This is another player that is extremely underrated. If you ask me right now I think Lane Johnson is in a battle with Luke Joeckel for top overall tackle in the Draft, the loser of that battle himself being in a battle with Eric Fisher for next best, as all three tackles are very good. Put a gun to my head and I'm taking Lane Johnson. However the next tier of tackles is just as intriguing. We've spoken about Menelik Watson of Florida State. Tough as nails, seems like he's got all the potential in the world. We'll get to Arkansas Pine-Bluff's Terron Armstead later. He had a fantastic Shrine week and followed up with a fantastic Senior Bowl. But the other guy in that tier would be Xavier Nixon of Florida and I don't see how he could not be worth a 2nd round pick as a LEFT tackle. He measured 6054 and 311 lbs at the Senior Bowl, with ~34 inch arms and 10.5 inch hands. Weight has been an issue for him in his career as he needed to put a lot on in a relatively short period of time and struggled with making the weight "good" weight. That's how on tape his body comes out looking a little on the soft side. But this is a work in progress. Not everyone is a freak of nature like Lane Johnson and can do this overnight. But here's what I noticed about Xavier Nixon: -At the Senior Bowl practices when he was at tackle (right OR left) before he hurt his wrist, he won. -When he played Texas A&M and Damontre Moore, he won. Unquestionably, undeniably. -When he played Georgia and Jarvis Jones, he won all but if I remember correctly two or three battles. -When he played LSU and Sam Montgomery, he DOMINATED him. Only lost one pass pro battle all game, to Lavar Edwards. He didn't face Mingo. -Best of all, he faced Cornellius Carridine of FSU, and overall? I thought he WON. The only player I've seen give him a little bit of trouble from a strength standpoint is Sam Montgomery, and explosive strength is one thing I won't deny that Sam has going for him. Not even Cornellius Carridine could threaten Nixon with explosive strength the way Montgomery was able to. Even so, Sam couldn't leverage that strength into wins. Meanwhile the only players I saw give Nixon a little bit of trouble speed/quickness-wise were Jarvis Jones and Tank Carridine. Jones definitely "got" him on I believe two pass plays (I don't think either resulted in a sack). Carridine definitely nailed the QB right after he threw the ball on a 7 step drop because he got around Nixon. Damontre Moore gave him zero trouble. Malliciah Goodman in Senior Bowl practices gave him no trouble either. Nor did Ezekiel Ansah. When he re-matched Lavar Edwards in the Senior Bowl practices, he did not lose again. I don't recall him ever having to face Cornelius Washington in practices. The big matchup I wanted to see was him against Bjoern Werner and Cornellius Carridine, of course. I consider them to be the cream of this year's pass rush crop. Clearly right away with Carridine you could tell that Nixon was going to have his hands full on the day. The way Carridine is able to draw a tackle into a hand battle and then make a quick explosive move to the outside and get the outside shoulder, is a skill unique to Carridine in this entire Draft, IMO. Nobody else does it as well as he does, if they even do it at all (Werner and Okafor can, and I believe Lemonier). But on a 7 step drop, Nixon forced Carridine just wide enough that Driskel could get the ball off in normal rhythm with Carridine bearing down on him, rather than having to rush the throw or getting sacked. He took a hit for it, though. On another play, Carridine jumped Nixon's inside shoulder and Nixon was forced to bear hug him to try and sweep him to the right of Driskel, was called for holding (sometimes that's called, sometimes it's not). None of it mattered as Bjoern Werner beat the pants off Chaz Green on the play and sacked Driskel. On a third play, Carridine forced the outside shoulder just enough to get Nixon's pads to go perpendicular, then cut back to the inside. Yet, what's interesting about Nixon is Damontre Moore did this to him too and it had the same result. Nixon recovered and knocked Carridine to the turf short of the quarterback, just as he had done with Damontre. On another play, Driskel didn't like the coverage and pulled down the ball and ran up into the pocket where Carridine could re-trace and get him for a sack. You can't fault Nixon for that, but you can credit Carridine for the quickness he showed on the play. Otherwise? Nixon was winning the pass pro match-ups by a good margin with Carridine. And he wasn't getting ANY help, either. Oh the Gators were scheming to try and take Carridine and Werner out of their game. They did some moving pocket stuff, some roll outs, etc. But I never saw Florida assign a back or a tight end to chip on Carridine because they thought him too much for Nixon to handle. And he wasn't. Nixon did really well on Carridine in run blocking as well. Unfortunately, it was Nixon blocking Carridine at the end of the game with Florida just trying to run out the clock, when Carridine blew his ACL. But, it wasn't a cut block or anything like that. He's a natural knee bender with a big ole bubble butt and good thickness in his lower half. He keeps his hands inside his frame and that prevents him getting any holding penalties. He does get a little undisciplined with his hands going high which could draw hands to the face penalties, every now and then. However when he punches you, you get rocked backward. When he barrels into you, you move. When he gets his hands on you, you generally are done. With all the tape I've seen of him, I can't even envision in my