Scouting Profile: Marcus Mbow - IOL - Purdue
Sales Pitch: Explosive athlete with creative hands and footwork in pass protection. Lack of size and length will slide him inside but projects well into zone schemes.
*Gold Numbers Indicate NCAA T-25 for 2024*
Scouting Report
Marcus Mbow is a former 3-Star recruit from Wisconsin, where he was a basketball and football standout. He began his career at RG for the Boilermakers where he was a Freshman All-American, before sliding outside for his final two seasons. Mbow missed half of 2023 with a broken leg, but was still a Honorable Mention All-Big 10 player at RT in both 2023 and 2024.
Mbow is an explosive and twitchy lineman who excels out in space. He has a dynamic first step to drive out of his stance into contact or towards his landmark. He displays the hip fluidity and quickness to get out and around on reach blocks and seal the front side of wide zone plays. Mbow’s basketball background is apparent as a blocker in space. He is agile and quick to redirect and match smaller players. He is a fast processor who bounces between assignments with excellent speed. When he gets a hold of his target, he works his feet to drive until the whistle is blown. Mbow is a very creative pass protector, weaponizing his athletic ability to vary his set points and keep rushers off balance. He is easily able to mirror speed rushers side to side. He shows quick accurate hands to attach to the chest plate of defenders and stop their momentum. He flashes a really good snatch-trap move to get longer defenders off balance as well.
Mbow is a smaller lineman with below average mass and strength. He fails to create significant displacement as a run blocker at the point of attack. He must improve bringing his hips under his hands as he drives, to improve his push and balance on base blocks. Mbow’s short arms, a big reason for his future move inside, create issues locking out defenders as a blocker. He struggles to stay attached and sustain blocks when driving defensive linemen in the run game as result. Mbow’s lack of length is also an issue in pass protection. He rarely gets first contact with his punches and he lacks the lower body strength to anchor without control. Speed to power rushers that get into his chest are easily able to walk him back into the pocket. He also lacks the strength in his inside hand to redirect and close down on power rushers who counter across his face.
Mbow profiles as a zone blocker who can play guard or center. The size and strength limitations won’t make him a fit for every team, but his movement skills and mental processing should make him a quality starter in the right offense. Mbow’s unique profile makes pinning down a landing spot a bit tricky, but he should find himself taken sometime on Day-2.