was built on him displacing an end off the spot.
In pass protection he is a quick setter with patient hands and real knee bend, which is why he allowed almost nothing at the FCS level, but his recovery against edge speed is average. He pulls well for his size and can climb to wash a linebacker down the line. The signature is versatility earned honestly: he started at right tackle, left tackle and both guard spots for a program that won four national titles with him on the field.
A gap and power run scheme that asks a guard to move a nose tackle vertically and pull to lead on the edge, rather than a wide-zone offense built on lateral range.
Year 1: an immediate starting guard in a downhill run game. Ceiling: a decade-long interior starter who anchors the strong side of a play-action offense.
A pass-heavy spread offense that leaves its guards one-on-one against interior speed rushers on 40 dropbacks a game, where his lean and late hands become weekly losses.
He needs a line coach who will keep him inside; the tackle experience is depth insurance, not a real NFL position for him.
North Dakota State OL Cordell Volson Highlights
Full college highlight reel showing the punch, the finish and the second-level climbs at right tackle.
North Dakota State Tackle Cordell Volson Highlights
Pre-draft cutup focused on his run blocking and pass sets against MVFC edge rushers.
Bengals Rookie LG Cordell Volson is NFL Ready: Film Breakdown
NFL film breakdown of his rookie season at left guard in Cincinnati.
Volson came out of Balfour, North Dakota, a town of 27 people, played nine-man high school football at every position, then stayed at North Dakota State for six years. That is the profile: an enormous, powerful, endlessly experienced lineman who had been coached harder than most FBS prospects by the time he reached the combine.
The production was overwhelming for the level. He appeared in a school-record 65 games with 41 consecutive starts over his final three seasons, was a three-time first-team All-MVFC selection and a three-time FCS All-American, and was credited with allowing zero sacks across both of his final two seasons while grading in the nineties. In 2019 he posted a team-high 100 knockdown blocks through 12 games as NDSU rushed for a school-record 4,601 yards, and scouts credited him with roughly half a sack allowed in his entire college career.
The evaluation questions were the usual two. His 5.27 forty suggested the punch would not save him against NFL edge speed, and the competition was FCS, however dominant. Nearly every board projected him inside to guard, where the strength mattered most and the foot quickness least. Cincinnati, rebuilding the line in front of Joe Burrow, took him 136th with exactly that move in mind.
- 01
Contact strength
heavy two-hand punch and rare grip strength that latches onto a defender's pads and steers him, the trait that let him displace FCS ends off the spot.
- 02
Finish
an aggressive run blocker who runs his feet through contact and blocks to the whistle, credited with a team-high 100 knockdown blocks in 12 games in 2019.
- 03
Positional versatility
started games at right tackle, left tackle, right guard and left guard for North Dakota State, including a playoff move inside on short notice.
- 04
Pass-protection production
quick setter with patient hands who was credited with zero sacks allowed in each of his final two seasons while grading above 90 percent.
- 05
Experience and durability
a school-record 65 career appearances with 41 consecutive starts over his final three years, and four FCS national championships on his resume.
- 01
Edge recovery speed
a 5.27 forty and average change of direction, which showed up as trouble redirecting against a true outside speed rush at tackle.
- 02
Level of competition
dominant FCS tape against defenders who could not challenge his strength, so the entire projection rested on how the power translated up a level.
- 03
Waist bending
will lean and overextend when he chases contact, which lets quicker rushers work around his edge once he commits his weight forward.
- 04
Age and upside
he turned 24 before his rookie season after six years in the program, so he arrived close to a finished product rather than a developmental bet.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.27sp50
- Vertical
- 25inp50
- Broad jump
- 104inp50
- Three-cone
- 8.31sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.93sp50
- Bench
- 25repp50
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | North Dakota State | 9 |
| 2018 | North Dakota State | 15 |
| 2019 | North Dakota State | 16 |
| 2020 | North Dakota State | 10 |
| 2021 | North Dakota State | 15 |
| Career | — | 65 |
North Dakota State is an FCS program and offensive line participation is not published by cfbstats, so games and starts come from the official NDSU biography on gobison.com: nine appearances as a redshirt freshman in 2017, all 15 games as a special teams backup in 2018, 16 starts in 2019, 10 starts in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 spring season and 15 starts in 2021. He redshirted in 2016, which is listed as no season rather than a zero line. The seasons sum exactly to the school-record career totals of 65 games and 41 consecutive starts. Offensive linemen accumulate no statistical categories, so no counting stats are shown.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A big, strong interior lineman who starts immediately out of need, holds the job on toughness and never fully solves NFL pass rushers.
The outcome if the FCS power had come with better sustained balance: a decade of Pro Bowl guard play built on grip strength and finish.
Another NDSU lineman: a useful, versatile journeyman who bounces between guard and tackle and between rosters rather than settling in as a fixture.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
He started from day one and never came off the field in Cincinnati. Volson won the left guard job as a rookie in 2022, started all 16 appearances and played 1,107 snaps, more than any other Bengal that season, then started all 17 games in 2023 and 15 of 17 in 2024, while also starting all three postseason games he played. Every one of his 3,178 regular-season snaps in Cincinnati came at left guard. The pass protection was the flaw the draft process predicted: roughly five sacks and 38 pressures allowed as a rookie, the same again in 2023, and six sacks and 43 pressures in 2024 with his penalties spiking.
A shoulder injury in the 2025 training camp required season-ending surgery and the Bengals released him with a waived/injured designation, costing him the entire year. He signed with Tennessee in March 2026 expecting a starting guard job, played 73 preseason snaps at right guard and was cut at final roster reductions, then joined Green Bay's practice squad on September 17, 2026. Three years of uninterrupted starting from pick 136 is a clear win on the investment; the honest verdict is that he was a durable, physical placeholder who never improved enough in protection to become the answer.