The NFL is full of players worthy of being described as “a mountain of a man.” Rutgers offensive tackle Hollin Pierce will not be one of them once he enters the league via this year’s draft — he is less of a mountain and more of a mountain range.

Let’s take a look at the projected Day 3 prospect and possible New England Patriots target.

Hard facts

Name: Hollin Pierce

Position: Offensive tackle

School: Rutgers

Opening day age: 24 (4/19/2001)

Measurements: 6’8 3/8”, 341 lbs, 88 1/4” wingspan, 36” arm length, 9 7/8” hand size, N/A Relative Athletic Score

Experience

Colleges: Rutgers (2020-24)

Career statistics: 52 games (50 starts) | 3,172 offensive snaps, 175 special teams snaps | 70 pressures surrendered (5 sacks, 15 hits, 50 hurries) | 11 penalties

Accolades: Second-team All-Big Ten (2024), Honorable mention All-Big Ten (2023)

Going into his junior year at Trenton Central High School in his New Jersey hometown, Pierce put his dreams of playing basketball on ice and joined the football team. Already a massive human being at that point — measuring 455 pounds — his lack of experience resulted in him receiving no scholarship offers out of high school. As a result, he added a postgraduate year at Fork Union Military Academy in Fork Union, VA.

A no-star recruit despite his extra prep school experience, Pierce did finally receive a handful of low-level offers. However, he decided to play the waiting game upon the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and to spend the spring of 2020 training and sending out recruitment videos. One of those landed at Rutgers, where he was given the opportunity to join as a walk-on in June of that year. After spending his freshman season as a redshirt, he became a fixture alongside the Scarlet Knights’ offensive line.

Pierce left school with 50 combined starts as a left and right tackle under his belt. He was invited to the East-West Shrine Bowl as well as the Scouting Combine.

Draft profile

Expected round: Day 3 | Consensus big board: No. 145 | Patriots meeting: N/A

Strengths: In a league full of big men, Pierce will still stand out due to his rare size. How rare? He ranks in the 90-plus percentile among offensive tackle prospects since 1999 in four of the measurements taken in the pre-draft process: height (97), weight (95), wingspan (99) and arm length (94). Despite his massive frame, he is not playing heavy; he is surprisingly agile even though his movements are still a bit lumbering. Nonetheless, he has shown that he can move laterally and get to the second level as a run blocker.

In general, he is an NFL-ready blocker in the running game. He has immense power and looks like he is a one-man double team when blocking down, creating gaps and swallowing defenders once engaged. He is comparatively raw as a pass protector — more on that in a second — but still makes life hard for opposing rushers simply due to his frame. He will rarely get beaten by a bull rush and can keep defenders from getting into his chest; they will need to run a wide arc to get around that mountain range.

Weaknesses: Pierce’s size is a double-edged sword. While it does give him an advantage few players possess in terms of occupying space up front, it also comes at the cost of him getting out-leveraged as both a pass protector and a run blocker. This, in turn, can lead to him lunging forward and creating problems with his balance. While he is surprisingly agile for his size, he is still not overly agile on the whole; physics simply works against him as far as fluid movements are concerned.

As a result, he lacks the foot speed and short-area change of direction to quickly reset, meaning that bendier defenders or speed rushers can be his kryptonite. There also are parts of his game that should be more consistent based on his natural advantages. One example is allowing defenders into his chest to dictate 1-on-1 matchups; he has shown he can prevent that from happening, as mentioned above, but needs to be more steady in doing so.

Patriots preview

What would be his role? There is no talk about Pierce potentially moving to guard; he is a tackle through and through. That said, he is a developmental prospect who would likely start off as a backup swing tackle regardless of what the Patriots do elsewhere in the draft; his pass protection especially is not yet ready for any extended playing time against NFL competition. As a consequence, he would compete for the final roster spot at OT over the course of training camp.

What is his growth potential? Pierce’s NFL future will depend on his ability to work around some of the physical limitations tied to his massive frame. If he can do so, he could become more than just the biggest man on the sideline: he has the raw tools to become a starter-level player in the pros, reminiscent of ex-Patriot and fellow huge dude Trent Brown.

Does he have positional versatility? Pierce offers tremendous starting experience on both ends of the offensive line: he was a two-year starter at right tackle before finishing his career at Rutgers playing on the left for two seasons. In total, he has 24 starts and 1,473 snaps on his right tackle résumé as well as 26 and 1,696 on the left.

Why the Patriots? Besides meeting the size thresholds of offensive tackles drafted by Mike Vrabel or Doug Marrone in the past, Pierce also has the positional flexibility and developmental upside the Patriots might be willing to invest in on Day 3 of the draft. At the very least, he would add more competition to the backup spots.

Why not the Patriots? Pierce has some clear shortcomings as a pass protector, and the Patriots simply might not see them as fixable to a point where he can be of any service to them. As a result, they might regard other OTs — either late in the draft or on their roster already — as better options moving forward.