Ryan Swoboda: Path To The NFL Draft

By Simon Carroll

There are no guarantees in football. A violent game that tests the limits of people’s mental and physical capabilities on a daily basis, it’s unsurprising to learn that the average length of an NFL career is just 3.3 years. Extending that timeframe whilst competing at the highest level is a delicate balance, with the threat of a career-ending injury often a secondary concern behind the pursuit of victory.

For Ryan Swoboda, his dream of a football career was almost over before it ever began, a result of overexertion in one of his first ever collegiate practices. And yet, that adversity only hardened his desire to play on Sundays. The former Virginia and UCF offensive tackle speaks to Simon Carroll about his path to the NFL Draft:

Growing Into Football

At 6’9” and 320lbs, Ryan Swoboda cuts a pretty imposing figure, both on the football field and off it. And yet within thirty seconds of speaking to him, his engaging personality and friendly demeanour immediately betrays his dimensions. Born in Portland, Oregon (presumably a lot smaller than he is now), the Swoboda family moved to Clermont, Florida when Ryan was at a young age. Diving into his first memories of football, I learn that his father Kirk introduced him to the sport – himself a former college football star at Pacific:

“I knew my dad played ball, and we’d watch a ton of football as I was growing up. I began playing football my sophomore year of high school – starting kinda late compared to other guys. I was 6’8” and 170lbs – perfect basketball measurements. At fifteen I was the same height and weight at that time as Brandon Ingram! I was skin and bone, but they threw me out there at right tackle. My mom Sophie is Ethiopian and didn’t know much about football back then. She does now! Both her and my dad were very supportive, and I’m very close to both of them.”

Tall and lean, Swoboda obviously starred on the basketball court as well as the gridiron.

“I had played basketball my whole life going into high school. I’d always loved it, played it on the UnderArmour circuit, and was pretty good at it. Once I started gaining weight consistently, a lot of the basketball coaches saw the writing on the wall. One coach tried to convince me to play college basketball and I asked him to show the football coach my Hudl film! He never replied. But the biggest telltale sign it was going to be football was the amount of basketball games I fouled out of. At that point, it became apparent football was going to be more of my thing.”

A Football Education

Falling into football paid immediate dividends for Ryan Swoboda, who at Windermere Prep High School helped the Lakers win a state championship in 2015, and a 10-1 record as a senior. As a first-team All-SSAC honoree from the Orlando Sentinel and a two-time All-District 11 honoree, Swoboda had a high school career to be proud of. But he ultimately ended up with just three scholarship offers:

“I was named a three-star recruit. Had a bit of interest in me, maybe six schools or so – a couple from the West Coast. But I only actually had three scholarship offers; USF, Dartmouth and Virginia. I chose Virginia and that was that.”

It may have been a modest amount of interest, but being offered a scholarship by two of the most academically prestigious seats of learning in America must have been a source of pride for Swoboda. When pushed about the offers from Virginia and (Ivy League) Dartmouth, Ryan admits the academic side was a consideration.

“Education was important. I really didn’t want to have just online classes every day. A lot of football teams do that for their players, try and make their lives easier – allow them to focus on football. I wanted to get a degree that, once I had finished, I would be proud of. Virginia definitely ticked that box. I wasn’t heavily recruited, and it came late in the process. And the reason for that is I was so skinny. I guess the few schools who did offer me saw the progress in my body and my game year on year, and banked on that development continuing. I didn’t do football camps or any of that. I had good grades, and I showed growth.”

Nearly Losing Everything

Ryan Swoboda packed his bags and headed to Charlottesville, Virginia, ready for the next step in his football career. Like many freshmen, Swoboda would not see the field his first year on campus. But this had nothing to do with being redshirted or languishing at the bottom of a depth chart. Ryan recounts the moment that he nearly lost more than just a year of football:

“My third day at UVA, a new coaching staff arrives. We have a sort of initiation in training, a ‘welcome to college football – we’re going to set the standard right here’. We did so many up-downs, no exaggeration, maybe three hundred. Me being 6-9” at this point, up-downs suck! They’re very difficult for me. And I had an exertional heatstroke. My internal core temperature reached 109 degrees. I don’t remember this part, but we were pushing the sled, I began walking over and I just collapse. I’m rushed to hospital, where I’m in a medically induced coma for three days. I ended up staying there for three weeks, but at that time I was just grateful, counting my blessings that I was still alive.”

There’s nothing like a near death experience to help people re-evaluate priorities. Most people in that situation would have walked away from football, just happy to be able to live their lives. But Swoboda had no intention of giving up on his dreams, irrespective of what it would take to get back on the field.

