Tanor Bortolini: The 2024 NFL Draft's Most Interesting Prospect

It’s not often that you have an offensive lineman prospect run a sub-five second 40-yard dash. It’s aso uncommon that one has high level experience playing every position along the offensive line in college. 

Meet Tanor Bortolini, a fast rising prospect in the NFL Draft cycle due to his unique blend of skills and athleticism and quickly becoming a fixture in mock drafts as we are days away from the 2024 NFL Draft. 

“Playing small school sports definitely helps and builds you better overall as an athlete. You do a variety of motions and patterns, techniques that helped me grow,” Bortolini told FanSided in an exclusive interview ahead of the draft this weekend. “Then in college you stick to football, transition to lifting weights year round and playing but that athleticism stayed with me.

“That’s also something that I showcased at the combine. I feel confident doing a lot of different movements that a lot of guys aren’t comfortable doing, I used to run a little track in high school, the thrower’s relay back in the day, I think it was good to be able to showcase that and teams recognized that. I can do different things if we run Pin-pull, different schemes that maybe other players run, I feel confident in my ability to reach blocks, get on edges quickly and teams will see that out there.”

Bortolini’s stock took off at the NFL Draft combine, where he ran the second fastest 40-yard dash amongst offensive linemen at 4.94 and the fastest three-cone drill at the position, breaking Jason Kelce’s record set in 2011 at 7.16 seconds.

Bortolini was always an intriguing prospect to many that followed Wisconsin’s offense that went under an overhaul this past season.

After years of running smash mouth football, the Badgers turned its attention to an air-raid offense under new offensive coordinator Phil Longo, giving Bortolini a host of experience in different types of offenses that gives him a unique blend of tape to show off to coaches. 

“The best part about it [running two different offenses] is you get experience and film in doing both things and it showcases that you can run two very different styles of offense, and experience only helps,” Bortolini said. “Getting comfortable with the different techniques, styles and offensive philosophies is very beneficial and really helps in this transition.”

On top of that, in his time at Wisconsin, Bortolini played all five positions for the Badgers vaunted offensive line that has blocked for NFL stalwarts Jonathan Taylor in recent years and future pro this year, running back Braelon Allen. 

Most recently, Bortolini started each game this season at center, but has plenty of reps elsewhere.

“Teams love that,” the Wisconsin native told FanSided about how NFL teams view his versatility. “The best part about it is that if you aren’t the starter on day one, they are going to expect you to play two or three spots and I have experience doing that. Going into these meetings, it’s something that teams have brought up a lot [telling me] the versatility is huge and they feel confident that I can back up two or three spots and that gives you more opportunities to get on the field and play.”

Borotlini’s is not your normal offensive lineman prospect. He has the pedigree playing for an elite offensive line, the experience of a seasoned veteran who has played in two vastly different offenses at a myriad of different positions, and is more athletic than a majority of offensive linemen in the NFL. 

This unique blend of talent is not seen often in the NFL, and some team is going to see all of that as a must have come this weekend. 

Catch the full interview with Wisconsin's Tanor Bortolini below!