Spencer Joseph Drango (born October 15, 1992) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was an

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line (OL), while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line ( ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

Baylor Bears The Baylor Bears are the athletic teams that represent Baylor University. The teams participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as one of only three private school members of the Big 12 Conference. Prior t ...

. A

Freshman All-American Underclass All-American is an honorific for high school and college athletes for excellence in competition. The athletes recognized with this title are considered the best players of a specific season in their sport that are members of a given cla ...

in 2012, Drango was considered one of the best offensive tackles in his class. He was selected by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team is named after ...

in the fifth round of the

2016 NFL draft The 2016 NFL draft was the 81st annual draft of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. As in 2015, the draft took place at the Auditorium Theatre and Grant Park in Chicago. The draft beg ...

Early life

A native of

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, Drango attended

Cedar Park High School Cedar Park High School (CPHS) is a high school in Cedar Park, Texas. It was established in 1998 to serve as the second high school in the Leander Independent School District due to the rapid growth in the area. The school's mascot is the Timber ...

, where he was an All-State

. As senior, he registered 144 knockdowns while not allowing a

sack A sack usually refers to a rectangular-shaped bag. Sack may also refer to: Bags * Flour sack * Gunny sack * Hacky sack, sport * Money sack * Paper sack * Sleeping bag * Stuff sack * Knapsack Other uses * Bed, a slang term * Sack (band), ...

, helping Cedar Park to a 13–1 record and UIL quarterfinals, where they lost 21–20 to Michael Brewer's Austin Lake Travis. Regarded as a four-star recruit by Rivals.com, Drango was listed as the No. 23

offensive tackle Offensive may refer to: * Offensive (military), type of military operation * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Fighting words, spoken words which would have a tendency to cause acts of violence by the ...

prospect in 2011. He picked Baylor over offers from

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

, Louisiana State,

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

, and

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

College career

After redshirting his initial year at Baylor, Drango took over from Cyril Richardson as starting left tackle for the Bears in 2012. He started all 13 games and was named

Scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom ** Scouts BSA, sect ...

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(first-team) and

Phil Steele Phil Steele (c. 1960) is an American sportswriter and analyst who focuses exclusively on college and professional football. He is considered a "highly respected prognosticator" within the sports media. His company, Phil Steele Publications, pro ...

(second-team). Midway through his sophomore season, Drango had back surgery for a ruptured disk, but Baylor athletic trainer Jacob Puente helped him recover so he could play football once again. In his senior year, Drango had the highest pass-blocking efficiency in

according to ''

Pro Football Focus Pro Football Focus (also written as ProFootballFocus, and often referred to by its initials, PFF) is a sports analytics company that focuses on thorough analysis of the National Football League (NFL) and NCAA Division-I football in the United Sta ...

''. He allowed only three quarterback hurries, and just a single quarterback hit—against Oklahoma State defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah—all season, giving him a nation-leading 99.2 pass blocking efficiency.

Professional career

Pre-draft

Coming out of college, Drango was projected to go anywhere from the fourth to the seventh round by NFL analysts. NFLDraftScout.com ranked him the 19th best guard in the

. He played in the

Senior Bowl The Senior Bowl is a post-season college football all-star game played annually in late January or early February in Mobile, Alabama, which showcases the best NFL Draft prospects of those players who have completed their college eligibility. Pr ...

and reportedly met with representatives from the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

. While teams were fond of his upper body strength, ability to play in space, quality pass protection technique, and his quality setup in pass sets many pegged him as an eventual NFL backup or low-end starter with sloppy hand placement during blocks with a predictable punch in pass protection. He attended the

NFL Scouting Combine The NFL Scouting Combine is a week-long showcase occurring every February at Lucas Oil Stadium (and formerly at the RCA Dome until 2008) in Indianapolis, where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Foot ...

and put up decent numbers in the positional drills and workouts. At Baylor's annual

