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Trevor Penning NFL Draft Profile
- Position: Tackle
- School: Northern Iowa
- Current Year: RS Senior
- Height: 6'7"
- Weight: 340 pounds
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Trevor Penning Scouting Report
Trevor has an extremely well-proportioned frame with excellent density and length. That length gives Penning a wide range of impact when blocking in motion. With his smooth, long strides, he can cover a surprising amount of ground in space. Meanwhile, with his size, he has the capacity to lower his pad level, and he also has good knee bend.
Penning is a great athlete. He’s listed on the Feldman’s Freaks list, and according to Bruce Feldman, Penning could run near a five-second 40-yard dash at his size. He also has a program-record squat of 625 pounds and power cleans 385 pounds. That athleticism and strength clearly show up on tape.
Penning is a powerful blocker who dominates lighter defenders at the point of attack. He has great upper-body torque and a ton of stored potential energy within his frame. The Northern Iowa OT brings good straight-line burst when moving to the second level, and he’s exceptionally explosive out of his stance. When matching rushers along the edge, Penning is a fairly efficient mover. He flips his hips to match defenders around the edge and walls off the pocket.
Trevor has fast, violent hands, and he actively targets his opponents’ arms to negate rushes. He’s shown that he can stack counters in pass protection, and his hands have good synergy. He can establish an anchor while inflicting heavy lateral force. Penning is a high-level athletic talent. While he might not be as purely athletic as Brown (that’s a high bar to clear), he may be more equipped to hold strong against high-level competition than his counterpart was.
Penning’s hands are only made more dangerous by the mentality that comes with them. Penning is an absolute mauler. If he gets leverage, he’s going to try to put you in the dirt. It’s as simple as that. The UNI product craves opportunities to dominate his opponents. He has an aggressive help mentality when unoccupied in pass protection, and he knows how to transfer his weight to take advantage of imbalanced opponents.
Penning has an underrated balance of patience and aggression. While he lunges at times, more often than not, he lets defenders enter his range before engaging and doesn’t often compromise his center of gravity. To that end, he’s a relatively instinctive blocker who understands positioning and angled leverage.
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Areas for Improvement
Penning’s base isn’t always steady when anchored. He can lose his balance against longer opponents. He also fails to maintain his balance through offensive maneuvers at times. This can impact his ability to sustain blocks at the second level. Moreover, he can work to better counteract force with his feet.
As good as Penning’s center of gravity is, he does play a bit lopsided at times. Another factor impacting his balance is his extension timing. Although Penning has good patience, he can still better supplement his extensions with proper positioning. He can also be reliant on these extensions and outmuscling his opponents — a strategy that may need adjusting in the NFL.
Penning can absorb power, but he doesn’t always sustain blocks when he can’t make first contact. Penning’s grip strength — while solid — can be broken with forceful moves. Additionally, there is some stiffness present when he needs to recover laterally. His feet are a bit heavy at times, although he generally moves well.
Penning’s pad level can sometimes be high. His hand precision still has some room for improvement, and his hands and feet can have better synergy. Penning can be grabby and penalty-prone when he loses leverage. Additionally, he can focus on bending his elbows more often to maximize the potential energy of his punches.
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Trevor Penning Career at School
Penning redshirted the 2017 season at Northern Iowa while preparing to make a transition to the offensive line. He put on weight, and by 2018, he weighed 289 pounds, nearing the 300-pound mark.
Penning started to gain experience in 2018, playing in four games as a blocker. But his first true starting experience would come in 2019. That year, the Northern Iowa OT started all 15 games. He rose through the ranks with Brown and ended up starting opposite of him at left tackle. That duo of size and athleticism became kryptonite for pass rushers far and wide.
In a truncated spring 2021 season, Penning got more valuable experience. He started six games, including one at right tackle, flashing positional versatility. The fall 2021 season was the most important showcase for Penning, however. And unsurprisingly, he crushed it.
Penning started all 12 games and earned consensus first-team all-conference recognition. He was also the only offensive lineman to be honored as a finalist for the Walter Payton Award — given to the top offensive player at the FCS level.
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Trevor Penning NFL Draft Player Profile
There are some areas where Penning can further refine his game. Nevertheless, both athletically and operationally, there are some things to be excited about. While Penning isn’t as athletic as his former teammate Brown, he’s still a great athlete. Penning’s short-range explosiveness allows him to get in position quickly, and he has enough lateral mobility to match rushers around the edge.
On top of his athleticism, Penning has a massive, well-proportioned frame. He sports elite length and uses it fairly well. He shows great hand usage at times. And to top it all off, he’s a mean, nasty mauler who might be one of the most aggressive linemen in the 2022 NFL Draft. There’s very little to suggest that he can’t be one of the first tackles taken off the board.
Competition level will be an issue for some, but Penning locked down Iowa State EDGE Will McDonald IV when they played earlier in September. NFL scouts no doubt took notice of that, and as PFN Chief NFL Draft Analyst Tony Pauline reported late in 2021, some scouts already have Penning rated as the top tackle in the class.
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