Max
Mitchell.
Max
Mitchell.
Louisiana· 6'6"· 307 lb· 5.32s 40
"A small-school technician who allowed thirteen pressures on eight hundred and fifty-nine snaps, then had to prove the feet and hands would still hold up when the man across from him could bull rush."Pre-draft read
A four-year right tackle in Louisiana's heavy run offense, Mitchell was a technician rather than a mauler: a lean, long frame, quiet feet and a pass set built on pace and hand timing instead of raw power. He mirrored edge speed comfortably, kept his hips square when rushers tried to cross his face, and almost never lost a rep to a pure speed lane.
In the run game he worked best on the move, reaching a defensive end on outside zone or climbing to a linebacker with real body control. Anchoring against long-armed bull rushers was where the frame ran thin. The signature was efficiency: the highest-graded tackle in the country as a senior, with just 13 pressures surrendered across 859 snaps at right tackle.
Outside and mid-zone run offense that lets its tackles reach and climb rather than asking them to displace defenders vertically in a gap scheme.
Year 1: developmental swing tackle and jumbo package depth. Ceiling: solid starting right tackle in a zone-heavy offense.
A power/duo run offense that demands its right tackle move a 5-tech off the ball on first down, where his lack of anchor and drive strength shows immediately.
Everything about his value rises with pass volume and falls with short-yardage volume.
Max Mitchell Right Tackle Highlights
College reel of the pass sets and reach blocks that made him the nation's highest-graded tackle in 2021.
Jermaine Johnson vs Max Mitchell, Senior Bowl
One-on-one reps against a first-round edge rusher, the competition question answered live in Mobile.
Louisiana offensive line vs Texas defense (2021)
Full-unit tape against a Power Five front, with Mitchell working the right edge.
Mitchell arrived as one of the most decorated pass protectors in the country from outside the Power Five, a Monroe kid who came to Louisiana as a two-star recruit and left as a consensus All-American. The football identity was clean feet, patient hands and a professional understanding of angles, all wrapped in a tall, lean tackle body that had spent four years adding weight.
The production backed it. He started every game of his last three seasons, 29 of those starts at right tackle, for offensive lines named Joe Moore Award semifinalists in consecutive years and a rushing attack that ranked among the nation's best. The flags were the ones every small-school tackle carries: a thin lower half that gave ground against power, Sun Belt competition, and a need to add functional strength before facing NFL edge setters. The Senior Bowl answered part of it; he also took reps at guard and center there.
Boards had him as a Day 3 developmental tackle with swing versatility, a projection Joe Douglas echoed on the call. The Jets took him at 111 as depth behind their young line, not as an immediate starter.
- 01
Elite efficiency in protection
Allowed just 13 pressures on 859 snaps at right tackle as a senior, the highest-graded tackle in the country by PFF.
- 02
Pass set pacing
He matched the rusher's speed off the ball instead of overcommitting, which kept his shoulders square against both the arc and the inside counter.
- 03
Hand timing
His punch landed on the rusher's chest at the top of the rush rather than early into thin air, and it consistently stopped momentum.
- 04
Movement in space
Reach blocks on outside zone and climbs to the second level looked natural; he could redirect and finish on a moving target.
- 05
Positional versatility
Took Senior Bowl reps at both tackle spots, at guard and snapping at center, which is why the Jets described him as a versatile piece.
- 01
Anchor against power
A lean lower half meant long-armed bull rushers could walk him into the pocket before he could sink and reset his base.
- 02
Play strength at the point
In short-yardage and gap runs he could stalemate but rarely displaced a defender off the line of scrimmage.
- 03
Level of competition
The dominance came in the Sun Belt, and the tape had limited reps against NFL-caliber edge setters.
- 04
Frame limitations
He had already added significant weight and there were questions about how much more mass the body could carry without losing the feet.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.32sp50
- Vertical
- 25inp50
- Broad jump
- 106inp50
- Three-cone
- 8.09sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.65sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Louisiana | 14 |
| 2019 | Louisiana | 14 |
| 2020 | Louisiana | 10 |
| 2021 | Louisiana | 13 |
| Career | — | 51 |
Participation only. cfbstats does not publish statistics for offensive linemen, so games and starts come from the official Louisiana bio and the Jets draft release, which credit 37 starts across his final three seasons; those three seasons sum exactly to 37. He rotated in all 14 games as a 2018 freshman without a verified start total, so that figure is left unset rather than recorded as zero. No blocking figures are verified, so none are estimated.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Athletic developmental tackle whose lack of anchor keeps him in a swing role rather than a starting lineup.
Technique-first right tackle in a zone scheme who turns clean feet and angles into a decade of starting.
Long, light tackle who bounces between spots as emergency depth without ever locking down a job.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Injuries pushed him onto the field immediately. He was the Jets' Week 1 starter at right tackle as a rookie in 2022, started five games, then had his season ended in December when tests revealed blood clots in his right calf and lung tied to a hereditary clotting condition. He returned healthy in 2023 for 14 games and seven starts, filling in at both tackle spots, then settled into swing duty with 10 games and two starts in 2024 and 15 games with three starts in 2025, logging just 80 snaps that final year. New York re-signed him in March 2026 as depth behind Olu Fashanu and Armand Membou, his fifth season with the team that drafted him.
The call has aged into exactly what a fourth-round tackle is supposed to be, which is neither a triumph nor a failure. He never became a starter, but the anchor questions from the evaluation proved real, and the health scare cost him the developmental runway a rookie needs. What the Jets got instead was a durable, trusted swing lineman who has answered the phone at four positions for four years, and that keeps him employed.