INDIANAPOLIS — The first time Evan Neal saw Daniel Faalele, Neal was confused.
“I saw him on the field with the coaches and was like, ‘What NFL team do you play for?’ ” said Neal, the Alabama left tackle whom USA TODAY Sports projects as the 2022 top overall draft selection.
Then the 6-7, 337-pound Neal uttered words he rarely can: “He’s huge.”
Faalele was 16 years old.
The phenomenon repeated two years later when the 6-8, 426-pound Faalele enrolled at Minnesota. In football team workouts, otherwise larger-than-life men were wowed.
“We were working out together and he was doing everything we were doing, except he was 100 pounds more,” fellow Minnesota offensive lineman Blaise Andries told USA TODAY Sports. “We were like, ‘OK this guy is very athletic. Lose a few (pounds) because just lose a few – but very athletic.’ “
Faalele has since trimmed to 384 pounds but still rests in record-setting realm. As the 2022 NFL draft nears, Faalele is expected to soon become the league’s largest player. Patriots offensive tackle Trent Brown, at 380 pounds, was the heaviest NFL player in 2021. Faalele celebrates the build and length that will dictate his blocking at the pro level, the power that he’s taught his impressive frame to generate. But Faalele and teammates want NFL teams to know: He’s more than just a big body.
“What people don’t understand,” Andries told USA TODAY Sports, “is that he’s actually pretty smart.”
BIG MEN, BIG DREAMS: Offensive linemen Evan Neal, Ikem Ekwonu build case for No. 1 pick
NFL DRAFT: Hand-size hysteria is no reason to downgrade top QB prospect Kenny Pickett
MORE: Why record-setting QB Bailey Zappe smiles when clearing up ‘misconception’ ahead of NFL draft
The learning curve
Growing up in Melbourne, Australia, Faalele knew he was towering and athletically gifted. He competed in basketball and rugby, the latter acclimating the Aussie to physicality he’d eventually embrace in football. The pivot began when University of Hawaii coaches came to Australia to scout and offered Faalele a football scholarship. More college interest followed, Michigan coaches connecting him with Florida-based IMG Academy. At age 16, Faalele moved across the globe.
His football acumen had yet to travel as far.
“It was definitely bad” at first, he laughs about his early play.
So Faalele redshirted his junior year of high school, soaking up any and all gridiron knowledge he could. He aimed to model his craft after high school teammates Cesar Ruiz and Robert Hainsey, now Saints and Buccaneers linemen, respectively. Five years of football, and exposure to a whole new world, have followed since.
“Teenage me would be most impressed with how far I’ve come with my football IQ,” Faalele said Thursday from the NFL scouting combine. “Coming in, I really didn’t know anything. Seeing how far I’ve come with that, how fast I can learn the playbook, how much better my technique’s gotten, how much better I can get.”
It’s those factors – how much potential lies untapped, how well Faalele has honed his process to maximize success chasing it – that Faalele has spent his week in Indianapolis explaining.
He is relishing interview opportunities to draw his college plays on a board, ready to repeat play calls and protections he would be responsible for if the team requesting that repetition invests a draft pick. Faalele’s football study launched 10-plus years later than those of his many American counterparts – but Andries marvels at where it’s landed.
“We’ve had arguments about blocking scheme and how to do things, and he’s actually been right sometimes,” Andries said.
Andries cites a Minnesota-Wisconsin game in which the Gophers employed an inside zone blocking scheme. Andries thought Faalele was too far from the ball. Faalele suggested he was actually too close.
“He made the call and I went with it but argued with him afterward. He was right,” Andries said. “He’s one of the smart ones in the room; I get my pride all hurt and mad about that.”
‘Sky’s the limit’
In the nearly two months until he learns his next home, Faalele has a plan. He clocks 30 minutes of cardio a day – treadmill or elliptical – on his continued mission to trim. In pursuit of technique mastery, Faalele signals out NFL actives whose traits he hopes to emulate: Chiefs tackle Orlando Brown’s strength, 49ers tackle Trent Williams’ aggression and Cowboys tackle Tyron Smith’s technique that “makes everything look easy.”
In reality, Faalele knows, the key to such sleek play is attention to detail. His Australian rugby days were simpler, the game more lateral and linear. In football: Angles must be sharper to the second level, movement quicker off the ball, his vertical set better and the snap count manipulated to his advantage. Faalele also must lower his pad level. When he achieves this balance?
“Being able to dominate someone – legally – is something that’s definitely fun,” Faalele said. “Always love getting pancakes and making someone’s day worse.”
With his 31-start college career wrapped, the All-Big Ten First Team finalist awaits news of his next team excited even more for what lies ahead than where. He hopes teams focus less on the 15-plus football-free years and more on his trajectory for growth pointing up.
“The sky’s the limit for me,” says Faalele. “I feel like I definitely have a lot to show and I have a lot more room to grow. I feel like that’s the exciting thing about me.
“I have a lot more potential to reach and I feel like that’s an advantage.”
Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Jori Epstein on Twitter @JoriEpstein.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Daniel Faalele: 384-pound OL prospect set to be NFL’s biggest player