SALT LAKE CITY — Former Desert Hills High offensive tackle Penei Sewell’s breakout 2019 season with the Oregon Ducks continues to get him noticed.
Rivals’ Adam Gorney and Mike Farrell led off their latest “Fact or Fiction” column, released Sunday, by talking about Sewell and whether he is the nation’s best offensive lineman returning for the 2020 season. Both are in agreement that he is.
“This isn’t that close, although there are some other very talented linemen returning. But Penei Sewell might be the first offensive lineman selected in this year’s NFL draft if he was eligible. He’s that good,” Farrell wrote.
The numbers are hard to argue against for the 6-foot-6, 330-pounder. He won the 2019 Outland Trophy, given annually to the nation’s top interior lineman, and started 13 games for the Ducks last year while not allowing a sack. Pro Football Focus gave Sewell a 95.5 rating for 2019 — the top-graded offensive lineman in the nation and in PFF history — and he was a unanimous first-team All-American.
“There are those who believe if Sewell could come out in this NFL draft class that he would be the first offensive lineman drafted and I agree with them. He’s massive, he moves well, his Pro Football Focus grades are great and there is nothing not to like. Sewell has all the tools to be a franchise offensive tackle in the NFL,” Gorney wrote.
Sewell will be joined at Oregon this year by his brother, Noah, a five-star inside linebacker recruit who starred at Orem High and was the Deseret News’ 2019 Mr. Football.