Alex
Forsyth.
Alex
Forsyth.
Oregon· 6'4"· 303 lb· 5.20s 40
"A 20.5-inch vertical is not a typo, it is a scouting report, and Denver drafted him anyway because he made the pre-snap calls that turned two Oregon plays into touchdowns."Pre-draft read
Forsyth wins before the snap. Six years in one program made him the most prepared center in his class: he identifies fronts, sets protections, adjusts the line and rarely gets a teammate blocked wrong. At the point of attack he is a precise hand-fighter with 10¼-inch hands who latches, controls and resets quickly rather than overwhelming anyone, and 29 bench reps say the functional strength is legitimate.
The athletic testing is genuinely alarming. A 20.5-inch vertical is the zeroth percentile for the position and a 7-11 broad jump is the second, which shows up as a slow first step on reach blocks and real trouble redirecting laterally against quick three-techniques. Speed-to-power gets him on his heels because there is no lower-body pop to anchor with.
Gap and duo-heavy run scheme that keeps him on double teams and vertical sets rather than asking him to reach defenders in space
Year 1: developmental backup; ceiling: dependable backup center and occasional spot starter
Outside zone offense that requires centers to reach playside three-techniques and climb to linebackers in space
Denver has used him exactly this way, with six starts in two seasons filling in for the starter.
He earned it slowly. Forsyth redshirted in 2017, played sparingly at guard in 2018 and 2019, then took over as Oregon's starting center in 2020 and never gave it up, starting all 28 games at the position from 2020 through 2022 across 32 career appearances.
The honors piled up at the end. Second-team All-Pac-12 in 2020 and 2021, then first-team All-Pac-12, FWAA second-team All-American and a Rimington Trophy finalist in 2022, plus a Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year finalist nod for the off-field work.
Boards were split between late Day 3 and priority free agent, and the split was entirely about athletic testing. Everyone agreed the intelligence, the hand technique and the communication were NFL quality. Nobody could explain away a 20.5-inch vertical for a position that has to move. Denver spent the 257th pick on the theory that a smart backup center who knows the whole protection scheme is worth a roster spot. Backup centers who never blow a protection call last a long time in the league.
- 01
Elite pre-snap intelligence
Identified fronts and made the protection calls that produced touchdowns, per Oregon coaches at the combine.
- 02
Precise hand placement
Latches inside, controls the defender's frame and resets quickly when he loses initial position.
- 03
Functional strength
Twenty-nine bench reps and enough anchor to hold up against bull rushes from true nose tackles.
- 04
Three years of starting experience
Twenty-eight consecutive starts at center in a Power Five conference.
- 05
Decorated final season
First-team All-Pac-12, FWAA second-team All-American and a Rimington Trophy finalist in 2022.
- 01
Zero explosion
A 20.5-inch vertical and 7-11 broad jump rank in the bottom percentiles for centers and show up on every reach block.
- 02
Limited lateral range
Struggles to redirect against quick interior rushers and loses angles on wide zone concepts.
- 03
Poor speed-to-power anchor
Gets stood up when a rusher converts speed into power because his lower body cannot reset.
- 04
No positional flexibility
He is a center only, which narrows how a team can use a backup roster spot.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.20sp50
- Vertical
- 20.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 95inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 29repp50
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Oregon | — |
| 2018 | Oregon | — |
| 2019 | Oregon | — |
| 2020 | Oregon | — |
| 2021 | Oregon | — |
| 2022 | Oregon | — |
| Career | — | 32 |
Offensive linemen have no meaningful counting statistics. Games, starts and alignments are verified against Oregon official records; no statistical lines are recorded for this position.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- FWAA Second-Team All-American (2022)
- First-Team All-Pac-12 (2022)
- Second-Team All-Pac-12 (2020, 2021)
- Rimington Trophy finalist (2022)
- Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year finalist (2022)
Backup center who starts a handful of games a year and is trusted with the protection calls.
Technique-and-toughness interior lineman who converts smarts into a multi-year starting run.
Athletic limits too severe to survive once a team wants a real swing interior lineman.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Forsyth signed a four-year rookie contract with Denver on May 12, 2023 and was inactive for his entire rookie season. He played all 17 games in 2024 with four starts at center plus one postseason appearance, and all 17 games in 2025 with two starts, adding a postseason start before missing the AFC Championship game with an ankle injury. He opened the 2026 season on the Broncos roster and appeared in Week 1 against Tennessee as the backup center, giving him 35 regular season games with six starts and two postseason games with one start.
Denver was right about the role. Forsyth signed his four-year rookie contract on May 12, 2023 and did not appear in a single game as a rookie, which is normal for a seventh-round interior lineman learning an NFL playbook.
Then he became useful. He played all 17 games in 2024 with four starts at center plus a postseason appearance, and all 17 again in 2025 with two starts and a playoff start, missing the AFC Championship game with an ankle injury. That is 35 regular season games and six starts in two years from the 257th pick, and it is exactly the outcome the pre-draft profile pointed at: a backup center who can go in and not get anybody hurt because he knows the calls.
He opened 2026 on the roster and played Week 1 against Tennessee as the backup center, still on his original rookie deal. Four years, one team, a real job. The vertical jump never got better and it never had to. Denver never needed it to, because the job was always about the calls, not the jumps.