head the kinds of players that beat him, the kinds of pass rush techniques that leave him vulnerable, etc. There aren't any, or at least there haven't been this year that I've seen. Jarvis Jones got him on an inside move. When Lavar Edwards beat him, he was undisciplined and turned his inside foot parallel to the line of scrimmage, giving Edwards a two-way go. He's probably not the best cut blocker there is out there. He can hit combination blocks, second level blocks, he can pull and spring key blocks for touchdowns (did so against LSU, and did so beautifully against Florida). He moves very well at his size. He gets a bad rep because Jeff Driskel liked to leave the pocket and sometimes Nixon would stay disciplined with his angles protecting the pocket instead of aggressively trying to bury players so that they can't make a motor play on the quarterback no matter where Driskel goes. But then, yeah he DID also focus on burying guys, and he showed some downright nasty attitude at times. He put Sam Montgomery into the turf several times. Halfway through the game Sam was whining to the refs about Nixon like a little girl talking about hands to the face (borderline). Watching Nixon reminds me so much of watching Jeff Otah back at Pitt. Jeff Otah was a damn GOOD player in the NFL that was defeated by his own demons as far as his character and work ethic went. Xavier Nixon could be the same way if he doesn't continue working hard on his body. But let's not kid ourselves, his problem is not being too fat or too heavy. His problem has been gaining weight, keeping it on, and having it be good weight...and it's a pretty marginal problem the more I look at it. People are going to make too big a deal of it (I'm looking at you, DJ). If I'm forcing myself to criticize, I think he needs better discipline. Sometime he drops his hands on a play. Sometimes he stops his feet before the whistle. Like I said, Sam Montgomery's combination of explosive strength (not pure strength mind you, Nixon matched strength for strength easily with defensive tackles regularly) did actually give Nixon some fits at times. Not fits as in he loses on the play, nothing to where Mongtomery was able to make plays by beating Nixon. But you can just pay attention to the body language and Montgomery's explosive strength gave him trouble. I hadn't seen anyone else manage that against Nixon. And of course, Jarvis Jones' linebacker quickness gave him trouble a few times, as did Carrdine's quickness. Bottom line? Only in this Draft when you have a Luke Joeckel, an Eric Fisher and a Lane Johnson, does an Xavier Nixon get overlooked. Only in this Draft with those guys at the top does a Menelik Watson get overlooked. You could maybe say the same about Terron Armstead. If the Dolphins refuse to pay Jake Long, they have options for replacing him and it doesn't have to be at #12 overall, IMO. VIDEOS The first and only one I'll suggest is the Texas A&M game. Every offensive play is capped, and I'd watch the whole thing. You'll get a feel for him. If you want to watch other games, the Florida-LSU, Florida-FSU and Florida-Georgia games are uploaded in their entirety to YouTube. You can search to find them. [video=youtube;MzDuiWIBiRw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzDuiWIBiRw[/video]
Of course the one game I left out...South Carolina. Jadaveon Clowney. Have no idea how he did against him. Clowney had 5 tackles, 1 Stuff, 1 Sack and 0 Hurries in the game. That could mean anything. But I'll tell you what. Xavier Nixon is the most goddamn experienced tackle in this class. You want to talk about having gone to the school of hard knocks? He faced Damontre Moore, Jarvis Jones, Cornelius Washington, Cornellius Carridine, Sam Montgomery and Jadeveon Clowney. All in one season. EDIT: Finished the game. On 3rd & 6 with 2:33 left in the 1st quarter, Clowney unleashes a monster inside move with quick hands to neutralize Nixon's hands, barrels straight for Driskel and hits him. Unfortunately for Clowney, Driskel actually stayed up through the hit and so the sack went to to some of Clowney's teammates. But what a play nonetheless. From then on you get the distinct feeling the Gators know that they need to give Nixon help on Clowney. Nixon blocked down a lot even in pass pro, and Florida had either backs and tight ends helping on Clowney or they trusted Driskel to beat him in the backfield in move situations. On all other pass pro snaps, Nixon won against Clowney. There were a few kinks on a few plays in run blocking, one that resulted in a Stuff. Overall came away even more impressed with Nixon. I'm not going to make any claims that Nixon "won" this matchup because Clowney is ridiculous, and if Nixon were put on an island all game with him in a lot of passing situations then Clowney would've gotten more sacks. However it is important to note that on the plays where they did match up one on one in pass pro, we're talking 3rd down plays where Clowney is basically pinning his hears back, Nixon did win all but one of those. There were probably only 8 or 10 of those instances all told, because Florida did a good job avoiding unfavorable down & distance situations, and they also did some things schematically to keep Nixon from being out on an island against Clowney, but on those 8 to 10 instances, Nixon did generally win them, with only 1 exception. Here's the final blood tax from the Xavier Nixon-Jadaveon Clowney matchup. -1 QB Hit at 2:33 left in the 1st quarter -1 Stuff
I've discussed him on Twitter. The only person standing in the way of Xavier Nixon is himself. Has physical talent but he can be a train wreck fundamentally.
