Nobody talks about Clemson's offensive tackle room like a pipeline, but it is one. Blake Miller went in the first round to Detroit this April. Tristan Leigh, the five-star who anchored the 2024 ACC title line, just declared for the same draft class after five years in the building. that's two first-round-caliber tackles gone in one cycle — and Clemson has to replace both while breaking in a quarterback with 105 career pass attempts.
The scout Start with the tackles, because that's the story. Brayden Jacobs is the closest thing to a known commodity at left tackle, and even that comes with an asterisk: the 6-foot-7 sophomore only got the job last season because Leigh went down, flashed real power in an emergency start, then suffered his own season-ending injury in November before he ever got to prove it over a full year. at right tackle it's an open competition between redshirt freshman Easton Ware and redshirt sophomore Mason Wade — neither with meaningful game snaps. four of Clemson's five projected starters up front suffered season-ending injuries in 2025. the only sure thing is Harris Sewell, now sliding from guard (17 career starts, 1,300+ snaps) to center specifically because Dabo Swinney needs one voice in the middle who can set protections from memory instead of instinct. That line opens the season protecting Christopher Vizzina at LSU, on the road, against a Lane Kiffin defense, in Vizzina's first start as QB1. his only real data point is one spectacular relief outing — 29-of-42, 317 yards, three touchdowns against SMU when Cade Klubnik went down — and it came throwing to a T.J. Moore who was just getting hot. the sample is thin, but it's the right kind of thin. Which brings us to the receivers, the one position group that isn't a question mark. Moore had the full breakout in 2025 that his freshman tape promised — team-high 837 yards, four touchdowns, third-team All-ACC, and a signature 124-yard, two-score game against SMU with Vizzina throwing to him. Bryant Wesco Jr. was tracking toward an even bigger year (17.3 yards per catch, the class's proven route-runner) before a spinal injury on a punt return ended his season early. he's expected back at full strength in 2026. together, Moore and Wesco were the first Power Four receiver duo since 2000 to each top 650 yards and five touchdowns as true freshmen. whatever happens at quarterback, the guys catching the ball are not the problem. Now the defense, which is its own strange case. Tom Allen's first year improved Clemson from 69th to 55th nationally overall — modest progress — but the pass defense finished 120th in the country despite one of the best pass rushes in the sport. that's not a talent problem, that's a coverage problem, and it's exactly what the transfer portal class was built to fix: nine defensive additions, four of them defensive backs (Elliot Washington II from Penn State, London Merritt from Colorado, Corey Myrick from Southern Miss, Jerome Carter III from Old Dominion). up front and at linebacker, Clemson lost three NFL-bound linemen but kept its two best players: Sammy Brown, who's one of only 14 players nationally with 10-plus tackles for loss and five-plus sacks in both 2024 and 2025, and Will Heldt, the Purdue transfer who turned down the NFL draft to come back for 7.5 more sacks worth of unfinished business. Fantasy · IDP · dynasty T.J. Moore is the one true dynasty buy here — a proven, featured WR1 with 97 career catches and 1,487 yards already, entering a season where the passing volume should only grow as Vizzina gets more comfortable. Wesco is the buy-low: a receiver who was outproducing Moore per-catch before the injury, likely to be undervalued in dynasty leagues coming off a spinal injury scare even though he's expected back at full go.