Background

Max Iheanachor was born in Nigeria and immigrated to Los Angeles with his family at age 13, attending King/Drew Magnet High School, which did not have a football team. He played soccer growing up and excelled in basketball, attracting college interest on the hardwood. During a car ride home from one of his summer AAU basketball games, his coach brought up the idea of football and introduced him to East Los Angeles College head coach Bobby Godinez. He had never played a snap of organized football. He enrolled at ELAC and spent two seasons learning the sport from scratch, with Godinez recalling that during end-of-practice gassers the offensive lineman was outrunning his running backs and defensive backs. Fresno State offensive line coach Saga Tuitele visited campus to recruit another tackle, noticed Iheanachor, and began building a relationship, but when Kenny Dillingham hired Tuitele at Arizona State after the 2022 season, Iheanachor followed him to Tempe. Injuries thrust him into five starts as a true newcomer in 2023, where he logged 324 snaps at right tackle without allowing a sack. He became a full-time starter in 2024, starting all 14 games and helping clear holes for Heisman finalist Cam Skattebo as he rushed for 1,711 yards and 21 touchdowns while Arizona State made the College Football Playoff. His 2025 season brought further growth: 14 starts, zero sacks allowed in 484 pass-blocking reps, and Second-Team All-Big 12. Over three seasons in Tempe, he logged 2,107 offensive snaps across 32 games. He declared for the 2026 NFL Draft roughly four years after first touching a football.

Physical Attributes

RAS:

Iheanachor is an unbelievable athlete. The way he moves should be illegal for someone his size. He looks damn near balletic. Then you see him use his hands and throw defenders off him. Or a nose tackle charging at him at full speed, and Max just sits there and absorbs it. The closest thing I can compare his strength to is old-man strength. It does not look like he should have the power he does, but then it just pops off the tape. For his on-field combine drills, I gave him an 8.83, but his tape looks even better.

Data and Tape Analysis

If you are unfamiliar with my OL radar charts, you can find more information here

It's ridiculous that this radar chart is like this in a Power Four conference only four years after Iheanachor first touched a football. 0 sacks when he went against a multitude of future NFL players is an accomplishment many other less seasoned players have. While obviously having room for improvement, what Iheanachor has put on tape already is majorly worth getting excited about.

Iheanachor might be the best tackle I've watched in this class when it comes to his desire to look for work and ability to find it. He scans the field like a soccer midfielder, rarely being surprised by late rushers or stunts because he saw them coming and had time to prepare. Or on run plays, he quickly IDs exactly who he needs to go block, and once he displaces them, he is already looking for the next target. And it is weird to describe an OT as having a motor but Iheanachor does, and he does not stop blocking until after the whistle blows.

His pass protection is rooted in a great base, quick feet, and solid punches. Iheanachor has an immovable base. Trying to bull-rush through him is a bad idea. His feet stay so well connected to the field and in such great positions there was a play where an EDGE grabbed his jersey, pulled down his upper body and then tried to rush through him while Iheanachor was bent 90 degrees at the waist and it did nothing. His ability to mirror comes easily with his feet as well, only occasionally being pushed to his limits against some of the best pass rushers in this class.

With Iheanachor's hands, he is a bit more inconsistent. He does not always land them right where he is supposed to and can lose leverage because of that. Though even when that happens, he is so strong that he can make up for it, and the good punches land like a bomb on the chest of his opponents.

In the run game, I think Iheanachor could work in a zone or gap scheme system. His grades above do not show fantastic results, but when I watched, I really liked what I saw. Again, his looking for work and ID are great, and he just moves people. Few guys in this class look like road graters, but Iheanachor can. Combine that with his unique athleticism in open space, and he has the potential to make an enormous step up in the league.

Grade and Outlook

Max Iheanachor is doing things most football players could only dream of after starting football only four years ago. In that time, and no offense to his programs, he has not received top-level coaching, conditioning, nutrition, or anything like that. With all of that, he already has some of the best tape in this class, and it is hard to see just how high his potential could go. The only thing holding me back from giving Iheanachor a truly outrageous grade is that it might be rough sledding early on, and that can be tough on careers.

Grade: 6.7 (1st Rounder)