Scouting Alex Balducci
Last month, the Jets announced that they had claimed former 49ers offensive lineman Alex Balducci off waivers. Balducci will compete for a role on the Jets offensive line.
The 23-year old Balducci is 6'4" and 290 pounds and was an undrafted free agent out of Oregon last year. He was a defensive tackle at Oregon but the 49ers converted him to offensive line during the offseason.
Background
Balducci's college career began in 2012 as he was forced to suit up for the last four games due to injuries, which included one start. This meant the coaches had to abandon their plans to red-shirt him.
Balducci was a solid rotational player for the first half of 2013 and ended his career with 28 consecutive starts. He entered his senior year with 37 tackles, three tackles for loss and one sack, but his senior year was easily his best as he surpassed his career numbers with 40 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. He was also an all-Pac 12 honorable mention.
After he went undrafted, Chip Kelly - who had initially recruited Balducci to Oregon - signed him to an undrafted free agent contract and began the process of converting him to offensive lineman. His UDFA deal included a team-high $57,500 of guaranteed money.
Balducci spent most of 2016 on the practice squad but was activated for two games at the end of the season during which he saw action on three offensive snaps.
With the regime change in San Francisco, it's perhaps not surprising that they abandoned the project in early May, allowing the Jets to claim Balducci on waivers.
Measurables
Although he's only listed at 290, Balducci was 309 when he attended his pro day last year. He ran an impressive 5.01 40-yard dash and did 25 bench press reps. His numbers for agility and explosiveness were also above average.
Kelly praised Balducci's athleticism when talking about his conversion from defense to offense. He displays some here by leaping over the line on a short yardage play:
Usage
Balducci was mostly employed at the nose tackle position in college, although he also played as a three-technique.
With the 49ers in preseason, he played the first three games at center and the last one at right guard. The three snaps he saw in the regular season were also at right guard.
Run Blocking
Balducci tends to fare well at the point of attack, which is perhaps not surprising given his pedigree as a space-stuffing defensive lineman. You can see evidence of his ability to win in the trenches on his footage (he wore #56 at Oregon and with the 49ers in preseason):
This ability manifests itself in his offensive line film too, as he doesn't allow much penetration and often gets a good initial surge.
Apparently, defensive players who convert to offensive line often benefit from the fact that they have a good understanding of how the defensive player is trying to beat them. Here, Balducci easily beats his block to get in on a stop:
He didn't get many chances to block on the move in preseason action, but here was a play where he set up a big run by pulling to the left:
While Balducci's block here probably didn't directly impact upon the success of the play, it's good to see him being aggressive and showing some nastiness by playing to the whistle:
Pass Protection
Balducci was usually employed as the spare man or double-teaming an interior lineman in pass protection, so he didn't get many chances to show how well he could handle one-on-one assignments.
On those occasions where he did, he showed a good ability to drive his man upfield and out of the play whenever they gained a leverage advantage to the outside. However, he did prove to be somewhat susceptible to bull rushes.
On this play, he does an excellent job of recovering after an initial loss of leverage and even though he eventually over-extends and loses the block, he manages to control it long enough for the quarterback to scramble and score:
Footwork/Technique
With Balducci being fairly new to the position, we can expect him to be technically raw. However, when he started to make the transition, the coaching staff was impressed with how natural he looked in that role. Teammate Joe Staley told the media he never would have known that Balducci wasn't an offensive lineman in college if he hadn't been told.
His footwork is generally pretty good, but he will occasionally bend at the waist and over-extend as he did in the gif above. Scouting reports when he was drafted suggested he needed to improve his hand usage, so that's probably somewhere he still needs to develop.
Penalties
Balducci had one penalty in preseason, which came on a holding penalty that looked harsh. However, he was driven back and allowed his man to extend his arms and gain separation on that play.
There was also a false start by the left tackle while he was at center which may perhaps have been because he snapped the ball too late.
In college, he didn't have any penalties on defense in 2014 or 2015 but he did have one on special teams.
Instincts/Intelligence
This is perhaps another area where playing defensive line might give him extra insights, but it is a new position for him, so experienced players will likely be able to take advantage of him at times.
His coaches were impressed with how easily he made the transition to offensive line and starting learning the line calls in addition to the playbook. He also seemed to show good awareness when picking up run blitzes.
Attitude
Coaches praised the hard work that Balducci had put in during his own time while preparing to make the transition at camp last year.
He was considered a blue-collar player that didn't mind doing the dirty work in college. Here's another example of the aggressiveness Balducci possesses as he not only stands up the runner but also finishes the play by driving him back several yards:
Injuries
Balducci doesn't seem to have had any significant injury issues at college or since being drafted. As noted, he started his last 28 games at Oregon.
Scheme Fit
If 290 is an accurate weight for Balducci, then he would probably be better suited to a zone-based system. However, as he was 309 at his pro day, presumably he can add weight and strength if necessary.
Conclusions
Balducci is a long-shot project and even in a best-case scenario is probably a year away from realistically competing for a role.
However, he had some good moments in preseason, showing real promise and also development. He's certainly worth a look and if he shows the kind of promise Kelly and the 49ers were expecting to see from him then maybe he'll be worth carrying on the practice squad to continue to develop him.
UP NEXT: We'll look at another of the recent additions in defensive back Shamarko Thomas.