Dominick Puni might be the best interior offensive line prospect you don’t know about in the 2024 NFL Draft, and his scouting report proves that. Even after a strong Senior Bowl showing, there’s a sense that Puni is slept on — but he can be a very good selection for an NFL team.
Dominick Puni’s Draft Profile and Measurements
- Height: 6’4 3/8″
- Weight: 323 pounds
- Length: 33 3/4″
- Wingspan: 81 3/4″
- Hand: 10″
- Position: Offensive Lineman
- School: Kansas
- Current Year: Redshirt Senior
In 2018, Puni was a true freshman at Central Missouri who played in only seven games, starting the final three at right tackle. In 2023, he was a first-team All-Big 12 performer at left tackle for the bowl-bound Kansas Jayhawks.
Puni’s collegiate career and his 2024 NFL Draft ascent are a representation of how far prospects can rise over time and how gradual developmental arcs can be.
Many interruptions were beyond Puni’s control early on. He started all 13 games at left tackle in 2019, but Central Missouri’s 2020 campaign was canceled due to COVID-19. Then, in 2021, Puni missed all but two games due to a hip injury.
Dominick Puni is a OG prospect in the 2024 draft class. He scored a 8.16 #RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 292 out of 1583 OG from 1987 to 2024. https://t.co/GgeOSzuDIM pic.twitter.com/UspG4cmXBD
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 20, 2024
Still, Puni played well enough in the previous seasons and earned Power Five interest as a transfer in the 2022 offseason as a result. Lance Leipold’s Kansas program ended up landing his services.
Fast forward to today, and Puni is coming off a dominant season. He’s a rising 2024 NFL Draft prospect and a Senior Bowl standout, and top-100 capital is very much on the table. Puni’s athletic testing only confirmed that.
At the NFL Combine, Puni logged a 30″ vertical, an 8’11” broad jump, a 7.47-second three-cone, and a 4.4-second shuttle time near the 99th percentile among interior offensive linemen. He cut over 20 pounds for the event and didn’t run as fast as expected — but nonetheless, he logged a Relative Athletic Score (RAS) of 8.16.
Puni’s Scouting Report
Strengths
- Impressively built offensive lineman with great mass, width, and proportional length.
- Free-flowing athlete in space with easy explosiveness and smooth corrective mobility.
- With his explosiveness and length, can blast defenders off their feet as a space blocker.
- A balanced mover who can quickly recollect his base and recalibrate angles on recovery.
- Can torque through defenders to corral them off the snap and gain control early in reps.
- Has the requisite flexibility to play with controlled lean, maximizing reach on the attack.
- Excels at staying square with rushers and gathering them within his frame on pass reps.
- Can quickly re-anchor and tighten his extensions when rushers breach inside his frame.
- Has the core and grip strength to keep rushers within his frame while latched.
- Able to employ combative hands past initial extensions to gather and stymy rushes.
- Flashes impressive upper-lower synergy, maintaining a steady base and active hands.
- At tackle, can throttle up while maintaining his base to match rushers through the apex.
- Aware two-phase blocker who can pick up stunts and carry out run-game assignments.
- Has projectable versatility across all five offensive line spots and translates well inside.
- Uber-physical finisher who takes advantage of poorly leveraged pursuit defenders.
Weaknesses
- Doesn’t have exceptional knee bend and can allow rushers space to pry past his frame.
- Non-elite hip flexibility can limit the space covered on his kick against speed rushers.
- At times, drifts too far upright as a moving blocker and can better maintain base load.
- Grip strength sometimes fails when attempting to sustain blocks on redirections.
- Sometimes rolls his base too far back when absorbing power, lurching in his set.
- Opposing power turns his active feet into uncontrolled feet, necessitating more stability.
- Can get worked off-balance by persistent power rushes, sometimes bending at the waist.
- Hand precision and consistency on counters and in the recovery phase can improve.
- At times, widens his hands too far off the snap, exposing his frame to power.
- Sometimes overruns initial blocking angles in space, giving LBs lanes to crash inside.
- Lacks pre-existing experience at center and will need to tighten his snaps.
- Will be a 24-year-old rookie at the start of the 2024 season.
Current Draft Projection and Summary
Puni grades out as a top-100 prospect in the 2024 NFL Draft on my board and one of the top interior offensive line prospects in the class. He has pre-existing experience at left and right tackle but can feasibly be projected as an impact starter inside at his peak. He’s worthy of early-to-mid Day 2 capital.
Puni has the measurements to stay at tackle, but his stylistic tendencies and physical tools might project even better on the interior at either guard or center.
With his stellar functional mobility, range, physicality, and power, Puni can be weaponized in the run game as a pulling and space blocker, and he also has the angle IQ to execute front-side reach blocks.
Meanwhile, in pass protection, Puni’s lateral mobility, strength, and ability to stay square would allow him to flourish at guard or center. A move inside would also counteract slight deficiencies with hinge flexibility, knee bend, and hand counter precision.
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At the Senior Bowl, Puni even took reps at center and proved he could acquire leverage quickly off the snap and match rushers. That said, Puni will still need to tighten his snaps if he wants to stick at that position. More likely than not, guard is the best path forward for the Kansas product.
All this being said, Puni profiles as a five-position versatile lineman immediately in the NFL. He’ll have utility as a quality depth piece as a rookie, but he should also be able to function as a competent starter at guard early in his career. And with more development, he can grow to become a scheme-diverse impact starter.
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