The Florida State transfer will be looking for starter’s snaps at Mizzou, and he’s capable of earning them.
Let’s face it: the spring transfer window isn’t sexy or exciting unless you’re one of those schools with an unlimited NIL budget and a line of boosters waiting to throw their ill-gotten gains into a Scrooge-McDuck-like vault for program building.
No, the spring portal is about sculpting the roster after the early work of spring camp. It’s about margins. It’s about detail.
But when you’re a school like Missouri, which gets the majority of its transfer business out the way early, you have to seize opportunities when they fall into your lap. And when that opportunity comes in the form of a highly-graded offensive tackle with starting experience at a football blue blood, you snap it up without a second thought.
Jaylen Early will join an offensive line room that already hosts a number of new faces, but he automatically brings a level of success that most of the room has never experienced. Early was an integral piece in Florida State’s unbeaten 2023 season. And even though the Seminoles had a collapse in results this past year, Pro Football Focus still graded Early as an above average offensive linemen and an elite run-blocker. That’ll play in Columbia.
Where he fits: There’s been some early suggestion that Early could rotate inside to play at guard, but he’s almost primarily played at tackle during his college career. His pass blocking numbers are a bit pedestrian, especially for a passing game that will be resetting under Beau Pribula, but he’s got the one thing that Eli Drinkwitz and Kirby Moore love — run blocking chops. His 86.2 PFF RBLOK grade would’ve put him second on last year’s team, just a hair below Armand Membou. You remember him, right? The Top 10 pick? He’s smaller than Membou, but he’s also taller, so he won’t be physically overmatched on the outside.
There are two tackle spots open on this team, and a lot of competition for both. Early has the goods to stick at that position, though, and the possibility of moving him inside if needed is intriguing. Worst case scenario, he gives the staff an experienced veteran to prevent drop off when rotating.
When he’ll play: If you’ve read these, you know the drill. He’s a redshirt junior with starting experience at Florida State. He’s coming to a group in need of high-end bodies. He’s playing right away.
What it means: Any time the staff plucks a power conference starter out of the April portal, you have to assume it means they weren’t satisfied with what they saw in spring ball. That could mean guys like Logan Reichert and Johnny Williams IV didn’t do enough to earn their spots. It could mean the staff doesn’t feel comfortable moving Cayden Green over after a strong year at guard (continuity is king on the O-Line, after all.) It could mean none of the winter transfers impressed or looked up-to-speed in their first showings on the field.
It could also mean none of that. Eli Drinkwitz has made his M.O. as a recruiter well known at this point — he’s about talent accrual. As Sam often says about the hoops program, the roster spots will work themselves out. When you have the opportunity to add talent that you think will make your team better, you do it. Early is an addition that raises the floor for the next two years, and gives Brandon Jones some more talent to work with.