Atonio Mafi 2023 NFL Draft profile: Scout report for the Florida IOL
Atonio Mafi, UCLA
6’3”, 340 pounds; RS SR
A three-star guard recruit in 2018, Mafi began his career on the defensive line, where he started 14 of 24 games and recorded 44 tackles (5.5 for loss) for the UCLA Bruins. In 2020 he transitioned back to offense, seeing action as a backup in seven games, before starting three of 12 contests in the ensuing season. This past year, he started all 13 games at left guard, getting the coaches to vote him second-team All-Pac-12, as he helped pave the way for a rushing attack that averaged 237.2 yards per game and six yards per carry.
+ There’s really no other way to say it – this guy is built like a brick house, with a wide frame and massive girth throughout
+ Mafi is consistently able to create vertical displacement in the run game – inside zone or gap-schemes
+ You see him and a fellow linemen ride the down-man into the backer with regularity on combo-blocks
+ Isn’t content with being “wasted” on wide zone, when the man next to him has their man secured, by folding underneath that block and trying to find a different target, almost as if he was skip-pulling
+ Yet, if guys try to shoot the play-side gap or back-door the man next to Mafi, he can take those guys for a ride down the line
+ Doesn’t just get in the way of nose-tackles, but actively takes that space between them, establishes that upfield foot and locks them there
+ Surprisingly sudden as he’s engaged with a defender and then comes off it late as somebody tries to shoot the gap next to him
+ Doesn’t usually overshoot his targets in space and shuffles up to them under great control, while packing the force in his punch to still get those backers off track if they try to quickly slip by him
+ UCLA tasked Mafi with several short pulls, where the force he builds up with a short runway on kickouts, for example, is pretty remarkable, and you see some defender’s pads pop straight back at contact, and if he does have more room he can throw guys out of the club
+ You will not run through this wall in protection, with his wide and strong base
+ Keeps his hands in tight and can stymie powerful rushers pretty effectively that way, plus he won’t let them lift him up on rip moves, but rather rides those guys up the field
+ As defenders try to beat him across his face and turn their shoulders away from him, Mafi is regularly able to place his hands in the mid-section of them and guide them off track
+ When he catches rushers off balance, he will put them on their backside and land on top of them
+ Really good at passing off and picking up rushers on twists, with strong hands to guide those guys towards his teammates
+ Stays with square shoulders and is patient when he sees second-level rushers coming or guys stunting across multiple gaps
+ On slide protections, he makes sure the next-closest rusher doesn’t counter towards his responsibility, but then can still stonewall guys who try to take advantage of the opposite gap left open
+ Significantly raised his PFF grade in each of the past three seasons, with increased snap totals, with grades above 70 in pass-, gap- and zone-blocking last year
+ While he was charged with five sacks over the past two seasons, he surrendered only 19 other pressures across 683 combined pass-blocking snaps
– While he does feature sufficient mobility for his size, Mafi isn’t somebody you necessarily want on those long pulls across the formation against NFL speeds
– His hand-placement overall is still a bit of a work in progress, limiting his ability to transfer force from the ground up and you therefore see guys slip him on the initial approach occasionally
– That’s also why he visibly becomes less effective when there’s more space for defenders past the line of scrimmage to elude his blocks
– Has to gain more ground vertically when he’s not directly engaged with a defender in protection
– A hair late every once in a while when picking up delayed rushers, if his eyes get locked in on the first-level guys
I just outlined Mafi as one of “my guys” this past weekend. He was one of my favorite watches in this entire draft because watching him take out bodies on the move just makes you perk up. Despite his fridge-like build, he has surprisingly nimble feet to get to his landmarks in the run and pass games, and once he gets those big paws onto guys, they’re done. The hand placement generally isn’t where it needs to be and there are some small details about playing the position that he is still to master, but that’s to be expected of somebody who got to start on the O-line for just one full season. Mafi stone-walled a strong group of defensive tackles during Shrine Bowl week and opened up some massive lanes in the run game. I believe he has the chance to be a plus starter at the next level if he continues to develop.
Grade: Late third/early fourth round
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