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Christian Westerman, OG
School: Arizona State | Conference: PAC12
College Experience: Senior | Age: 22
Height/Weight: 6-3 / 296 lbs
Draft Status
Projected: 4th Round | Actual: 5th Round (Pick 161) by the Cincinnati Bengals
College Statistics
N/A
Player Overview
Christian Westerman is an athletic, strong, physical, and nasty offensive guard. Westerman was a 5-star recruit and was ranked #2 in the nation at the position by ESPN/Scouts.com. He originally committed (and played two games) at Auburn. It didn't work out and he went back home to Arizona State. Westerman grew up playing football, baseball, and basketball, and he is also a gym rat. Westerman is athletic and moves very well. He has quick feet and overall good footwork, he shuffles and adjusts well in pass protection. He has a great initial punch and sustains blocks. He has the strength, leverage/balance, and athleticism to pull and anchor on the run. He gets to the second level and finishes defenders with attitude and gets them on the ground. He's disciplined and has good awareness. Though he plays with attitude and can be nasty he doesn't commit foolish penalties such as false starts, unnecessary roughness calls etc often. He is very competitive and it is rumored that he can bench 225 lbs 41 times.
Recent News
Christian Westerman with a nasty pancake of DeShawn Williams in the full-contact, half-line running game drill.
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) August 1, 2016
90-in-90 #Bengals Roster Breakdown: Christian Westerman a wild card on o-line https://t.co/0oQiaSJvD5
— Cincy Jungle (@CincyJungle) June 25, 2016
Draft Profiles – Christian Westerman – Bengals https://t.co/A3Lp9lyYGi via @The Grueling Truth
— The Grueling Truth (@Gruelingtruth) July 20, 2016
How He Makes the Bengals Better and Creates Problems for the Redskins
The Bengals are a well rounded team and clearly went with the best player on their board during this year’s past draft. There starting guard tandem in Clint Boiling and Kevin Zeitler (who I compared Westerman to in my original profile) is a solid combination. Westerman will likely ride the pine this year because of all the talent in front of him but he is a decent backup option should the Bengals have to call his number this year.
The Bengals will look to develop their talented rookie and his versatile skill set. Westerman experience a mini slide during the draft. During the combine and interview process he tested very well and had the college production to back it up. One of the speculative reasons why he slid is that he still needs to improve his technique and work on well rounding his game. While he is very good at pass protection he sometimes struggles against the run.
The Redskins need not worry much about Westerman this year but he could become a much bigger part of the Bengals offensive line if Kevin Zeitler becomes a free agent in 2017.