Gavin’s NFL Draft gem and germ of the week

Gem: Olaivavega Ioane, IOL – Penn State (Redshirt Junior)

When I think of the word dominant in this draft class, my mind has gone to the interior offensive linemen. While last year was a great interior draft that has produced a number of day 1 starters with names like Tyler Booker and Grey Zabel, I believe that Olaivavega Ioane has a higher ceiling than any interior prospect than we’ve seen in a few years.

Standing at a tall 6’4″ and weighing 330 pounds, he is the ideal build for a versatile guard who can play around the offensive line at the professional level. Although his quickness and acceleration isn’t outwardly impressive, Ioane showcases an elite first step on runs with a healthy, balanced forward lean. Ioane plays with aggressive hands and has dominated opposing defenders in college. Despite his aggression and style of play, Ioane only drew a singular flag in 2025. While his run blocking game was great, his pass blocking is where he really shined. Ioane didn’t allow a single sack in 2025 and only allowed 4 QB pressures on over 500 pass blocking snaps.

While Olaivavega Ioane has dominated defenders all season, he certainly has some things to patch up to become an elite guard in the NFL. Ioane is a big-hitter and delivers his body to defenders on pulls. While this has worked great so far, he may find that he needs to confirm the block before he goes for the kill-shot/pancake. Additionally, he needs to refine his pad level. On certain plays, both run and pas, his pads shoot straight up. And again, while this may not have caused problems at the college level, this combined with his occasional inability to match faster defensive tackles may lead to a much higher pressure rate in the NFL.

Overall, I do think that Ioane is the best guard prospect in this draft and will almost certainly start on day one. but there are some minor wrinkles that need to be ironed out before he is a truly elite NFL guard.

Germ: Diego Pavia, QB – Vanderbilt (Graduate)

Although Pavia’s explosive run-and-gun style of play may be enticing, Pavia’s 2025 season was inconsistent to say the least. 

The 2nd-team All-American put up solid numbers for the schedule Vanderbilt played. Being a part of one of the most competitive conferences in the NCAA, the team battled through arguably their best season in program history. The team notched 10 wins for the first time ever. Although they were left out of the playoffs by the committee, the Commodores still secured a New Year’s Eve ReliaQuest Bowl game against the Iowa Hawkeyes. 

In order for me to be convinced of Pavia’s maturity, his leadership skills and character concerns have to be mended. After Pavia came second in Heisman voting behind Indiana standout Fernando Mendoza, he made profane comments on social media towards the voters, drawing a great deal of criticism, and for good reason. Quarterbacks in the NFL are meant to be leaders, and leaders can not act out as Pavia has. 

To Pavia’s credit, he is a great runner that opposing teams have to account for. In addition to his running ability, he has shown to be proficient as a poised pocket passer and can plant his feet when appropriate. 

Where the Heisman runner-up struggles is with his consistency as a passer. Pavia had a relatively high completion percentage, completing 71.2% of his balls, but he threw 8 interceptions, including 2 in their last matchup against a weaker Tennessee secondary.

Although it has been proven over time that size isn’t everything in a quarterback, Pavia stands at a mere 5’11”, which could become a problem as his competition gets bigger at the next level. 

Overall, while Pavia has a high upside as a dual-threat signal caller, character concerns and questionable decision making under pressure make him this week’s germ of the week. NFL scouts should proceed with caution.