Grade

Photo: Georgia Tech Athletics / Danny Karnik

IOL

2nd Round

2026 Draft Class

Keylan Rutledge

Status

DraftedR1 • P26Houston Texans

Georgia Tech

6'3 5/8"

316lbs

Age 23

Oct 5, 2026

Executive Summary

Keylan Rutledge is a powerful, nasty interior offensive lineman whose violent hands, overwhelming physicality, strong anchor, and impressive athletic profile give him legitimate starting upside at the next level.

Strengths

Physicality, Hand Usage, and Strength Anchor

Weaknesses

Frame, Processing / Game IQ, and Footwork

Full Scouting Report

15px

Frame

Pros:

•Average height

•10 inch hands are good

•33 ¼ arm length is solid

•316 is slightly above average

Cons:

•None

Athleticism

Pros:

•9.52 RAS Score

•5.05 40 time is really good and places him in the 90th percentile

•32.5 vertical is also in the 90th percentile

•104.8in (8.08ft) is barely above average in the 54th percentile

•Pretty elite agility going off his 7.54 3-cone (86th percentile) and 4.54 shuttle (88th percentile)

•27 reps on bench placed him in the 61st percentile

Cons:

•None

Footwork

Pros:

•Does a good job keeping a wide base

•Replaces his feet pretty well

•Adjusts his feet well to where defenders desired path is and cuts them off

•Can mirror defenders moves and put his feet in a position to make the block

Cons:

•Feet are way too stagnant in pass protection

•Footwork as a pulling guard isn’t great

•Feet can get choppy

•Struggles to recover with his feet

Hand Usage

Pros:

•Hands shoot out well off the LOS

•Great hand placement especially on down blocks

•Generates a ton of power from his hands and initial punch

•Replaces hands very well

•Really good grip strength

Cons:

•His hand placement in pass protection is too wide

•Struggles to hit moving targets

Strength / Anchor

Pros:

•Hits with tremendous initial pad level to play with leverage

•Seals guys off well and take guys where they want to go

•Anchors down pretty good

•Has no problem driving guys back out of their gap to open running lanes and space

•Can hook defenders in close quarters

•Very effective at the POA

•Can completely wash you out of a play

•Catches defenders flying into gaps late and takes them out of the play

Cons:

•Can’t hook defenders very well when in opens space

•After initial contact his pad level can rise

•Anchors down too slow at times

•Lunges too often which causes him to lose his balance or give up space and timing in pass pro

Physicality

Pros:

•Ton of physicality

•Plays nasty and with a lot of swagger

•Love how he is talking smack to guys

•Will absolutely embarrass you on a rep if you let him

•Plays to and past the whistle

•Most physical IOL in the class

Cons:

•Loses some violence when he is pulling as a guard

Processing / Game IQ

Pros:

•Shows good patience as a blocker

•Recognizes stunts well

•Gets to the second level with really good timing

•Catches guys scraping along the LOS

Cons:

•5 penalties is too many

Games Watched

•Week 1 vs COLO, Week 4 vs TEM, Week 8 vs SYR, Week 9 vs NCSU, Week 10 vs BC, BOWL vs BYU

Ideal Situation

•Keylan Rutledge is the type of prospect I would want on my offensive line. Rutledge is pretty average in height, has longer arms, and is slightly above-average in weight. Rutledge has plenty of athleticism. He ran a 5.05 40, a 32.5-inch vertical, and his agility also tested well. Rutledge has shown he can replace his feet, cut off guys, has overly patient feet, and keeps a wide base on his down blocks. Rutledge has extremely violent hands that jar defenders—his hand placement when down blocking is also very good. Rutledge out-leverages defenders on initial contact, anchors down decently well, and can easily wash a defender out of the play. His physicality is what every o-line coach dreams of. Rutledge plays nasty and with swagger. The number of pancakes he had was concerning for the opposing team. Rutledge showed a lot of patience in pass protection and recognized stunts consistently pretty well. Rutledge is about to turn 23 in early September, so he isn’t young, but he isn’t an older prospect either. Rutledge needs to work on his pass protection technique more before he can be an elite guard in the NFL. His feet are often idle in pass protection, and he can rely on his upper body strength to do the work. His feet are choppy at times, and on guard pulls, his footwork gets messy. Rutledge also struggles to maintain consistent hand placement in pass protection. He lunges into his hits a lot, which can cause him to lose his balance or miss moving targets. Rutledge’s pad level tends to rise after initial contact, both in pass pro and run blocking. When hitting moving targets as a puller, he loses some violence. He also had 6 penalties in 2025, which is too many. Keylan Rutledge has had some weird injury events. He injured his foot in 2023 in a rollover car accident and also had a fractured toe that got infected, which raised the possibility of amputation. However, since then he has been a dependable player. Keylan Rutledge was drafted in the 1st Round, Pick 26 by the Houston Texans. I absolutely love this pick; it might be a slight reach, but the Texans have needed o-line help for about 3 seasons now. Rutledge will bolster that line day one and add more nastiness to DeMeco Ryan’s Houston team. Rutledge projects to be the starting center for the Houston Texans. This is a little concerning, and there could be a learning curve, as in-game Rutledge never took a snap at center while at Georgia Tech. He only started taking snaps there during the Senior Bowl and draft process to raise his stock as a versatile lineman. I think Rutledge will eventually mold into the position, but not without a few hiccups in his 1st year. Rutledge was a good overall pick by the Texans, and I look forward to seeing how he plays in the NFL.

Rating:

•Frame – 7.4/10

•Athleticism – 8.6/10

•Footwork – 7.7/10

•Hand Usage – 9.1/10

•Strength / Anchor – 9.1/10

•Physicality – 9.5/10

•Processing / Game IQ – 7.4/10

Total = 85.2/100 (B) Mid 1st or Late 1st

Combine Testing

Height

6'4"

Weight

316lbs

62thAbove Average

40-Yard Dash

5.05s

90thElite

Vertical

32.5in

90thElite

Bench

—

Broad Jump

104in

54thAbove Average

Three-Cone

7.54s

86thVery Good

Shuttle

4.54s

88thVery Good

DPH Proprietary Scores

Frame Score

Measures a prospect's physical build and size relative to historical NFL positional standards.

DPH Athlete

Diamond Prospects' proprietary athletic score that evaluates a player's overall athletic profile using combine testing and positional percentiles.

Total Score

The combined athletic evaluation generated from Frame Score and DPH Athlete Score.

Combine Year: 2026 • Data from DPH Combine Database

Andrés Griñe

Founder of DiamondProspects and Head NFL Scout View Full Bio

I am an Assistant in Player Personnel/Scouting for Washington State Football with over six years of experience scouting NFL prospects and evaluating talent. I previously covered high school baseball as a writer for NMPreps and now run DiamondProspects, where I publish scouting reports, prospect evaluations, and draft analysis. I am currently a junior pursuing a degree in Sports Management and am originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Comments

Subscribers only — join for free to leave a comment.

No comments yet. Be the first to share your take!