Marcus
Mckethan.
Marcus
Mckethan.
North Carolina· 6'7"· 340 lb· 5.31s 40
McKethan is 6-foot-6 1/2 and 340 pounds with 35 1/2-inch arms and a 7-foot-2 wingspan, which is a tackle's frame playing guard. He blocks like it. When he centers a defender he delivers knock-back power, and he rolls straight downhill as the drive man on a double team.
The length is the pass-protection tool. He locks out, extends and ends rushes before they start, and bull rushers get nothing against that anchor. The problems come when the target moves. A 4.99 shuttle and 7.81 three-cone say what the tape says: he is slow to redirect, quick interior rushers beat him to the edge of his frame, and he plays tall enough that leverage becomes a fight. He pulls better than a 340-pound lineman should, but he needs a clean path to the target.
Gap and power running game that asks him to drive down on a defensive tackle or pull short to lead through a hole, paired with a quick passing game that limits long-developing protections.
Year 1: swing interior backup and jumbo package lineman. Ceiling: starting right guard in a downhill run scheme.
A wide zone offense that asks him to reach play-side defenders and climb to linebackers in space every snap.
Everything about him works in a straight line.
THI TV: Marcus McKethan UNC Football Pro Day Highlights
Pro day workout showing the frame, length and movement teams evaluated.
Marcus McKethan Sophomore Highlights
Cut-up of his first full season as the North Carolina right guard.
North Carolina Offensive Line vs Texas A&M (2020 Orange Bowl)
All-22 style look at the UNC line, with McKethan at right guard against SEC competition.
McKethan came out of Barnwell, South Carolina, as a three-star recruit who chose North Carolina over NC State, credited with 543 knockdown blocks as a high school senior. He redshirted in 2017, played five games as a reserve in 2018, and then never left the lineup.
He started twelve of thirteen appearances at right guard as a sophomore in 2019, allowing two sacks across 818 snaps. He started all twelve games in 2020 for an offense that set a school record at 537.3 total yards per game, leading the team with 887 snaps and earning honorable mention All-ACC. He repeated the honor in 2021, starting all thirteen games, playing another 887 snaps and winning ACC offensive lineman of the week twice. Career: 43 games, 37 starts, all at right guard.
The combine confirmed the physical outlier. Twenty-seven bench reps, 35 1/2-inch arms, 10 1/2-inch hands and 340 pounds, with movement testing that landed near the bottom of the position group. The Giants saw a player who had only ever played right guard but had the body and reach of a tackle, and took him 173rd overall with the idea of developing the versatility.
- 01
Length
35 1/2-inch arms and a 7-foot-2 wingspan, the kind of reach that ends pass rushes before a defender can get into his chest.
- 02
Anchor
340 pounds and 27 bench reps, so bull rushers generate nothing and he does not get walked back into the quarterback.
- 03
Knock-back power
when he centers a block he displaces defenders, and he drives downhill effectively as the base man on a double team.
- 04
Starting experience
37 career starts at right guard across three seasons, including 887 snaps in each of his last two years.
- 05
Technique focus
plays with attention to hand placement and body control when pulling across the formation to find a target.
- 01
Lateral quickness
a 4.99 shuttle and 7.81 three-cone, near the bottom of the position group, so quick interior rushers win around his frame.
- 02
Pad level
at 6-foot-6 1/2 he plays tall and loses leverage battles against shorter, stronger defensive tackles.
- 03
Positional experience
played exclusively right guard in college despite a body teams wanted to try at tackle, so any move was projection.
- 04
Recovery balance
once a rusher beats him laterally he cannot reset his feet in time, which turns small losses into quarterback pressures.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.31sp50
- Vertical
- 27.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 110inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.81sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.99sp50
- Bench
- 27repp50
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | North Carolina | 0 |
| 2018 | North Carolina | 5 |
| 2019 | North Carolina | 13 |
| 2020 | North Carolina | 12 |
| 2021 | North Carolina | 13 |
| Career | — | 43 |
Offensive linemen record no statistics, so this table tracks participation only. Season figures follow North Carolina's official bio and the Giants' draft release, which list 43 career games and 37 starts; the five games in 2018 and the redshirt in 2017 come from the same release and the totals reconcile exactly. A separate aggregator lists four games in 2018 for a 42-game career, and the school's number is used here. Snap counts add context the games column cannot: 818 in 2019, then a team-leading 887 in both 2020 and 2021, all at right guard.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Mid-round guard who settles in as a functional starter and swing interior lineman without ever standing out.
Powerful, long interior blocker who becomes a multi-year starter when health allows him a full offseason.
Day 3 interior lineman whose career is derailed by an early injury and who never regains a roster spot.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The career never really started. McKethan tore his ACL in a training camp scrimmage and went on injured reserve on August 6, 2022, wiping out his rookie year entirely. He came back through the PUP list in July 2023, was activated in August and got his first career start in Week 2 against Arizona.
That 2023 season is his entire body of NFL work: sixteen games, five starts and 378 offensive snaps. The grades were poor across the board, and the pass protection numbers in particular reflected the concerns from the draft process, with seventeen pressures and two sacks allowed in limited playing time. He did not play in 2024, and the Giants waived him on August 25 of that year. He has not appeared in a regular season game since, and no team has given him another training camp. Sixteen games and five starts is the whole file for a player whose physical profile was genuinely rare, and whose weighted career approximate value sits at two. The knee cost him the developmental year he most needed, and a fifth-round guard rarely gets a second one.