Quote:
Originally Posted by patteeu
I don't believe you're open to having it proved to you, but anyone who watches football should know that the move from tackle to guard isn't that uncommon. Going the other way is more so. Robert Gallery and Leonard Davis are the two examples that come immediately to my mind because they were both drafted in the top 5 to be LT but ended up finding their most success at G. Wade Smith is another example. Shawn Andrews went from college tackle to NFL guard and then, at the end of his career, out to NFL LT.
I looked at the first and third rounds of drafts from 2003 to 2007 (your 10 year window minus the most recent 5 years because those careers haven't had time to develop yet). There were 4 guys drafted as tackles in the first round during that stretch who ended up playing guard (Gallery, Andrews, Vernon Carey, and Chris Williams). All of them except for Andrews started out their NFL careers as tackles and Andrews finished his as one. There were 7 guys drafted in the third round as tackles who ended up playing guard at least to some extent. One of those guys was Eric Winston so his guard play was minimal. The others, including Wade Smith, spent more significant time at guard.
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I said successfully played guard. Moving them to guard doesn't mean shit if they don't excel at it.