6’5″ and 320 pounds, powerful and athletic, Wanya Morris may have the credentials to be one of the top offensive tackles in the 2022 NFL Draft. Furthermore, the opportunity to spend a season working with the nation’s top offensive line coach following his transfer to Oklahoma should only enhance the former Tennessee OT’s stock. While his size and athletic profile are alluring, our scouting report reveals Morris has some development to go through before he can ascend the upper reaches of the 2022 NFL Draft class.
Wanya Morris NFL Draft Profile
- Position: Offensive Tackle
- School: Oklahoma
- Current Year: Junior
- Height: 6’5″
- Weight: 320 pounds
Wanya Morris Scouting Report
What does Morris’ scouting report tell us about the new Oklahoma OT’s ability to ascend in this 2022 NFL Draft class?
Looks might not be everything. Hell, they don’t mean anything at all if you can’t play. But Morris looks every inch the NFL offensive lineman. At 6’5″ and 320 pounds, he has the requisite size to play the position at the next level. Furthermore, he has a muscular build that gives him an imposing physical profile. There’s no bad weight on the former Tennessee product.
In addition to his size, Morris also has excellent length, allowing him to be proficient in pass protection.
Morris’ muscular build manifests itself in impressive play strength. In the run game, he can comfortably move people back downfield or laterally to open running lanes. He can put a man in the dirt, evidenced by his high school pancake statistics. In pass protection, his strength enables him to stun with his initial punch.
Additionally, there are multiple examples of him using his lower body strength to demonstrate a solid anchor. Finally, the Oklahoma OT’s strength allows him to have a vice-like grip, which defenders find challenging to disengage from.
Morris has been praised for his athletic ability, and it’s easy to see why. When allowed to get out to the second level, he does so with speed, fluidity, and quickness. The Oklahoma OT possesses impressive footwork at times. One particularly impressive rep in pass protection where he used a little hop-back technique to reset and anchor caught my eye.
Areas for improvement
Although Morris has an impressive athletic profile and possesses excellent offensive line tools, he’s far from a complete prospect. Now, I understand that “complete prospect” is a misnomer because there are few players who are ready to suit up and dominate in the NFL immediately. However, there are players in the 2022 NFL Draft class who are closer than Morris is right now.
Consistency and refinement are the keys to his chances of elevating his draft stock. There are plenty of things that he does well, but he needs to ensure that he is consistently doing them. A perfect example of this is against Georgia last year. Morris did an excellent job of containing future NFL Draft selection Azeez Ojulari in large swathes of the game but was dominated at other times.
One of the most significant areas Morris will need to work on is maintaining his balance throughout the play. I hope the Oklahoma turf is soft because Morris spent much of the film studied on his backside. Hopefully, with refinement to his hand placement, upper body positioning, and footwork, he should be able to eradicate these instances from his game.
Wanya Morris Player Profile
Morris is no stranger to ascending to the upper echelons of whichever level of football he is currently involved in. At the time of his commitment to Tennessee, before his senior season at Grayson High School, he was a four-star prospect who held offers from most of the major college football programs. Heavily recruited, the Georgia native had already pledged his allegiance to Florida State in April 2017 before rescinding his commitment in the interests of finding a school that could develop him both on and off the field.
“It came down to who is going to look after me after football,” Morris said at the time of his commitment to Tennessee. “I think Coach Pruitt is going to look out for me.”
Physically, Morris had already developed into a freak athlete at the high school level. The offensive tackle was a muscular, imposing kid who wouldn’t have looked out of place on the NFL field even at that tender age. During his senior season for Grayson, he put on a master class of offensive line play. As he helped lead Grayson to a 10-3 record and over 200 rushing yards per game, Morris registered 73 pancake blocks. His performances earned a multitude of awards, culminating in first-team All-American honors from MaxPreps.
Having entered the season as a four-star prospect, Morris’ play helped elevate his recruiting status to the elite five-star category.
Wanya Morris’ career at Tennessee
Even five-star prospects aren’t guaranteed to make an immediate impact at the college level. The increased speed and physical demands of college football compared to high school require a period of adjustment. However, Morris stepped on the field as the starting left tackle for Tennessee, becoming the first true-freshman offensive lineman to start a season opener for the Vols since 2017.
Morris started 12 of 13 games for Tennessee in 2019. Additionally, he showed versatility while lining up at both ends of the line against South Carolina. Despite adjusting to three different quarterbacks during his freshman season, he held firm in pass protection against Missouri as Jarrett Guarantano became only the third Tennessee QB to record a 400+ yard passing game.
An award-winning freshman campaign leads into a problematic sophomore season
Although the Tennessee offense lacked overall success (98th out of 130 FBS programs), Morris earned multiple plaudits for his true-freshman performances. The athletic offensive tackle earned SEC All-Freshman honors. Meanwhile, 247 Sports adorned him as a True-Freshman All-American.
During the shortened 2020 season, Morris once again was a vital component of the Tennessee offensive line. While credited with seven offensive tackle starts in nine games, he also lined up as a blocking tight end in the Vols’ jumbo package. Furthermore, he saw snaps at both bookends for the second time in his career.
Despite some impressive performances, notably against Arkansas and Georgia (where he kept Azeez Ojulari honest throughout), Morris and a supporting cast of highly regarded offensive line recruits couldn’t prevent the Tennessee offense from regressing between 2019 and 2020.
The opportunity to develop following the transfer to Oklahoma
Following the season, Morris and several other Tennessee football players entered the transfer portal. As with his high school recruiting, Morris was highly sought after. Ultimately, he narrowed his destination down to three options, with Oklahoma beating out Texas and USC. At Oklahoma, Morris will play under one of the best in the business in offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh.
Bedenbaugh has been instrumental in the Sooners’ string of offensive line success in the NFL Draft. There is no better destination than Oklahoma for an OT who has all the tools but requires refinement to help take that next step. That is precisely the case for Morris, who could be the next great Oklahoma offensive lineman if he takes that step this college football season.