Dylan
Parham.
Dylan
Parham.
Memphis· 6'3"· 311 lb· 4.93s 40
Parham is a light, athletic interior lineman who plays as a mover first. He fires off low, reaches defenders on zone concepts, and his best reps are on the second level, where he can climb to a linebacker in space and stay attached. The hips and feet are his calling card, and Memphis used them at four different spots across five years.
The secondary trait is pass-protection discipline. He plays with quiet hands, mirrors quickness and rarely loses his frame, and he did not allow a sack in 545 protection snaps at right guard as a senior. The limitation is mass: at 285 pounds he sits in the seat against heavy nose tackles and cannot dig out a defender who wins the first hand placement.
An outside-zone and wide-zone running game paired with a quick, rhythm passing attack — a system that asks its guards to reach, climb and pull rather than to displace defenders off the ball.
Year 1: immediate starting guard in a zone scheme, with the flexibility to cover center. Ceiling: a decade-long starter and interior anchor of a wide-zone offense, a high-end second-tier guard rather than an All-Pro.
A gap-and-power run game built on down blocks and double teams at the point of attack, where a mid-280s guard is asked to move 330-pound nose tackles off the ball on first down.
His floor rises with a center who can help on the nose. Alone against a heavy shade, the mass problem is the whole rep.
Dylan Parham Right Guard Highlights
Senior-year guard tape: zone reaches, second-level climbs and the clean pass sets that produced a sackless season.
TDN's 2022 NFL Draft Guide: IOL Dylan Parham
Pre-draft breakdown of the athletic profile, the versatility across four positions and the anchor questions at his weight.
Memphis OL/Offense vs Mississippi State Defense (2021)
Full-game line study against an SEC front, the sort of matchup that tested his play strength before the draft.
Parham is a zone-scheme guard whose value is movement, versatility and clean technique rather than power. He is one of the better second-level blockers in the class, comfortable pulling, climbing and blocking in space, and he combines that athleticism with four years of high-level starting experience at a program that threw the ball constantly.
The résumé is unusually complete. He started all 14 games at left guard as a redshirt freshman in 2018 and again in 2019, moved to right tackle for all 11 games in 2020, then slid inside to right guard for all 11 games in 2021, when he was first-team All-AAC, did not allow a sack in 545 pass-protection snaps and gave up only two quarterback hits. He accepted Senior Bowl and combine invitations and tested as one of the more fluid interior linemen available. The flag is the frame: he is listed in the mid-280s, short-armed relative to tackles and will be a projection to hold up against NFL nose tackles.
The board liked the athletic profile and the positional flexibility — guard, center, emergency tackle — and worried about anchor. Las Vegas took him at 90, their first pick of the draft, as a plug-and-play starter for a wide-zone running game that would ask him to move rather than maul.
- 01
Movement skills
Elite athlete for the position who reaches defenders on zone, pulls cleanly and climbs to linebackers in space without losing balance.
- 02
Pass-protection record
Did not allow a sack in 545 protection snaps at right guard in 2021, giving up only two quarterback hits all season.
- 03
Positional versatility
Started at left guard, right tackle and right guard across four seasons at Memphis, with the frame and snap athleticism to try center.
- 04
Experience
50 career starts in a pass-heavy offense, including every game of four consecutive seasons, with no drop-off through two position changes.
- 05
Hand discipline
Quiet, accurate hands and a low pad level that keep him square, so he rarely loses a rep to a pure quickness move.
- 01
Play strength
In the mid-280s he lacks the mass to anchor against heavy nose tackles and can be walked backward by a bull rush on a bad set.
- 02
Drive blocking
Struggles to displace a defender in a gap scheme; the run-game value is about positioning and angles, not creating movement at the point.
- 03
Length
Short arms for the position let defenders into his chest first, which puts him in a recovery position on reps he otherwise wins with feet.
- 04
Level of competition
The American Athletic Conference did not present many defensive tackles built like the ones he will see every week in the NFL.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.93sp50
- Vertical
- 26.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 108inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.78sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.70sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Memphis | 14 |
| 2019 | Memphis | 14 |
| 2020 | Memphis | 11 |
| 2021 | Memphis | 11 |
| Career | — | 50 |
Offensive linemen do not carry box-score statistics, so this line tracks games and starts only. All four seasons come from the Memphis athletics bio: 14 starts at left guard in 2018, 14 at left guard in 2019, 11 at right tackle in 2020 and 11 at right guard in 2021, when he allowed no sacks in 545 pass-protection snaps and only two quarterback hits. He redshirted in 2017, so there is no 2017 line. The seasons sum to 50 games and 50 starts, every game he appeared in at Memphis. Pressure and sack-allowed totals for years before 2021 are not published by the school and are omitted rather than estimated.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A versatile interior lineman who starts immediately across multiple spots without ever being the anchor of the unit.
The ceiling is an athletic zone guard whose technique and durability make him a decade-long, high-end starter.
A light, movement-based guard whose lack of anchor keeps him in a swing-backup role rather than a starting job.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Dylan Parham has played two seasons for the Las Vegas Raiders, starting at guard in both seasons. He has been a consistent starter on the offensive line.
Las Vegas got a starter on day one and never took him off the field. Parham started all 17 games as a rookie in 2022, bouncing between left guard, right guard and center, and started all 17 again in 2023. He started 14 of 15 games in 2024 and all 15 in 2025, settling in at guard and playing through the roster turnover around him. He signed with the New York Jets in 2026 and opened the season as a starter, with 64 starts in 65 career games across five seasons.
In hindsight this is what a third-round offensive lineman is supposed to be. The anchor concern never fully disappeared — he is still better moving than holding, and power rushers are the reps where he loses — but the athletic traits and the technique produced five years of uninterrupted starting play at a position where Las Vegas had none. He never made a Pro Bowl and probably never will, and the team let him leave in free agency rather than paying premium money. That is still excellent value at pick 90: a durable, scheme-appropriate starter for the length of his rookie deal and beyond. Clean hit.
Data note: from Tennessee