Interesting prospect- a little beefy but a good combo of strength and agility, looks to have very good feet, smooth kick slide. Wiling blocker on the second level and is kind of feisty (see 0:25), plays with some aggression/attitude. Good lean, too, can really use that weight on DL to bend them to his will. He has the kind of feet that I'd hope Menelik Watson has- I can't tell, not enough tape. But I doubt it, he doesn't look as nimble. He looks like a very good athlete that maybe at first you discount because the first thing you see is that layer of blubber- maybe nicer to say baby fat. John Kruk syndrome. Also, it might be a waste of some good feet, but I could see Nixon as being a heck of a Guard. That sack at 2:55 or so- Moore gets there, but what a hand punch by Nixon to stop him cold. He didn't really finish the play well there, but overall Nixon looks pretty darned efficient. Surprising feet and nimbleness for a big, heavy dude. Can plow through DE's, stop them cold with a powerful hand punch or take them for a ride on an outside rush. Very intriguing combo of nimbleness and power. I think that a team could do pretty well with Nixon at LT and Watson at RT. If J Long bolts I'd be fine with that perfecta, only problem is what to do with Martin, maybe Guard, I don't know. Not sure what to make of Martin. Btw you're right, Nixon sure gave Damontre Moore fits. ps every time I see Sean Porter play I like him- fantastic 4/3 OLB prospect imo. Heck of a pass rusher, great in coverag imo and can play the run well. Love this guy. The draft seems awfully weak in the top 15 or so, but players like Nixon, Porter, Watson, quite a few WR and DEs- including Ansah- make it very interesting. I'm more interested in rds 2-3 than rd 1 because of this and our multiple picks.
Emphasis on "can be", as in "not often". On an every down basis he bends naturally at the knees, keeps an ideal back, keeps his hands inside his frame, punches and times those punches well, and he keeps his feet moving through contact. I don't think there's anything wrong with his kick slide on a down for down basis. Every now and then he runs into the same problems that pretty much every single offensive tackle in the Draft will run into at times. He'll turn perpendicular to the line of scrimmage and give the player a two-way go, or he'll drop his hands before the whistle which can aid in giving players second chance opportunities. Sometimes his punches dare dangerously close to the facemask and it's probably not a coincidence that on the play he got hurt in Senior Bowl practice, he poked Malliciah Goodman in the eye and that may be how he hurt his wrist. If he's not careful he'll get hands to the face penalties at the next level. I think "train wreck" is too strong a word for those particular foibles. Just my opinion.
Misses punches, overextends, sloppy footwork, tall pad level all things that he tends to do. I'm OK with the term train wreck based off of what I've seen.
Ive been seeing Nixon as a 3rd and 4th round prospect everywhere. You think he's a steal in the bottom 3rd eh?
Tall pad level is something I've rarely seen in the 5 games I've done of his against Sam Montgomery, Jarvis Jones, Cornelius Washington, Jadaveon Clowney, Damontre Moore and Cornellius Carridine. I would say the same with overextension. I'm sure those instances are out there, but they're at a minimum, IMO. Missed punches and off footwork are often a function of the level of skill of the player you're trying to block, and no tackle in the NCAA faced tougher competition this season than Xavier Nixon. Some of those things are to be expected.
