There are no 6′ 7″, 400-pound players in the NFL, but there are two that huge playing or committed to play college ball; Baylor junior tight end LaQuan McGowan and BYU offensive/defensive lineman Motekiai Langi, who will suit up in 2017 after a two-year Mormon mission in Arizona. Each has athleticism that belies his size. McGowan ran the 40 in 5.42 seconds last year, when he weighed closer to 440 pounds. BYU has never seen Langi, 18, on a football field, but Cougars coaches offered him a scholarship after watching him play basketball and rugby in his native Tonga, during which he showed impressive speed and coordination.

Does the emergence of these two behemoths suggest that Baylor coach Art Briles is right in predicting a rise in 300- pound skill-position players within 20 years? The average height and weight of quarterbacks, receivers, running backs and tight ends in the NFL has increased by 3.7 inches (to 6′ 1.7″) and 45.3 pounds (to 224.8) since the league’s inception in 1920. But even allowing for that growth, McGowan and Langi would still be extreme physiological outliers.

(full article published in Sports Illustrated, August 10, 2015)