{"id":111559,"date":"2021-04-25T20:41:21","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T00:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=111559"},"modified":"2025-09-25T12:03:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:03:43","slug":"drew-himmelman-nfl-draft-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021\/04\/25\/drew-himmelman-nfl-draft-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"2021 NFL Draft: Drew Himmelman Player Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Drew Himmelman NFL Draft Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Position<\/strong>: Offensive Tackle<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Height<\/strong>: 6\u20199\u201d<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Weight<\/strong>: 323 Lbs.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>School<\/strong>: Illinois State University<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021-nfl-draft-profiles\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>More 2021 NFL Draft Profiles<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Drew Himmelman 2021 NFL Draft Profile<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Entering the NFL Draft waters from Illinois State University, Drew Himmelman is the type of project that could delight. Initially recruited as a tight end, Himmelman considered walking on at Iowa, even taking snaps on the defensive line. Eventually, he landed at Illinois State, where the team converted him to their starting left tackle. At the position, he looked like he found a home. With outrageous height and speed, Himmelman brought ideal physical tools to the tackle spot. In fact, he earned All-FCS First-Team honors for his work at tackle in 2019. However, he never had a chance to build on his impressive 2019 campaign. FCS football shut down in 2020 due to the pandemic, forcing Himmelman to focus on building his body for the NFL Draft.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps the gap between games could be the best thing that ever happened for Himmelman. Clearly needing to add weight to his lengthy frame to compete at the professional level, the pandemic gap should\u2019ve allowed that development. Further, Himmelman really needed to refine his technique, and working with a line trainer could greatly speed that transition. Given his speed and size, teams would be happy to have him develop in their system. Granted, those technical skills do present red flags, ones that will be exposed if not corrected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Strengths<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Body and speed inspire images of an NBA power forward;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Plays with a ton of aggression and physicality;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moves pretty well on the line, especially when considering his size;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mauls smaller defenders, especially in the run game;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gets his hands in the right place and lands his punches;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A huge frame allows him to absorb multiple defenders;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hand strength allows him to maintain blockers for a while in the passing game.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Weaknesses<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lower level of competition as an FCS athlete;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doesn\u2019t always do a great job sealing the edge;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Footwork seems to be a little sloppy;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Missed a key year of development in 2020 due to the pandemic;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some plays look like they\u2019re without purpose;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tends to get a little too high up on defenders;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doesn\u2019t always respond well to an edge rusher\u2019s moves.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>NFL Comparison<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=YounSa21,YounSa20&amp;search=Sam+Young&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sam Young<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Teams With Need at Position:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/bears\" target=\"_self\">Chicago Bears<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/bengals\/\" target=\"_self\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/buccaneers\" target=\"_self\">Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/jaguars\" target=\"_self\">Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/patriots\" target=\"_self\">New England Patriots<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/jets\" target=\"_self\">New York Jets<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/49ers\" target=\"_self\">\u00a0San Francisco 49ers<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/washington-football-team\/\" target=\"_self\">Washington Football Team<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/steelers\" target=\"_self\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Projection<\/strong>: Seventh Round<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Bottom Line on Drew Himmelman<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Certainly an interesting developmental piece, it doesn\u2019t seem likely that Himmelman will have too much early interest. At the end of the day, Drew Himmelman is likely to one of the last picks or go unselected in this year\u2019s draft. Regardless of where he\u2019s selected, his technical skills need improvement and will go a long way towards determining his fate. The right offensive line coach may fall in love with his frame and find a way to get the best out of him in the pros. He might never be called on to start, but his foot speed and size make him an interesting swing tackle. In a league where line depth is increasingly important, Himmelman should be able to find a home. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Entering the NFL Draft waters from Illinois State University, Drew Himmelman is the type of project that could delight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3734,"featured_media":111710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1647,33760],"tags":[8136,2030],"class_list":["post-111559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","category-profiles","tag-drew-himmelman","tag-nfl-draft-profiles"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3734"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246886,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111559\/revisions\/246886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}