Less than one month away from the draft, it seems certain that former Furman offensive lineman Dakota Dozier will be taken on the second day of this year’s NFL draft. After slowly continuing to garner attention over the last couple of years, including an impressive showing in the East-West Shrine game, Dozier is now regarded as one of the better “sleeper picks” in this draft class.
NFLmocks.com’s most recent mock draft (April 7), projects Dakota to be the 67th overall pick (second pick of the third round), only one spot behind former Tennessee left tackle Antonio “Tiny” Richardson. This would send him to Washington, D.C., where he could be responsible for protecting RGIII and the rest of the Redskins’ backfield.
Other reports have linked Dozier with the New York Jets, who have him on their short list of players who they will potentially pursue with their third round pick (80th overall). Twelve other teams besides the Redskins and the Jets attended Furman’s pro day, where he built on an impressive outing at the combine to bolster his draft stock.
At the NFL combine, Dozier officially measured in at 6-foot-4, 313 pounds, with an arm length of 33 7/8 inches. To put those numbers in perspective, the top two offensive linemen in this year’s draft, Greg Robinson and Jake Matthews, are both 6-foot-5, 332 pounds (Robinson) and 338 pounds (Matthews), with arm lengths of 35 inches (Robinson) and 33 3/8 inches (Matthews) (stats per NFL.com). According to NFL.com, Dozier’s official rating of 5.38 means he is solidly in the “should be an NFL backup” range.
Nolan Nawrocki praised Dozier’s girth, strength, athleticism, and grit at a position where grit can never be overvalued, as well as his experience. Dozier’s primary weaknesses pointed out by Nawrocki mostly pertain to a perceived rawness and unrefined technique.
Fortunately for Dozier, the aforementioned weaknesses are extremely fixable, and while it would be surprising to see him start next year, it would be even more surprising if, after a few years of refining his technique under the tutelage of NFL offensive line coaches, he is not an NFL starter. His upsides — athleticism, tenacity, and brute strength — are attributes that cannot be coached.
Because the draft has been pushed back to the second week of May, the Furman faithful will have to wait with bated breath an extra couple of weeks to see where Dozier lands, but it seems certain that Dozier will find himself in rarified air come draft day.
Of the 28 players drafted in Furman’s history, only three have gone as high as the third round: Rhoten Shetley (1940), Dewey Proctor (1943), and Stanford Jennings (1984), a Cincinnati Bengals great who returned a kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown in Super Bowl XXIII.
Since the Super Bowl era began, Jennings is the highest drafted Paladin at 65th overall. Technically, Shetley and Proctor were 19th and 21st overall respectively (the 1940 draft had 22 rounds, which alternated between 10 picks and 5 picks, while the 1943 draft had 32 rounds, which alternated in the same fashion).
Regardless of where he ends up, Dozier has all the physical tools, drive, and...wait for it...that $200,000 Furman education to ensure that he enjoys a long and prolific career in the NFL.