Ikem
Ekwonu.
Ikem
Ekwonu.
NC State· 6'4"· 320 lb· 4.93s 40
"The mauler Carolina bet its line on delivered: a tone-setting run blocker who grew into a reliable left tackle — not the star some projected, but a legitimate building block at a premium position."Pre-draft read
Ekwonu is a people-mover first. He plays left tackle with a wrestler's base and a genuinely violent finish, and in the run game he is at his best pulling, climbing to the second level and burying linebackers who cannot match his mass in space. Wide zone, gap scheme, duo — the fit is the same because the strength is displacement rather than a specific footwork family.
Pass protection is the other half and it is less settled. He has natural power in his anchor and can stone a bull rush, but the sets can be short and upright, and speed rushers who force him to open early get to the edge before his hands arrive. He also played meaningful snaps at guard, which gives a fallback if the tackle reps never smooth out. The signature is the finish.
Downhill run offense that pulls and doubles its linemen — gap and duo concepts with wide zone mixed in, where displacement matters more than perfect footwork
Year 1: starting left tackle in a run-first offense with chip help against premier speed rushers. Ceiling: top-10 run-blocking tackle who becomes an average-or-better protector.
A vertical dropback passing offense that leaves him isolated on wide-nine speed rushers every snap with no back or tight end help.
If the pass sets never clean up, kicking him inside to guard makes his power immediately elite.
Ikem Ekwonu — NC State All-22 Film Session
All-22 study of his run blocking and the pass-set questions.
Ikem Ekwonu NFL Draft Tape | NC State OL
Wide-angle reel of his 2021 season at left tackle.
Ikem Ekwonu Scouting Report | NFL Draft 2022
Technique breakdown of hand timing, anchor and finish.
Ekwonu arrived at NC State as a true freshman and started the last seven games of 2019 at left tackle, then moved between left guard and left tackle in 2020 before settling in at left tackle for good. By 2021 he was a unanimous All-American and the ACC's Jacobs Blocking Trophy winner, and The Athletic had already called him the most feared lineman in the conference.
The identity was never in doubt. He led NC State in pancake blocks as a freshman with 37 and again in 2020 with 50, and the tape backed the numbers: a 6-4, 320-pound tackle with a wrestling background who pulled like a fullback and finished blocks through the whistle. What split evaluators was pass protection, where the sets were sometimes upright and his hands late, leaving the question of whether he would stay outside or slide to guard, where the power would play immediately.
Carolina had needed a left tackle for years and had the No. 6 pick to fix it. With Evan Neal and Charles Cross also on the board, the Panthers took the most physically dominant of the three and bet that the protection would catch up to the run blocking.
- 01
Run-game displacement
He generates real movement off the ball and finishes blocks through the whistle, making him a plus in gap, duo and wide zone alike.
- 02
Pulling and second level
For a 320-pound tackle he moves well in space, arriving under control to bury linebackers on pulls and climbs.
- 03
Anchor strength
A wrestling base lets him absorb bull rushes and reset his feet rather than getting walked into the quarterback.
- 04
Position flexibility
He started games at both left guard and left tackle in college, which gives a team two ways to use him from day one.
- 05
Early starting résumé
He started seven games at left tackle as a true freshman and never came off the field again, closing with unanimous All-American honors.
- 01
Upright pass sets
His pad level rises out of his stance, which shortens his reach and lets edge rushers work into his frame before contact.
- 02
Hand timing
The punch can arrive late or land wide, leaving him grabbing at rushers instead of controlling them at the strike point.
- 03
Speed off the edge
Rushers who threaten his outside shoulder immediately force him to open early and can beat him around the corner.
- 04
Balance when overextending
His aggression in the run game occasionally carries him past the block, and he ends up on the ground reaching.
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
- 4.93sp50
- Vertical
- 29inp50
- Broad jump
- 108inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.82sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.73sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | NC State | — |
| 2020 | NC State | — |
| 2021 | NC State | — |
| Career | — | — |
Offensive linemen do not carry countable box-score production. Only figures confirmed by NC State's official bio are listed — start counts and pancake totals where published; everything unverified is left blank rather than filled with zeros.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Solid every-week starting tackle who wins in the run game and gives back some reps against premium speed.
Massive tackle whose sheer power dominates the run game and makes him a long-time starter when the protection holds up.
First-round tackle whose pass-protection limits force a move inside and cap him as a swing starter.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Ekwonu has been a starting offensive tackle for the Carolina Panthers for two seasons. He has experienced some struggles but has also shown flashes of his high potential.
Carolina got exactly what it drafted and no more. Ekwonu started all 17 games as a rookie in 2022, all 17 again in 2023, then 15 in 2024 and 15 in 2025 — 64 games and 64 starts in four seasons, which is real value at a position where whiffs are common. The run blocking arrived as advertised, and there were stretches, including weeks in 2025 when he graded among the best tackles in the league, that showed the ceiling.
The pass protection has stayed the argument. His 2025 PFF grade of 70.6 ranked 36th of 89 qualified tackles, with a pass-blocking mark of 67.3 and 40 pressures allowed across 942 snaps — a competent starting left tackle, not a top-tier one. That is a reasonable outcome for the sixth pick and a much better one than Evan Neal at seven, though Charles Cross at nine has generally been the cleaner protector. Ekwonu is a starter who has held the job for four seasons; he has not become the anchor the run-game tape suggested he might be.
Data note: Imported from Wikipedia 2022 NFL draft player selections table.