{"id":156190,"date":"2023-12-26T08:38:08","date_gmt":"2023-12-26T13:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=156190"},"modified":"2025-09-25T12:08:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:08:17","slug":"2024-nfl-draft-graham-barton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/12\/26\/2024-nfl-draft-graham-barton\/","title":{"rendered":"2024 NFL Draft: Graham Barton Scouting Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Graham Barton NFL Draft Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Position: Interior Offensive Line<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Height: 6\u20195\u201d (Unofficial)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Weight: 315 pounds (Unofficial)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">School: Duke <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>NFL Draft: Graham Barton Scouting Report<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Graham Barton 2024 NFL profile\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every year, a good college tackle will be forced to move inside, for a myriad of reasons. Most times, a team will let the player try playing tackle first before moving him inside. Three years ago, this was the case with Rashawn Slater coming out of Northwestern. Several NFL teams believed that he was better suited to playing guard in the NFL because of his shorter arms. Later, the Chargers allowed him to stay at tackle, where he has thrived. Last year, Peter Skoronski, an excellent college tackle, was moved inside the second he put on an NFL uniform with the Tennesee Titans.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Watching Duke OT Graham Barton this morning and I&#39;m impressed with his skill-set. He plays with patience, can anchor and looks to finish. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BQ2GzOgLu7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/BQ2GzOgLu7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Russell Brown (@RussNFLDraft) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RussNFLDraft\/status\/1738598100317446153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 23, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is the case with Duke tackle Graham Barton. Barton played over two seasons of tackle in 2022 and 2023. In doing so, he was excellent. Regardless of how he played, the NFL likely views him as an interior offensive lineman. Barton was a 3-star recruit in the 2020 recruiting class. In his Freshman season, Barton was asked to play center for five games. He would excel there. Barton became a full-time tackle after Duke hired <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/11\/26\/texas-am-to-hire-dukes-mike-elko\/\" target=\"_self\">Mike Elko<\/a>. While likely a guard, his movement skills will leave many teams fantasizing on draft night.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Strengths<\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Excellent mover for the position<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Experience at center and tackle\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Strong hands with great grip strength\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Athletic enough to handle speed rushers<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tremendous puller and mover in space<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Has a mean streak to him, he absolutely loves to finish blocks and take defenders to the ground<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Don\u2019t ya just love Graham Barton\u2019s effort and ability to sustain blocks <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/abWtkJVXSc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/abWtkJVXSc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jordan de Lugo (@jordandelugo) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jordandelugo\/status\/1737621968285774080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 20, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Weaknesses<\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arm length leaves some to be desired, but will be mitigated with a move to guard<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can be overwhelmed at times when playing against stronger opponents<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does not have much time on task playing the position he will play in the NFL<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hand usage can improve\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Has several \u201cbear-hugs\u201d on tape, may be a heavily penalized player early\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NFL Comparison: Peter Skoronski and Ezra Cleveland\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Projection: Mid-to-late first-round pick<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Best Fits: Miami Dolphins, Los Angeles Rams, Green Bay Packers<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Bottom Line on Graham Barton<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Graham Barton may be one of the best guards in the NFL from the second he steps onto an NFL field. Despite being a natural tackle, most teams will view him as a guard in the draft. Accordingly, Barton will be an excellent athlete for a guard, as evidenced by his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsobserver.com\/sports\/college\/acc\/duke\/article278408119.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lacrosse background<\/a>. Barton can move incredibly well and will fit best in teams that ask their lineman to get out on the move and work to the second level. Teams who run the wide-zone offense will certainly have Barton high on their boards.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While nothing is set in stone, Barton&#8217;s chances of staying at tackle long-term are slim. Most teams have their thresholds for offensive tackle arm length and will not come off of it. Unless Barton\u2019s arms magically get longer by the combine, he will be viewed as an interior offensive lineman. His best chance at playing tackle at the next level is similar to Slater&#8217;s: Be so good they can\u2019t move you inside. Regardless of where he plays, Barton is a damn good player who will be a difference-maker on the line of scrimmage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: Jaylynn Nash-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even with a likely switch to the interior, Duke\u2019s Graham Barton remains one of the best offensive linemen in the 2024 NFL draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4912,"featured_media":156288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[1647,54,33760],"tags":[10073,32223,2030],"class_list":["post-156190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","category-editorials","category-profiles","tag-2024-nfl-draft","tag-graham-barton","tag-nfl-draft-profiles"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156190","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\/4912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248411,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156190\/revisions\/248411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}