The Houston Texans wanted Aireontae Ersery bad enough on Friday night that they traded up to get the Gophers’ mammoth left tackle.
The Texans gave the Raiders their 58th and 99th picks in exchange for Las Vegas’ 48th, and in that early second-round slot, Houston selected Ersery, the Big Ten offensive lineman of the year.
The 6-foot-6 and 330-pound all-Big Ten tackle extended the Gophers’ streak of having a player picked in the opening two rounds to six straight drafts.
Safety Antoine Winfield started the streak by going to the Buccaneers in 2020. He was followed by receiver Rashod Bateman (2021, Ravens), defensive end Boye Mafe (2022, Seahawks), center John Michael Schmitz (2023, Giants) and safety Tyler Nubin (2024, Giants).
The Gophers haven’t had that long of a string of high-end picks since World War II, 1940-45.
Ersery was incredibly durable, starting the final 38 games of his collegiate career before opting out of the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in January. In 2024, he allowed only one sack across 398 pass-blocking snaps. He gave up two sacks in 381 reps in 2023 and two sacks in 325 in 2022.
NFL Network commentator Daniel Jeremiah said Ersery was “one of the more polarizing players” in this year’s draft. “Some people thought could go at the bottom of the first round,” the draft analyst said. “Other teams had third- and fourth-round grades on him.”
Ersery displayed athleticism, including a 5.01-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine, but Jeremiah said there were concerns about his ability to bend while dealing with twitchy edge rushers.
“This is a massive human being here; outstanding size,” Jeremiah said on TV. “And he’s got an anchor. You want to try to rush through his chest, you are going to have problems. The issues show up when he goes against the more-athletic guys who can redirect him and get him going one way and have to turn back the other way.”
But Ersery more than held his own in his stiffest test of the season, against Penn State edge rusher, Abdul Carter, who went No. 3 overall to the Giants on Thursday. Ersery won the overwhelming majority of the one-on-one reps against Carter in their Big Ten matchup in Minneapolis in November.
Ersery and Schmitz are very different linemen, but Gophers offensive line coach Brian Callahan sees similarities in the meteoric development of each player.
Both were three-star recruits receiving few — if any — scholarship offers from Power Five conference schools. Schmitz, who went 57th overall two years ago, was going to Western Michigan before he followed head coach P.J. Fleck to Dinkytown.
Coming out of Kansas City, Mo., Ersery only had other major offers from Kansas and Kansas State.
“We’re a blue-collar mentality in terms of what we do here, particularly on the O-line,” Callahan told the Pioneer Press last week. “I take a lot of pride in both of those guys. … I think the work ethic piece, they are different body types, different players, but the how, as we call it, our effort, is always going to be something that sticks out for them.”
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