In addition to his natural strength and very good body control, one thing I really appreciate about Van Pran is his ability to play low, which often allows him to gain better leverage than the defender he's facing. This is a great asset for any lineman, whether offensive or defensive.

Adding to this his very good ability to place his hands correctly, as is the case with Sedrick, we end up with a player who has real qualities to offer for the position.

 

With qualities like those he possesses, Van Pran can truly negate any pressure from a player who would solely rely on his strength to win. One thing is certain after watching Sedrick play: if you don't play technically against him, you won't get past him, whether it's in a passing situation or a running play.

 

Another aspect that can be significant when looking to secure a spot as a Center is the ability to snap the ball, and once again, I am pleased with what I've seen him do with the Bulldogs.
His snap is quick, he gets out of his stance fast, and he benefits from having played well in Gun (so with the QB set back), which most offenses use today, as well as the more traditional formation with the QB taking the snap directly Under centerwhich is more used in the NFL than in CFB

 

 

But then, what is holding Sedrick Van Pran back from being a 1st round pick if the player dominates as much in passing as in running situations, aside from the value of his position?

 

To start, his athletic abilities are far from enough to astonish me, especially his mobility. While Van Pran is, in itself, mobile enough to be a threat to the LBs in the box on running plays, he remains relatively slow.

It's not uncommon to see LBs have time to dodge the block, which is all the more troublesome because Sedrick is unable to quickly change angles on his block engagements when in motion, due to really unremarkable agility. This is also why one must watch out for his tendency to play off-balance forward, which was mentioned in his strengths.

On plays where he has to pull (like Pull or on Screen Passes), you also feel that Van Pran sometimes struggles, especially on Screen Passes where I find him really average. He often misses his block due to the aforementioned issues, and that's when he manages to arrive in time to block someone.

 

Beside that, Sedrick will have to work a lot on his Footwork. It's quite simple, once he has secured the block, if he keeps his legs active, he will most of the time dominate his opponent perfectly.

Conversely, it can be seen that with his style of play, every failed play by Sedrick results from an issue with his Footwork.

 

100% of the time! Literally every time

 

Either his legs stop, he narrows his base too much, or he misses his first step. More bluntly, it can be summarized as: either he has correct/good footwork and he dominates his rep, or he makes a mistake on his Footwork and loses his rep completely
The work to be done is therefore huge, but if Sedrick works hard, we should see a significant improvement in his way of playing.

 

Otherwise, although Van Pran has a good punch and, more generally, a really good hand placement most of the time, he still struggles to follow certain Stunts (predefined movements by the defense that allow changing gap penetration while maintaining the basic alignment) of the Front Sevendue to attention too often directed at the initial player he must block. He will need to learn to play while observing what's happening around him if he truly wants to establish himself as a Center in the NFL, but I'm not overly concerned as this is part of learning the Center position at the professional level. Similarly, a QB will learn to read a defense differently once he reaches the NFL.