NFL Draft Profiles: Offensive Center Trystan Colon-Castillo

Of all the early announcements from the Missouri crop of juniors, the most surprising was the declaration from Trystan Colon-Castillo. To me it smacked of “this team won’t be very good next year and I can’t improve what I’ve done so far with a new coaching staff and youth around me”. And hey, I’m all in favor of these guys getting paid. But I do worry that TCC will have to go the undrafted free agent route to make a roster and earn that paycheck.

Colon-Castillo took a redshirt his first year on campus, but won the starting center battle in fall camp of 2017. From that point forward he played every game he could, logging 38 career starts in three years. Much like most of the Missouri offensive line, he earned rave reviews from Pro Football Focus in both pass protection and run blocking, but regressed during the 2019 campaign.

At 6’4” and 315 pounds, TCC is a good size for the interior line of an NFL team. He was always praised for his intelligence and leadership while at Mizzou, so hopefully those traits carry over to the professional game. Without the ability to show off his athleticism at the Combine due to an injury, he’s going to have to hope that someone falls in love with his 2018 tape and takes a flier on him in the sixth or seventh round. But as previously stated, with a down year as his most recent body of work, an injury at the one time to make a good impression, and an anticipated propensity of GMs taking name-brand guys in this draft, I highly doubt TCC gets his name called during the draft and, instead, gets signed as an UFA.

Plenty of guys make it through that route and I’m certainly hoping Trystan is one of those guys who makes it.