After a dominant 2022 campaign at Michigan, C prospect Olusegun Oluwatimi is looking to leverage his 2023 NFL Draft scouting report into a top 100 selection. He has the proven ability, but does he have the athletic and physical tools worth taking that high? Let’s find out.
Olusegun Oluwatimi NFL Draft Profile
- Position: Center
- School: Michigan
- Current Year: Redshirt Senior
- Height/Weight: 6’3″, 307 pounds
No college football player earned more Team of the Week spots from Pro Football Network than Oluwatimi. Almost every other week, it seemed as though Oluwatimi anchored the TOTW offensive line, with standout performance after standout performance as a Michigan Wolverine.
Most everyone expected Oluwatimi to be a stud at Michigan. It’s what he was at Virginia, for several years before transferring to the Big Ten. Oluwatimi initially enrolled with the Air Force Academy out of high school in 2017. But he soon made the switch to Virginia, sitting out the 2018 season due to transfer rules.
As soon as Oluwatimi arrived on the Cavaliers’ campus, he became a staple on the interior of the line. From 2019 to 2021, he started 35 of 36 games played, earning recognition as a Rimington Award finalist in 2021.
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In 2022, Oluwatimi came to Michigan with lofty expectations, and he somehow exceeded them. He was a primary force in earning the unit’s second consecutive Joe Moore Award. And for his dominant play week in and week out, he finally won the Rimington — given to the best center in college football. Oluwatimi also won the Outland, given to the best interior lineman on either side of the ball.
It’s safe to say Oluwatimi made the most of his college career, both at Virginia and Michigan. But after his career season with the Wolverines, what does his 2023 NFL Draft stock look like?
Olusegun Oluwatimi Scouting Report
Strengths
- Sports a wide, dense, and compact frame with great natural leverage.
- Assignment-sound blocker who has great awareness of attack angles.
- Utilizes great functional power, slabbing opponents with heavy hands and torque.
- Has the grip strength to latch and maintain his anchor amidst stress.
- Active and alert as a help blocker, and can easily gather defenders stunting across-face.
- Has enough mobility to pull in space and seal off defenders with his hip flexibility.
- Flashes good balance and a strong center of gravity when recovering in tight spaces.
- Possesses amped-up hand capacity and can violently extend and latch.
- Has shown to gather rushers with successive extensions and keep his hands tight.
- Consistent finisher who capitalizes on imbalanced defenders, driving them into the turf.
Areas for Improvement
- Non-elite athlete who lacks overwhelming explosiveness and recovery capacity.
- With average length, raw power and displacement capacity aren’t quite elite.
- Despite natural leverage, high-cut frame does prevent proper loading in base at times.
- Plays tall in space and as a help blocker, and isn’t always able to acquire leverage.
- Occasionally goes too wide with his hands, opening his torso to opposing power.
- Can seek more consistent synergy between hands and feet as a pass blocker.
- Crosses his feet at times in recovery, which can make his base unstable.
- With high-cut frame, isn’t as quick to conduct high-difficulty angle adjustments.
Michigan C Olusegun Oluwatimi Current Draft Projection
On my board, Oluwatimi grades out as an early-to-mid Day 3 prospect, but a strong showing against premier competition at the Senior Bowl could vault him up, potentially into the tail end of the top 100.
Oluwatimi’s tape is ultimately a tale of potential versus proven utility. He has a great deal of the latter, but his maximum ceiling may be a bit lower than other center prospects like Joe Tippmann and Luke Wypler.
Oluwatimi is a smart, assignment-sound blocker with good strength, power, density, and hand usage. He’s also mobile enough and efficient enough with his angles to be utilized in space.
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But Oluwatimi also lacks elite traits to build around. He’s an above-average athlete at best, who lacks elite knock-back power, and at times struggles to fully load his base with his high-cut frame.
As long as Oluwatimi continues to iron out inconsistencies with his footwork and hands, he can develop into an above-average starter at the NFL level, with some versatility between gap and zone schemes. And he has the experience and necessary utility to provide quality depth in the immediate timeline.
At the right point outside the top 100, Oluwatimi could be a tremendous value addition, but his lower ceiling does detract from his stock, even in spite of his proven production.