[Isaiah Hole/247 Sports]

Minnesota is the land of ten thousand lakes; PJ Fleck is the man of ten thousand oars. It’s a seemingly synergistic combination, and it’s easy to see why a 17-year-old from the west side of Michigan might want to join one of the first few Big Ten squads led by the man who just took Western Michigan to the Cotton Bowl. Then Jim Harbaugh got involved.

Tim Drevno and Greg Frey did, too. Mayfield visited for Michigan’s pro day and was told that there was a scholarship waiting for him if he was interested. Two days later Mayfield decommitted from Minnesota and less than two months after that verbally committed to Michigan. There are plenty of lakes in Michigan, too, you see.

Mayfield’s commitment-decommitment-commitment only draws a two out of five on the Crootin’ scale, which is barely enough to raise an eyebrow for a player hovering near the top 300 in 247’s composite rankings. What’s likely to draw eyebrows, though, is where Mayfield ends up in the rankings. As Ace pointed out in his Hello post, the sites that are really high on Mayfield are—surprise!—the ones that have seen him play.

With that in mind, I jumped on the opportunity to cut together every-snap videos from two of Mayfield’s junior-year games. You’re looking for the right tackle, #74, in the videos below. He’s easier to spot in the video above the jump; he’s the one who doesn’t appear to be wearing socks.

[more run blocking and pulling]

[Hit THE JUMP to check out that sweet sweet pass-pro footwork plus a scouting report]

[more pass pro]

Mayfield’s not a prototypical tackle, but he is a prototypical Greg Frey tackle. The first thing that stands out on film is how athletic he is. He's quick and so is his footwork; it also happens to be technically sound. His slide step in pass protection is excellent, as is his foot placement when drive or down blocking. His pass protection is a byproduct of his ability to reset his base quickly and it’s really well developed. He’s a far better pass protector than run blocker, something we’re not used to seeing at this level.

Pulling and targeting are both strengths. He bursts off the ball and is adept at finding the right player to block at the second level even when he has to pick through a bit of a mess on the d-line. As far as working to the second level is concerned, he’s also very good at chipping, releasing, and finding his target. He doesn’t always connect, but you can see in the Escanaba film that tenacity isn’t an issue.

The clearest area for improvement is strength. There are a number of times where Mayfield's quickness off the ball results in his lower body delivering him to a defender only to end in something more accurately described as colliding than crushing. I didn’t notice anything wrong with his hand placement (they seemed to stay inside the chest plate unless he connected with a player who was perpendicular), though the video quality caveat applies. He’s going to benefit from a collegiate strength and conditioning program and as such is a virtual lock to redshirt. He’s purportedly up to 270, though, which adds extra intrigue to his senior year film.

Another thing to watch when his senior year film starts to come out is pad level. He has a tendency to get bolt upright when pulling, resulting in a number of the aforementioned collisions and glancing blows. He also needs to work on staying low off the ball, rolling his hips, and punching up. His pad level in run blocking was better against Escanaba than Hudsonville UC, but it’s still an area that needs work.

If he can continue to pack on weight while remaining as agile as he was last season, he’s got a quicker path to the field. Quicker doesn’t mean quick, though, as things at tackle are getting awfully crowded awfully fast. There will likely be eight players competing with Mayfield at tackle when he arrives on campus and at least six by the time he’s a redshirt freshman, with Joel Honigford and Ryan Hayes players cut from a similar cloth at the position.

Mayfield could potentially slide in and play guard if he’s really the 6’5” that 247 has him listed as; there’s certainly a role inside in this offense for a guy with the feet of a basketball player who can pull and target like Mayfield. Even so, you don’t see guys with this kind of upside as a pass protector very often; I’d leave him on the edge and let Kevin Tolbert and Greg Frey work their magic.