Clemson Football: Will Putnam can develop into All-ACC caliber player
Clemson football freshman Will Putnam has the potential to develop into an All-ACC caliber player before his Tiger career comes to a close.
Will Putnam was the highest-rated offensive lineman to sign in the 2019 Clemson football recruiting class.
The Tigers were in need of a few talented offensive linemen to fill the depth chart and begin to increase scholarship numbers as several of the current offensive linemen are coming into their senior or junior seasons.
Throughout the course of the next few months, we will be taking a look at each freshman entering the Clemson football program in 2019.
Today, we continue our analysis by looking at 4-star OL Will Putnam.
Talent Analysis:
The major knock on Putnam is his arm length. His arms are a bit shorter than what a typical NFL-caliber offensive lineman possesses, but that isn’t as big of an issue for an offensive guard.
Putnam measures in at 6-foot-4 and 285 pounds.
He has great power and can be a force in the interior part of that offensive line. Putnam will need to put on a little more weight to play inside, most likely getting to around 300-plus pounds.
Putnam has the potential to be a really good interior offensive lineman for the Tigers before it’s all said and done. As a matter of fact, he reminds me a little bit of a John Simpson, but perhaps with a bit better footwork and a little more readiness to play immediately.
Immediate Impact?
He is the most-ready offensive lineman out of this group of freshmen, but I still don’t think we’ll see a ton of Putnam in 2019.
Just like the vast majority of offensive linemen not named Mitch Hyatt, he will need a little bit of time to develop before he’s truly ready for big-time snaps.
The Tigers are pretty set at guard right now with the likes of John Simpson and Gage Cervenka listed as starters, with Cade Stewart and Matt Bockhorst listed in the two-deep.
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I still expect Putnam to make an impact and perhaps compete with Stewart and Bockhorst for a spot in the two-deep. He also could potentially develop into a center, if the Tigers wanted to go that route, and be the heir to that position after Sean Pollard graduates.