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Where David Yankey Wins
Where David Yankey shines, and what could be the saving grace of his skillset, is his explosion and leverage off of the line. He fires out of his stance with a very good pad level and frequently beats the defender across from him in terms of first step. He gets into defenders frames quickly and knows how to position his body to absorb and sustain. When Pulling, Yankey shows exceptional awareness and does a good job of locating his target.
In Pass Protection, Yankey is very good at recognizing stunts and blitzes. He does a good job getting depth in his set with good weight distribution and hand placement. He has a good, not great, anchor and can mirror well enough.
Where David Yankey Needs To Improve
Yankey struggles the most with his balance. He frequently ends up on the ground, both while run and pass blocking. While run blocking he just seems overmatched vs DT's in terms of strength too often. He does not have the balance, athleticism, or strength to be a guy who consistently moves guys off the ball. When DT's are able to beat Yankey off the ball and into contact in the run game, Yankey loses more times than not.
While pass blocking, Yankey's balance may be even more of an issue. He often loses balance completely when countered, and he loses most handfights. I also do not think he shows the strength or balance to handled competent speed-to-power DT's. Yankey struggles in pass protection because he can not get his hands in the DL's frames as quickly as he can while run blocking, thus losing his greatest asset.
Overall Impression
Yankey has an OK skill set, but just lacks in overall athleticism and strength too much. Ultimately, his balance will be his achilles heel, as he does not have any other traits to offset it. I see a good depth guy who could potentially play all 3 interior line spots as a spot starter, but he would scare me as a 16 game starter.
Grade: 5.9, Day 3.