Florida Football has a hole at right tackle but won't consider Devon Manuel

Heading into the 2024 season for Florida Football, alarm bells sounded about the offensive line's right side. Despite some changes that, on paper, sounded good, people from inside the program were hinting that the unit still had a glaring weakness and wasn't ready for primetime.

Four quarters later against Miami those fears were confirmed as the right side of the line looked like a bouncer who had given up trying to check anyone and just starts letting everyone through.

This week, Florida is still looking for answers at right tackle, but Billy Napier seems hesitant to lean on a player many of us thought would be in contention for the job when he came to Gainesville.

Florida Football: Read The Manuel

Devon Manuel transferred to Florida from Arkansas in the offseason. He took 417 snaps with the Razorbacks at left tackle and gave up four sacks and eight pressures during the 2023 campaign.

Along with Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson, the transfer from San Diego State, it felt like Florida was going to be okay at tackle because they also still had Austin Barber in the mix.

In fact, one could argue from a metrics standpoint that Manuel felt like he would for sure be the starter out of that trio to be a starter in 2024, given that he had better metrics than Barber in 2023 and had SEC experience that Crewnshaw-Dickson did not.

But as both spring and fall camp rolled along, it became clear that Manuel was the odd man out of the group. When the depth chart for Miami was released, Manuel was behind Barber at left tackle while Florida was content rolling out Kamryn Waites and Crenshaw-Dickson at right tackle.

We aren't going to spend too much time on the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day that Waites had on Saturday, but it does mean Napier needs to go back to the drawing board.

Crenshaw-Dickson played 31 snaps at right tackle, giving up two pressures and two hurries in 18 passing snaps. Manuel did get in for 17 snaps at left tackle, giving up one pressure and one hurry in 10 passing snaps.

Neither of those are amazing metrics, but there is enough there, especially given his pedigree, that one would think Manuel would be looked at as a solution at right tackle.

But when asked about it at his press conference on Wednesday, Napier had the following to say when asked whether or not Manuel could play right tackle.

"Well, we're trying to get some of these rookies to come on a little bit. The guys that missed parts of training camp. Caden Jones, Fletcher Westphal, they're getting reps. Obviously, Devon (Manuel) has played both sides but primarily we're sticking with that four man rotation. We're trying to get Caden a little more involved and Kam Waites can play inside and outside. Yeah, I mean, it is literally one day at a time right now. Based off of what I watched Saturday, it's show me on Tuesday, show me on Wednesday, show me on Thursday, and then we'll decide on who's going to play."

Translation: No

Follow-up question: Why?

Napier himself admits Manuel has played both sides but seems determined to keep him on the left behind Barber. He mentioned Caden Jones, a former fringe four-star from the class of 2023, as an option to rotate in at right tackle, but this feels like linear thinking from Napier.

If Barber can play all season like he did against Miami, Florida doesn't need to rotate him like they did on Saturday and should be employing every resource available to plug the right side. Unless Manuel genuinely can't play the right side, this feels like a misallocation of resources to insist upon unproven guys like Waites, Jones, or Fletcher Westphal ahead of a guy who took over 400 snaps in the SEC in 2023 and was considered an adequate tackle within the context of the SEC.

But this has been the staple of Napier during his time in Gainesville. Rather than think outside the box to come up with ways to get the best players on the field, he keeps trying to plug a square peg into a round hole.

Based on what we saw on Saturday, the offensive line isn't in a position to proceed slowly and steadily with the personnel. It needs answers and it needs them now.

Is Manuel the definitive answer?

We have no way of knowing without letting him try.