Ryan
Hayes.
Ryan
Hayes.
Michigan· 6'6"· 298 lb· 5.18s 40
"A two-time Joe Moore Award left tackle whose arms were shorter than his resume, Hayes reached the NFL needing a position change nobody had ever asked him to make."Pre-draft read
Hayes plays left tackle like the tight end he used to be: light out of the stance, quick to his landmark, most comfortable when the block is a moving target rather than a stationary wall. In Michigan's gap and duo run game he was dependable on down blocks and combinations, and he finished with an edge once his hands got inside.
Pass protection is where the projection got complicated. He sets with width and patience, but his 32-and-a-half-inch arms are shorter than the position prefers, so rushers reach his chest before his hands arrive. He absorbs bull rush by leaning instead of sinking, and speed-to-power walks him backward more often than a starting tackle can survive.
Wide-zone or outside-zone run game that asks a tackle to reach, climb and cut off rather than win with length in a static set
Year 1: developmental practice-squad tackle learning guard; ceiling: swing interior/tackle backup on a zone team
Drop-back, seven-step passing offense that leaves him isolated against long NFL edge rushers
The guard move was the whole plan and no team ever fully committed to it.
Michigan recruited Hayes as a tight end and turned him into the left tackle on two Joe Moore Award offensive lines. That is the headline of the evaluation and also its trap. The movement skill is real: he climbs, he reaches, he gets to second-level landmarks that heavier tackles never reach, and he was a starter on Big Ten championship teams in 2021 and 2022 that ran the ball with intent.
The problem was never effort or intelligence. It was the measurement. Thirty-two and a half inches of arm on a 6-6, 298-pound frame is a losing hand against NFL edge length, and it showed the same way every week: he was late to the strike, the rusher got his hands in first, and Hayes spent the rest of the rep recovering rather than dictating. Against Big Ten power he could survive on technique. Against pro bull rushers, leaning is not an anchor.
So the pre-draft conversation turned into a position conversation. Move him inside, where the arms matter less and the quickness plays in tight quarters, and you might have a swing interior lineman. But he had never taken a college snap at guard, and asking a seventh-round pick to learn a new job while fighting for a roster spot is a bet teams rarely win. He went 238th overall to Miami as a developmental body with a resume better than his tools.
- 01
Run-game finisher
Stubborn on down blocks and combinations, and he keeps his feet moving after contact until the defender is displaced out of the gap.
- 02
Landmark quickness
Gets to his aiming point in a hurry off the snap, a leftover from his tight end days that made him useful on reach and climb blocks.
- 03
Big-program pedigree
Roughly 30 starts at left tackle for two Joe Moore Award offensive lines and back-to-back Big Ten champions in 2021 and 2022.
- 04
Hand placement inside
When he wins the first strike he lands square and inside the frame, and rushers rarely dislodge him once he is fitted up.
- 05
Change-of-direction testing
A 7.39 three-cone and 4.68 shuttle at the Combine were tackle-adequate and back up the movement skill the tape shows.
- 01
Short arms for the edge
At 32 and a half inches he lets rushers into his chest first, and NFL length beats him to the punch far too often on the perimeter.
- 02
Anchor versus power
He leans into bull rush instead of sinking his hips, so speed-to-power collapses his set point straight back into the pocket.
- 03
Play-strength ceiling
At 298 pounds he does not carry the functional mass to hold up against professional power without a real weight-room jump.
- 04
Positional homelessness
Too short-armed to stay outside and never a snap at guard in college, so the interior projection was purely theoretical.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.18sp50
- Vertical
- 30inp50
- Broad jump
- 103inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.39sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.68sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2019-22 | Michigan | 40 |
| Career | — | 40 |
Games and starts per Michigan and Miami Dolphins official bios; per-season splits for linemen are not published by cfbstats.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- Two-time All-Big Ten (2021, 2022)
- Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line (2021, 2022)
- Big Ten champion (2021, 2022)
- College Football Playoff participant (2021, 2022)
Big-program tackle who lives on practice squads and waiver claims without ever locking down a role.
The dream outcome for a technique-first tackle who out-plays his measurables for a decade.
Athletic Day 3 tackle who bounced between squads and never carved out a game-day job.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Waived by Miami before his rookie opener and claimed by Indianapolis, Hayes spent 2023 bouncing between the Colts active roster and the Dolphins practice squad. He was elevated once in 2024 for four special-teams snaps, his only NFL regular-season action. Atlanta signed him to its practice squad in 2025; Tennessee signed him in February 2026 and waived him in July, Carolina claimed him, placed him on injured reserve in September 2026 and released him via injury settlement days later.
There is a version of Ryan Hayes who sticks. It required a team to commit to the guard move in year one, redshirt him honestly, and add fifteen pounds of functional weight before asking him to block anybody who mattered. Nobody did that. Miami waived him in August of his rookie summer, Indianapolis claimed him, kept him two weeks, and he was back on the Dolphins practice squad by late September. That became the pattern.
He got one real NFL moment: a 2024 elevation in Miami that produced four special-teams snaps and a single line in a game log. After that came Atlanta's practice squad in 2025, a Tennessee contract in February 2026, waivers in July, a Carolina claim the same week, injured reserve by September and an injury settlement two days later. He is a free agent as this is written, and the honest reading is that the arms decided it. The player Michigan built was excellent at what Michigan needed. The NFL asked a different question.