“It was a life-altering moment for me, and I learned a ton from the experience. It allowed me to put things into perspective, but I still wanted to play football. So I had to think hard about things; if I was going to play football again I needed a real good reason to do it. It made me really focus on my career from that moment. But it was a long road back – there was no real blueprint for returning to football from exertional heatstroke. My recovery was arduous, beginning with minor exercise and building it up. And I wasn’t allowed back in training until I’d passed a heat tolerance test, which despite improvement each time I kept failing. But I wouldn’t give up.”

From Near-Death To Dominance

Just days before the beginning of training camp for the 2018 season, Ryan Swoboda was cleared to return to football. That season he was eased back into action, playing predominantly on special teams and starting one game at tight end. The next season sees Swoboda earn increased playing time on the offensive line, as The Cavaliers go from strength to strength under Bronco Mendenhall. Ryan was grateful to be a part of that team success in his early Virginia career, and how it has helped him understand what it takes to enjoy success:

“High school or college. Football or basketball; I take great pride in never having a losing season. That’s a testament to the teams I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of. I’ve learned from winners my entire career, and not everybody gets to say that.”

His final two years at Charlottesville, Swoboda became an integral part of the Cavaliers’ offensive line – playing in 21 of 22 games between 2020 and 2021. And he operated at an elite level too, consistently grading out as one of the best pass-protectors in the ACC by Pro Football Focus. Considering the early adversity in his collegiate career, it was a remarkable trajectory. A big smile breaks out on Ryan’s face as he begins to credit those who helped him develop into one of the best right tackles in the nation:

“Garett Tujague, my offensive line coach, what a man. I have been blessed to learn from two of the best o-line coaches in the country, firstly with Coach Tujague for five years at UVA, and then Herb Hand at UCF in 2022. They helped me be the best tackle I could be. Shawn Griswold, the strength & conditioning coach at Virginia – he took me under his wing when I first got cleared from the heatstroke. That was a lot of pressure, because I guess I was something of a liability, a ‘guy who nearly died’. He went above and beyond with the plan he put together for me. He built me into an ACC tackle and I’ll never be able to thank him enough. And one more guy – Jackson Matteo, who was a grad assistant at UVA in 2019 & 2020 – he’s really my mentor. I’d just won the right tackle job, but had an ankle injury that slowed my ascension to being a full-time starter. My backup played well in my absence, and you know they’ll forget about you real quick if you can’t stay on the field! After all the adversity in 2017 it was a real disappointment, but Jackson helped turn that situation into a positive challenge. He’s now a head coach at Woodberry Forest High School, and is going places.”

A New Challenge

Following the end of the 2021 season, Ryan Swoboda entered the transfer portal. This felt surprising considering the growth he had shown during his time at UVA. But as Swoboda explains, it was just another step in his development:

“I loved my time at Virginia. Loved it. I have no regrets about anything I have done there. At the end of that season, Coach Mendenhall had resigned, and I was going to enter the NFL Draft. I participated in an all-star game, got some perspective from that. But ultimately, there is no guarantee of an NFL career. Once you wash out at that level, it’s over – go get a real job. So with that in mind, I still had a year of eligibility left. Why not take it, play more football, and compete for a championship somewhere? The next stage of the thought process was, if I’m coming back, I need to challenge myself with something different. A new offense, a new environment. I had excelled in a pass heavy offense for five years, and decided I wanted to go somewhere where they run the ball. Run blocking is so much more fun, going out and hitting someone! It would also let me show scouts I had an all-round game, and I could finish my masters degree at the same time. It just all made too much sense.”

Swoboda enjoyed a lot more attention in the transfer portal than he did as a high school recruit – a nod to how well he had done at UVA. Naturally, teams with pass-oriented offenses came calling, and Ryan laughs as he recalls joking with them about not calling five years earlier. But he stayed true to the mandate – which conveniently allowed him to head back home to Orlando, Florida:

“Yeah all the air-raid teams came calling, as I guess I fit their offenses. One by one I had to explain to them I was grateful for the offer, but I wanted to do something new, put something different on film. UCF ticked all the boxes for me, and it was a happy coincidence that it was just 20 minutes from my family.”

Finishing School

The UCF experience was exactly what Ryan Swoboda hoped it would be. The Knights finished 7th in the country in running the ball, got to the American Conference championship game, and Ryan earned his Masters degree in Interdisciplinary Studies – combining education and management. He started all fourteen games at right tackle, and leaves college football with a much higher draft stock than he had twelve months prior. Swoboda remains humble, understanding the challenge ahead, but is happy with the decision.

“The NFL is ruthless. The biggest thing is getting into a camp and trying to stick on the roster. That’s all I can control, and I believe I can do that. I feel more prepared for that challenge after this last season, but if I didn’t help myself at least I got to play one more year of football in front of my family. I had a lot of fun, made more great connections – and playing for Gus Malzahn was special. That man lives and breathes football. I’m sure that’s all he talks about when he takes his wife for dinner! We were once at a homecoming event, with thousands of students there. We were backstage preparing to go out, and just before we go, Gus put his hand on my shoulder and said ‘you know, when Cincinnati line up with a 4i, there’s an 88 percent chance they’re bringing a blitz’! He never took his mind off our next opponent.”

