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Clemson Tigers C Jay Guillermo is a Redshirt Senior from Maryville, TN. He arrived at Clemson ahead of the 2012 season which he redshirted. Guillermo played sparingly during the 2013 and 2014 seasons before becoming a starter in 2015. He was named second team All-ACC in 2015 and first team All-ACC in 2016.
Ht: 6’3”
Weight: 298 lbs.
40-yard dash: 5.48
Right now Jay Guillermo is projected as a 7th round pick or an undrafted free agent. He ranked as the 7th best center in the 2017 NFL Draft and he’s considered to be around the 280th best player available overall.
Guillermo has the size to play in the NFL at 6’3”, and his work at Clemson shows he can handle the pass rush at the college level. He wasn’t responsible for many snaps and several coaches and team mates spoke of his ability to direct the OL and make presnap adjustments, a critical piece of his job at center. He can also snap the ball well, something Clemson fans understand the importance of.
The concern for Guillermo is going to be his physicality and athleticisim, especially in the running game. While the Clemson OL did well in 2015 against the run, the 2016 version wasn’t great. Some of that falls on Guillermo where Clemson had a lot of issues running between the tackles. Guillermo didn’t always show the physicality needed to push guys around and NFL scouts will see that. His bench numbers at Clemson’s Pro Day would have ranked him 5th among all OL at the NFL Combine, but workout numbers only go so far.
As unfortunate as it is, there will also be a lot of questions from the NFL about Guillermo’s mental health. While we all hate it, the NFL is going to look at Guillermo’s decision to step away from football for a few months during the spring of 2015. There are some teams that will not take Guillermo’s battle against depression as a positive, but rather a negative thing. The truth is Guillermo’s battle should show that he has that mental toughness to overcome obstacles in life and that he will fight when things become difficult. But a team willing to take a chance on Jay Guillermo is not going to have to worry about effort or understanding football, they will just have to focus on on-field performance.
Ultimately I think Guillermo ends up becoming an undrafted free agent but he will almost certainly sign with a team for training camp. He’s going to have an opportunity to make an NFL roster and the big question will be how much he can improve his strength and athleticisim between now and the start of camp in July.