Pro Day The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

, he decided to stand on his combine numbers and only participate in positional drills. 61 scouts and representatives, including

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. Founded in 1933 P ...

head coach

Mike Tomlin Michael Pettaway Tomlin (born March 15, 1972) is an American professional American football, football coach who is the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League (NFL). Since joining the Steelers in 2007, he has led t ...

and

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team plays its home games at N ...

head coach Bill O'Brien, from all 32 NFL teams came to watch Drango,

Corey Coleman Corey Defians Coleman (born July 6, 1994) is an American former professional football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 6 seasons. He is currently the assistant wide receivers coach for TCU. He played college fo ...

, Shawn Oakman, Xavien Howard, Andrew Billings, and 11 other prospects workout. Although Drango was a top 10 tackle at Baylor each of the past two seasons, almost all analysts pegged him as an

offensive guard Offensive may refer to: * Offensive (military), type of military operation * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative (Netherlands), Socialist Alternative * Fighting words, spoken words which would have a tende ...

in the NFL.

Cleveland Browns

Drango was drafted by the

in the fifth round (168th overall) in the 2016 NFL Draft. On May 13, he signed a four-year contract worth about $2.55 million, which included a signing bonus worth about $207,000. Drango began

training camp A training camp is an organized period in which military personnel or athletes participate in a rigorous and focused schedule of training in order to learn or improve skills. Athletes typically utilise training camps to prepare for upcoming events ...

practicing at right guard but was immediately moved to right tackle and competed with rookie

Shon Coleman Shon Coleman (born November 25, 1991) is an American former professional football offensive tackle. He played college football at Auburn. Early life Born in Memphis, Tennessee to Travis Tunstall and De Keishia Coleman-Tunstall, Coleman attende ...

for the backup right tackle position behind

Austin Pasztor Austin William Pasztor (born November 26, 1990) is a Canadian former professional football player who was an offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Virginia Cavaliers and was signed by the Minn ...

. He ended up winning the backup left tackle position behind Pro-bowl veteran Joe Thomas. On September 18, 2016, Drango earned his first career start against the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its home g ...

after the Browns decided to start him as an extra lineman to begin the game. On November 10, 2016, he started at right guard against the Ravens after

Joel Bitonio Joel Michael Bitonio (born October 11, 1991) is an American professional American football, football Guard (gridiron football), guard for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Nevada Wolf ...

was unable to play after suffering an injury. He started the next three games after winning the job over veteran

Alvin Bailey Alvin Dewayne Bailey (born August 26, 1991) is an American former professional football player who was a guard in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Arkansas. He was signed by the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted f ...

. Drango finished his rookie season by playing all 16 games with 9 starts. On October 22, 2017, Browns starting left tackle Joe Thomas went down with a torn triceps injury after he had played 10,363 consecutive offensive snaps. The injury would require season-ending surgery. On October 23, 2017, Browns head coach

Hue Jackson Hue Jackson (born October 22, 1965) is an American football coach who is the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Georgia State University, a position he has held since 2024. An offensive assistant at both the collegiate and professio ...

stated that Drango would start at left tackle in place of Thomas. Drango was waived by the Browns on September 1, 2018.

Los Angeles Chargers

On September 18, 2018, Drango was signed to the

practice squad In gridiron football, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. They serve as extra players during the team's practices, often as part of the scou ...

of the

Los Angeles Chargers The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC W ...

. He signed a reserve/future contract with the Chargers on January 17, 2019. On August 31, 2019, Drango was waived by the Chargers and signed to the practice squad the next day. He was promoted to the active roster on November 18, 2019.

References

External links

*
Baylor Bears bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drango, Spencer 1992 births Living people All-American college football players American football offensive tackles Baylor Bears football players Cleveland Browns players Los Angeles Chargers players People from Cedar Park, Texas Players of American football from Williamson County, Texas Sportspeople with dyslexia American football offensive guards