Jaelyn
Duncan.
Jaelyn
Duncan.
Maryland· 5.10s 40
"The feet were always NFL-caliber and the anchor never was — Duncan got drafted on a kick-slide that looked like a first-rounder's and left the league on a bull rush he could never sit down against."Pre-draft read
Four-year starting left tackle in Maryland's spread passing offense, aligned almost exclusively on the left edge with a few emergency interior snaps as a sophomore. His calling card is pass-set movement: a long, loose-hipped 6-6 frame that kick-slides with genuine ease, mirrors speed to the arc without panicking, and recovers late because his feet never stop.
The run game is the flatter half of the profile. He can reach and wall off a defender in wide-zone but rarely displaces anyone, and his hands land wide and late often enough that power rushers walk him backward into the pocket. The traits are the story: a projectable frame, real length and the kind of movement skill that makes coaches bet technique and weight-room work will catch up.
Outside-zone / play-action passing offense that asks its left tackle to move and mirror rather than displace
Year 1: developmental swing tackle and third-tackle jumbo package, taking spot starts when the line gets thin. Ceiling: a low-end starting left tackle in a movement-based scheme where his kick-slide is the priority and help is available against power.
A gap-and-power run scheme that asks the left tackle to down-block a 3-technique and drive him off the ball, or a max-protect offense that leaves him one-on-one with long-armed bull rushers and no chip help.
He is a left tackle or nothing; the frame and the tape both say the right side and the interior were never the plan.
Jaelyn Duncan Left Tackle Highlights
Maryland left tackle reel showing the kick-slide, length and range that made him a Day 3 developmental bet.
OT Jaelyn Duncan Senior Bowl Highlights
Senior Bowl practice work in Mobile against draftable edge rushers, the best pre-draft look at his anchor.
Grading Titans LT Jaelyn Duncan's First NFL Start: Film Breakdown
All-22 review of his first career NFL start at left tackle for Tennessee against Carolina in November 2023.
A five-year Terrapin who redshirted in 2018 and then started 39 games across four seasons, Duncan is a pure left tackle by trade and by build. He is the tall, long, comfortably athletic protector that every offense wants on the blind side, and when he sets on time and stays square he handles Big Ten speed rushers with obvious ease.
The context helps explain the appeal. He protected Taulia Tagovailoa through Maryland's record-setting passing years, blocking for an air attack that ranked second in the Big Ten in 2020 and third in 2022, and he was named Honorable Mention All-Big Ten in three straight seasons. He was never more than that, though, and the tape says why: the anchor gives, the hands are inconsistent, and long-armed bull rushers get into his chest before he can reset. Snap-to-snap steadiness, not talent, is the flag.
Boards treated him as a developmental left tackle rather than a plug-and-play starter. He was invited to the Senior Bowl and the Combine, ran 5.10 in the forty at roughly 306 pounds, and the consensus landed him in the Day 3 tackle pile — a bet on frame and feet. Tennessee took him at 186 in the sixth round, a low-cost swing at a tackle body they could rebuild without pressure.
- 01
Pass-set fluidity
Kick-slides with rare ease for a 6-6 frame, mirrors edge speed to the arc without lunging, and stays balanced deep into long-developing dropbacks.
- 02
Length and frame
Naturally big-armed, thick-boned tackle build that lets him keep rushers off his frame and reset when the initial punch misses its target.
- 03
Blindside experience
Started 39 games in a Power Five league, nearly all of them at left tackle, protecting a passing attack that broke Maryland program records.
- 04
Recovery athlete
When beaten around the corner he can flip his hips and run the rusher past the pocket, turning would-be sacks into throwaway pressures.
- 05
Zone movement
Comfortable working to the second level and executing reach blocks in wide-zone, where his feet and range matter more than raw displacement power.
- 01
Anchor gives
Functional play strength lags the frame; bull rushers get under his pads and walk him into the quarterback's lap before he can sink and reset.
- 02
Hand placement
Punches land wide and late too often, letting defenders into his chest and turning otherwise winnable reps into extended, grabby recoveries.
- 03
Snap-to-snap swings
Three straight Honorable Mention All-Big Ten seasons rather than a jump to first team, because the clean reps never became the standard.
- 04
Limited displacement
Rarely moves defenders off the spot in the run game; he screens and walls off more than he drives, which caps him in a gap-heavy scheme.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.10sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
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- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Maryland | 1 |
| 2019 | Maryland | 12 |
| 2020 | Maryland | 5 |
| 2021 | Maryland | 13 |
| 2022 | Maryland | 12 |
| Career | — | 43 |
Offensive linemen have no box-score production, so games and starts are the record. Season figures come from Duncan's official Maryland/NFL draft bio, whose 11 + 5 + 11 + 12 starts across 2019-2022 sum exactly to the published career total of 39 starts. Games sum to 43 including the 2018 redshirt appearance; Tankathon's table lists 42 career games because it credits 12 rather than 13 games in 2021, so that one-game discrepancy is disclosed rather than smoothed over. cfbstats.com confirms his roster listing and class year for 2020-2022 (No. 71, OL, 6-6) but publishes no statistical line for offensive linemen.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- 3x Honorable Mention All-Big Ten (2020, 2021, 2022)
- 2023 Reese's Senior Bowl invitee
- 2023 NFL Combine invitee
- 2022 Athlon and Lindy's Second Team Preseason All-Big Ten
- 2022 Pro Football Focus Third Team Preseason All-Big Ten
- 39 career starts at Maryland, nearly all at left tackle
Toolsy tackle who fills in for stretches, gets exposed against power, and bounces around as a swing body.
The version where the pass-set fluidity carries a full-time left tackle job and the strength catches up in an NFL program.
A frame-and-length tackle whose career becomes spot starts and roster churn rather than a settled job.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Sixth-round left tackle who won five starts as a rookie, lost 2024 to a hamstring injury, was waived by Tennessee in August 2025 and resurfaced with the DC Defenders of the UFL in 2026.
Tennessee kept him as a developmental swing tackle and got there faster than planned. As a rookie in 2023 he appeared in 10 games and made five starts, taking over at left tackle in late November and playing all 53 offensive snaps in a 17-10 win over Carolina in his first career start — a debut that drew solid reviews around the building. The 2024 season went the other way: five games and three starts before a hamstring injury in Week 6 against Buffalo put him on injured reserve, and although he was designated for return in early December and activated on December 23, the year was effectively gone. Tennessee waived him on August 26, 2025 during roster cutdowns, and no source consulted shows him playing an NFL regular-season snap after that. He resurfaced in 2026 with the DC Defenders of the UFL.
Fifteen games and eight NFL starts from pick 186 is not a failure — sixth-round tackles usually give you nothing. But it is also the exact outcome the tape warned about. The feet were always real and the anchor never caught up, and once the injury cost him a development year, a team rebuilding its offensive line had no reason to keep waiting. The lesson is old and unglamorous: length and kick-slide get a tackle drafted, but play strength is what keeps him on the field.
Data note: Verified Sept 2026: official Maryland/Titans draft bio for year-by-year games and starts (39 career starts), cfbstats.com roster pages 2020-2022 for class and listing, Tankathon for the 2018 appearance and 5.10 forty, StatMuse for NFL games/starts, Titans releases for the 2024 IR timeline, and Wikipedia/Ourlads for the 2026 DC Defenders listing. No verified bench, vertical, broad, shuttle, 3-cone or arm-length result was found, and no Zierlein or Brugler text was retrievable, so none was written.