With the NFL Draft approaching, I am taking a look back at some memorable recruits who are now likely to be high picks. In this series, I’ll touch on memories of the recruits, scouting, projections and fun anecdotes. I previously looked at Jalen Ramsey and Derrick Henry, Chris Jones and Alex Collins and examined how offensive systems preparing QBs for the draft impacts QB recruiting.

“Just stay healthy.”

It’s something I say to myself a couple times each year when scouting high school prospects whose God-given talent is so great that very little projection is needed to see them in the NFL. Not guys who need to put on or drop a lot of weight, or grow or find a position, but the no-doubters who will soon be very rich with the right mix of health, hard work and staying out of trouble.

With a freakish combination of athleticism and size, Lake City (Fla.) Columbia offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil was one of those players in a loaded class of 2013. He would toy with opposing rushers like a cat batting around a lizard. Ole Miss suspiciously swooped in at the last second to land the Florida star, much to the surprise of Alabama, Georgia Florida and others. He did run into NCAA — but not legal — trouble in Oxford, not that the league cares about that.

Tunsil is an outrageous athletic talent. If he played baseball, he’d probably have been incredible and been drafted and financially set for life three years ago. But he plays football, and he’ll be a high pick in the coming NFL Draft.

As I was writing this, SB Nation’s Steven Godfrey pinged me in Slack and said we should collaborate, so here we are:

Godfrey: What did Tunsil look like as a prospect? From day one, those of us in the non-recruiting media heard him described as a future first-round pick Have you ever seen a left tackle prospect like that?

Bud: He looked like this.

Bud Ellliott Laremy Tunsil after his junior year. Of high school.

Bud: Tunsil is one of the best offensive tackle recruits I’ve seen. He doesn’t stand out as head-and-shoulders above everyone else to me. Cam Robinson had a more advanced game just a year later, with more natural power, though Tunsil seems to have kept developing at a higher rate than Robinson has so far in college.

Godfrey: He famously caught a touchdown pass in the Sugar Bowl vs. Oklahoma State. The play had been designed specifically for Tunsil and was almost called in the Egg Bowl vs. Mississippi State.

I asked Freeze about the level of athleticism Tunsil brought to the position and how that’s become the norm. Who’s the next Tunsil?

Bud: It’s not the norm. Freeze is engaging in some crazy hyperbole here. But Ole Miss fans hope it is Greg Little, the No. 1-rated tackle in the class of 2016 who projects to start for the Rebels on Labor Day night against Florida State in Orlando. I spoke with Little recently during a trip to Dallas, and he’s been working hard to get ready. Little didn’t have quite the length that Tunsil had, but he may have better technique at the same age.

I’d also point to Jonah Williams, the Alabama signee from California who is already turning heads in Tuscaloosa after enrolling in time for spring.

Godfrey: Speaking of hyperbole, Tunsil’s Ole Miss teammate Laquon Treadwell said that when the team would play pickup basketball, Tunsil wanted to play point guard — and could. Coaches have always craved athleticism on the line, but there seems to be a new breed of athlete at the tackle position. What’s the cause? Bigger guys learning to be more physical at an earlier age? Superpowers?

Bud: I think I’m going to reject the premise. Are these new guys really more athletic relative to their competition than a Tony Boselli or Jonathan Ogden of 20 years ago? Maybe a guy like former Tennessee Volunteer and Jacksonville Jaguar defensive tackle John Henderson (6’7, 330) would play offensive tackle now that they are being taken so highly in the draft (25 percent more first-rounders decade/decade) and starring in a movie like The Blind Side? Sure, offensive tackles are getting more athletic, but so are defensive ends. I am unconvinced that the physical evolution of offensive tackles is drastically outpacing the general physical evolution of the sport.

Godfrey: A few months back, you and I discussed how the low stat totals in “pro style” offenses were actually beneficial for wide receivers. Is there any correlation for left tackles, their college systems and NFL success? If anything I’d assume Tunsil has seen a lot more pass protection than a normal pro system, but Ole Miss’ quick-fire style doesn’t really replicate a five- or seven-step drop and a traditional pocket.

Bud: I listen to a number of podcasts outside of college football, and many respected NFL people believe the spread hurting development of offensive linemen is an undersold negative externality. Will that hurt Tunsil? I don’t think so, because he is a freak athlete who also plays with a mean streak, but it may delay the development of some other tackles.

I was listening to someone the other day discuss how the Seattle Seahawks so hate how the spread has hurt the offensive line development in college that they are trying to draft defensive linemen and turn them into offensive linemen. The reasoning was that they have similar or better athleticism and more aggression, and that the gap in development out of college relative to the ability to play offensive line is smaller than it once was due to the proliferation of the spread. It’s worth noting Seattle’s experiment has not been a huge success.

Godfrey: If there’s a theory that spread offenses aren’t producing aggressive enough linemen, I’m sure we’ll be hearing about that soon on the college level. Tunsil is most likely an outlier, though — based on his athleticism and size, I doubt that it matters if he played for Art Briles or Paul Johnson. NFL OL coaches can work with his base skill set no matter what.

Bud: And like I wrote last week about quarterbacks, if more elite prospects pick spread teams, the NFL will be forced to adjust.