It’s not arduous to overlook Jaelyn Duncan.
Although he’s soft-spoken, Maryland’s senior left deal with stands at an intimidating 6 ft 6 and weighs 320 kilos. Still, Duncan’s dimension is only one element. He additionally has a singular mixture of pace and athleticism that has made him an appropriate opponent for defenders flying off the sting.
“He’s a [320]-pound guy that moves like a 220-pound guy,” Terps coach Mike Locksley stated.
Duncan, a Baltimore Sun first-team All-Metro choice as a senior at St. Frances in 2017, has developed into the most effective offensive linemen within the Big Ten Conference since arriving in College Park in 2018. Now in his senior season, the New Carrollton native is taken into account a possible first-round NFL draft choose and an important piece to an offensive line that returned all 5 starters from final 12 months’s bowl staff.
“From the time I got here, Jaelyn has gotten incrementally better,” Locksley stated of the two-time All-Big Ten honorable point out choice who in May was ranked the fifth-best offensive deal with within the 2023 NFL draft class by ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. “There’s no doubt that he is one of the top tackles in the country.”
Duncan didn’t get any enjoying time as a freshman however was thrown into the fireplace in 2019, beginning in 11 of 12 video games. He stated he didn’t imagine in himself, noting that his timing and approach wanted work. It confirmed; Duncan allowed seven sacks and eight quarterback hits that season, in keeping with Pro Football Focus.
“From not playing to starting in every game, there was a lot of pressure on me,” stated Duncan, a former four-star recruit. “I didn’t have the season I was supposed to have. It was actually pretty bad.”
However, Duncan used his redshirt freshman season as a studying instrument that allowed him to develop — slowly however certainly — into one in all Maryland’s most efficient offensive gamers.
Duncan, who will make his twenty ninth begin Saturday afternoon in opposition to Charlotte, has allowed solely 5 sacks up to now two seasons, in keeping with Pro Football Focus. Last season, he allowed 4 sacks and two quarterback hits whereas he and the remainder of the offensive line helped quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa put collectively a record-breaking season.
Duncan’s potential was on show throughout final 12 months’s loss to Michigan when he held his personal in opposition to Wolverines’ star edge rushers Aidan Hutchinson — who was drafted second total by the Detroit Lions within the 2022 NFL draft — and David Ojabo, a second-round choice by the Ravens.
Duncan has impressed his teammates and coaches together with his foot pace, physique management, stability and talent to alter course. “As they say, ‘quick feet, don’t eat,’” Duncan stated.
Tagovailoa stated Duncan is “special,” whereas senior defensive lineman Ami Finau described his teammate as “stout and fundamentally sound.”
“I would venture to say there are very few tackles throughout the country that have the athleticism he has,” Locksley stated.
Senior offensive lineman Spencer Anderson, who considers himself the chief of the unit, stated Duncan is quiet however somebody youthful gamers go to for steering.
“Everybody looks to him for certain techniques,” Anderson stated.
Offensive coordinator Dan Enos stated Duncan resembles former Kansas City Chiefs offensive deal with and No. 1 choose Eric Fisher, whom Enos coached at Central Michigan. Enos stated Duncan’s dimension, athleticism and energy mirror Fisher, a two-time Pro Bowl choice and Super Bowl champion.
“I’ve been here a year, but the growth of Jaelyn has been phenomenal,” Enos stated. “He can be as good as he wants to be.”
In subsequent 12 months’s NFL draft, Duncan is more likely to be Maryland’s first offensive lineman drafted since Bruce Campbell in 2010. In a latest ESPN mock draft, analyst Jason Reid has the Las Vegas Raiders drafting Duncan with the sixteenth total choose, which might make him the primary Terp to be drafted inside the highest 20 since huge receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, who was chosen seventh total in 2009.
Duncan is totally conscious of the draft hype. But he’s taking issues one step at a time.
“I don’t want to get caught up in it and get lazy, thinking I’m already there when I’m not yet,” he stated. “I’m just looking forward to working and putting what I can to do on film this year.”
MARYLAND@CHARLOTTE
Saturday, 3:30 p.m.
Stream: Stadium
Radio: 105.7 FM
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Source: www.bostonherald.com