Mizzou offensive line: Big players are ready to play

Mizzou football has done a good job with linemen since joining the SEC.

The Missouri offensive line was quite deep last season.

Mizzou lost three of those players this year, but the Tigers didn’t have to go searching for anybody new. So it is expected that Mizzou still has one of the top lines in the SEC, returning three of their starting offensive linemen.

And the three they return look to have a great future playing football.

Those are future NFL’ers in left tackle Yasir Durant, center Trystan Colon-Castillo and first-team All-SEC guard Tre’Vour Wallace-Simms.

Durant enters his senior season as a three-year starter. He will be the top protecter to new quarterback Kelly Bryant. If Bryant is to improve on his throwing skills, Durant must protect him as he did plenty for graduate Drew Lock.

Colon-Castillo is a redshirt junior out of Webb City. He is in his third year as a starter and was a 2017 All-SEC freshman selection.

Wallace-Simms was a reserve his true freshman year but started every game since. Wallace-Simms never gave much of a thought to entering the draft last year despite having a good chance to get drafted.

But another solid year with capable runners in Larry Rountree III and Tyler Badie behind him, Wallace-Simms could move up to being one of the top three guards in the 2020 NFL Draft.

The Tigers are looking to replace tackle Paul Adams and guard Kevin Pendleton. One of those spots is going to 6-foot-6, 305-pound Hyrin White.

He played in eight games last season as the top reserve tackle and will slide in at right tackle.

Larry Borom appears to be the other “next man up”. Borom is a 6-6, 340-pound guard who is competing with Case Cook for the final spot on the line.

Borom has the edge, and that will leave Cook as the first reserve for the interior line. That spot went to Jonah Dubinski last year, but he medically retired before the start of camp.

Cook is a redshirt sophomore who likely could start his last two years in Columbia after playing valuable snaps as a freshman.

And now that White is starting, the Tigers are searching for a backup swing tackle.

The competition belongs to big redshirt freshmen in Javon Foster and Bobby Lawrence.

Big is an understatement.

Foster is out of Michigan and is 6’6 and weighs 315 pounds while Lawrence is 6’8, 300 pounds out of St. Joseph.

Redshirt freshman Mike Ruth is listed as the backup right guard on the latest Mizzou depth chart. The Tigers haven’t released who the backup center is as Dubinski was the latest player to be mentioned in that spot.

Deep on the depth chart are freshmen Jack Buford, D.J. Bullard, Trenton Sederwall, Luke Griffin and Thalen Robinson. Buford was the top guy rated out of that group heading into the year.

Mizzou also has redshirt freshmen Xavier Delgado, Steven Hardy and Richard Taylor.

Other backups include Thomas Grossman and Angel Matute.

If nothing else, the future looks bright for many of the Missouri players after the Tigers have sent several linemen to the NFL since joining the conference, including starting centers Justin Britt, Connor McGovern and Mitch Morse.

They likely are sending three more linemen to the NFL over the next two drafts, and hopefully many more over the years.