Howard Sampson

Howard Sampson is a mountainous left tackle whose 2027 draft stock rests on rare size and a pass-blocking grade that already measures up against first-round company. At 6-8 and 330 pounds, he has what the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal calls ideal size for the blind side, and his first season at Texas Tech backed the projection up: he was a strong pass protector and a solid run blocker. That overall number is the detail worth sitting with, because Max Iheanachor and Monroe Freeling posted 72.5 and 72.3 on their way to first-round selections. Sampson arrives in Lubbock by way of two transfers, from North Texas to North Carolina to Texas Tech, and Draft Scout notes he added roughly 15 pounds for the 2025 season while grading as a tester with good pass-blocking chops. Draft Scout's file on him reads as a future Day 3 starting left tackle, and WalterFootball currently slots him in the fourth-to-sixth round range with a projected 5.15 forty. Silver and Black Pride lists him among the sleepers and risers of a 2027 tackle class the site describes as strong at the top and a dartboard underneath, naming Sampson as one of the two names that stand out immediately from that tier. The gap between his pass-block grade and his run-block grade is the whole evaluation: he is further along protecting the quarterback than he is moving people. He steps into 2026 as a fourth-year senior on a Texas Tech team coming off a 12-win season and nine draft picks, protecting the left side of an offense under national attention.