Our video tour of the newest Buffalo Bills has its next stop with offensive guard Marquel Harrell. The undrafted free agent from Auburn now finds himself in Western New York. Let’s see what Harrell brings to the table.
Play 1
Overall I’d say that I saw Marquel Harrell get low often enough to call it a good habit. What you’re seeing here is an instance where Harrell’s opponent was fast enough to get to him before he could fully get in his stance. This is concern number one that I saw with Harrell. I wouldn’t call him slow off the snap by any means, but I did see enough instances where speed beat him that it could be a problem at the NFL level.
Play 2
The biggest concern I saw with Marquel Harrell is what we see above. For this exact play, the defender gets good hand placement on Harrell’s side and shoves him off. And overall defenders were able to get him to turn a lot more easily than I’d like. If you watch several games of Harrell’s you might go long stretches without seeing this happen. Or you might see it several times in a single drive. This strongly suggests it’s a quality of competition issue. Harrell’s competition is about to become a lot more consistent, making this an area I think he’ll need to work on to be successful.
Play 3
Let’s shift to the positives. Marquel Harrell has a lot of good habits. He’s disciplined here waiting for the defense to attack. As soon as they do he gets his hand up and in position to have the leverage advantage.
Play 4
Some more good habits. Knowing he has to not only make his first block but run through it, Marquel Harrell looks more like a fullback blasting through the line. He then pops up in time for his second block. I do have to say that blocking on the move was inconsistent whether it was second level like here or pulling. This isn’t a bad representation.
Play 5
The block is a decent representation of Marquel Harrell but this play is here to show his motor. It’d be hard to blame him for thinking he was done with this play 30 yards earlier.
Summary
This boils down to a very simple equation for Marquel Harrell. The noted concerns generally have the common element of quality of competition. Harrell frequently looked quite good, but encountered consistent struggles in some games or against particular opponents.
Harrell has good habits to build from but he will need to find a way to be effective against the best the game has to offer. His high motor suggests a player who’s willing to put in the work as well, which is arguably the best trait you can ask for in an undrafted free agent.