We discuss his favourite memories of his college career. UVA’s 2019 win over Virginia Tech was high on his list, a game in which Swoboda dominated. But as is Ryan’s personable character, he ends up thinking of the friendships and relationships he’s cultivated in his two college homes. He proudly tells me he’s going to be a groomsman at former teammate Dillon Reinkensmeyer’s wedding, someone he calls a ‘brother for life’. With a personality so infectious, it’s no wonder he makes so many friends. I’ve spoken to him for just twenty-seven minutes at this point, and I already want to buy him a beer…

Full Focus On The NFL Draft

But for now, it’s all business for Ryan Swoboda as he embarks upon the next stage of his football journey: making it to the NFL. Considering it was just six years ago he was in a medically induced coma, the objective seems surreal – but it’s very much in reach. Like many talented prospects, Swoboda was on a lot of radars for the showcase games, and he actually attended not one but two of them. A full participant at the Hula Bowl in Orlando, an ankle injury meant Ryan was an observer for the majority of the later NFLPA Bowl. Swoboda was frank in his reasoning for sitting out the contest:

“I was still able to do interviews, team meetings, stuff like that. But now, I’ve got to be selfish and think about me. In football you’re usually playing through some kind of injury, and your team-first mindset spurs you on to step up. But in these showcase games, they don’t contribute to a team’s season, and you’re not playing for anyone else but yourself. So I played it safe and shut it down in readiness for my pro day. It was unfortunate, but I hope my game film speaks for itself.”

Any veteran of the NFL Draft calendar will tell you that these showcase events are just as important for networking. Swoboda gave an insight into the hectic nature of meeting NFL teams throughout the week:

“It was crazy. I didn’t know what I was getting into! Scouts can interview you after practice, and that’s just a free for all; who can grab who for a few minutes. But team meetings were in the evening after dinner. I must have taken dozens of IQ tests. My brain was fried by the end of it! You’d get texts from scouts trying to schedule you in, and you’re just trying to see as many of them as you can. I was up until 12:45am on some nights just meeting teams. I think I met 16 or 17 in total. I had a blast with it, and tried to just relax and be myself. One team showed me a thirty minute video then gave me a test like I was back in high school! But I’m happy with how I portrayed myself. And I think they have a better idea of the kind of character I am.”

Final Audition

Ryan Swoboda has one final opportunity to impress NFL scouts before draft weekend. UCF’s pro day is on March 29th, and Ryan has headed to Minnesota to train for the event. I ask him how it is up there, and he says “one word: very cold”. I consider bringing him up on the grammatical error, but who am I to question someone who had a scholarship offer from an Ivy League institution? He tells me that it’s not too dissimilar a regime to the offseason; lifting weights and doing drills, measuring your performance in seconds and pounds rather than pancakes and sacks allowed. In terms of an objective, Swoboda has a very clear idea of what he wants to show the watching world:

“When I get back to UCF, I want to show scouts I have that ability to bend. Throughout my career I’ve shown a lot of good things; getting out of my stance, taking on a bullrush, driving guys off the ball. But Ive gotta do a better job of doing that consistently. Every now and again a rep will sneak in there where the pad level was high – at my height it’s easy to lose that leverage battle. But I don’t want that to be in the back of anyone’s mind. I know I have that flexibility, loose hips, and the ability to bend. That’s something for pro day. I expect to put it on show on March 29th.”

Swoboda assures me he’ll be back in sunny Florida for draft weekend, awaiting his destiny amongst his friends and family. 

“It will be the accumulation of a ton of hard work. The beginning of a great opportunity. But I’ll stay pretty level. Whether my name is called that weekend or I get a phone call after, the goal remains the same – to get into training camp and make that 53 man roster. And then do what I’ve always done; build up from that point. At college you have one-star, three-star, five-stars and walk-ons. In the NFL it’s first round picks or undrafted rookies. It’s exactly the same – once you put the pads on, nobody cares.”

Ryan Swoboda knows how to overcome the odds, and is ready to do it again – with grit, determination, and a big smile on his face.

Mock Draft

SIMON CARROLL

HEAD OF CFB/NFL DRAFT CONTENT

PREVIOUSLY THE FOUNDER OF NFL DRAFT UK, SIMON HAS BEEN COVERING COLLEGE FOOTBALL AND THE NFL DRAFT SINCE 2009. BASED IN MANCHESTER, SIMON IS ALSO CO-CREATOR & WEEKLY GUEST OF THE COLLAPSING POCKET PODCAST.

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A huge thank you to Ryan for taking the time to talk to us. Everyone at The Touchown wishes him well in his future career.