There was a time when then-Alabama A&M offensive line coach Markus Lawrence held his breath whenever Carson Vinson knocked on his office door. Lawrence feared that, at some point, the gifted 6-foot-7, 314-pound offensive tackle was going to tell him that he was entering the transfer portal.
But, despite the trend of promising players leaving for bigger schools and bigger paydays, Vinson stayed in Huntsville, Alabama, to start all four seasons and decided to take the far-less-traveled road to the NFL. This year, he was the only player from a historically Black college and university to be selected in the NFL draft, when the Baltimore Ravens picked him in the fifth round.
“He could have left us and chased the money,” said Lawrence, who is now the offensive line coach at South Carolina State. “He instead chased the commitment and the loyalty.”
Vinson takes pride in the fact that he comes from a HBCU school, but he says there’s no pride in being the first HBCU player drafted since 2023. He insists the NFL overlooked many players this year from the 21 HBCU schools that compete at the FCS level.
Vinson’s hope is that his success will clear a path for more HBCU players to reach the NFL. He doesn’t want players to transfer to bigger-name programs if it is not what they truly want. The key for Vinson was capitalizing on opportunities against top competition.
After being the first HBCU player invited to the Senior Bowl in two years, Vinson impressed in one-on-one drills in January, including a dominant rep against Bengals first-round pick Shemar Stewart. As the only HBCU player at the NFL combine in February, he finished among the top 15 offensive linemen in the 40-yard dash (5.2 seconds), the broad jump (9 feet, 3 inches) and the three-cone drill (7.51 seconds).
For 25 push-ups Alabama A&M LT Carson Vinson vs Texas A&M DL Shemar Stewart. Great rep by Vinson. Watch the footwork. pic.twitter.com/0J57F8Slgo
— TURRON DAVENPORT (@TDavenport_NFL) January 28, 2025
Throughout the draft process, he didn’t feel the weight of being the only HBCU player in Mobile or Indianapolis. He felt support. Vinson estimated that he heard from someone from every HBCU school this offseason, whether it was a call, text or social media message.
“Being from an HBCU, it is so special,” Vinson said. “We have our rivalries, but after we get past it, we’re all one big family.”
In the past five NFL drafts, Vinson is only the second player from an HBCU school to be selected in the first five rounds. The other player was South Carolina State cornerback Cobie Durant, who was picked in the fourth round by the Los Angeles Rams in 2022.
Jordan Reid, ESPN’s NFL draft analyst, sees it as a major challenge to change this trend. He isn’t convinced more HBCU players will get drafted in the future because of the transfer portal.
“We’re seeing guys, when they have a breakout season in the first one or two years at HBCU, there’s going to be other teams in the country that try to poach them,” said Reid, who was a coach and recruiting coordinator at his HBCU alma mater, North Carolina Central University, from 2014 to 2018. “It’s hard to blame them just because these guys are getting six-figure [NIL] offers. I think there’s going to be a couple special cases where players stay loyal to that program, but it’s hard to blame them if they don’t.”
VINSON HAS COME a long way since he arrived at Alabama A&M in 2020 as a mild-mannered, two-star recruit.
“When I first met him, I wasn’t a big fan of Carson,” Lawrence said, adding that he told Alabama A&M offensive coordinator Duane Taylor “I don’t know if he is going to be tough enough.”
Lawrence got his answer during Vinson’s first college practice. Vinson was working with the third-team offense and received one snap against the starting defensive end.
“He killed him,” Lawrence said. “He stood over top of him and he was talking. I looked over at Coach Taylor and said, ‘Hey, that whole soft deal … scratch it.'”
Vinson has the size and frame of an NFL left tackle. His wingspan was measured at the NFL combine at 84â…ś inches, which is on par with NBA star LeBron James.
Then, early in his junior year, Vinson showed he could handle himself against FBS pass rushers in Alabama A&M’s 47-13 loss to Vanderbilt. That’s when Vinson had a chance to return home to North Carolina.
“I wanted to go to [North] Carolina, and they came back calling around my junior or senior year [at Alabama A&M],” Vinson said. “I wasn’t going to go because they didn’t want me out of high school. It was really just a chip on my shoulder that I took throughout college. I said, ‘OK, I’m going to do it from the school that wanted me first.”‘
It didn’t surprise the Alabama A&M coaching staff that Vinson chose to stay. He has always been different in his approach.
Vinson arrived at games with a chessboard and played with teammates in the locker room. Nobody at Alabama A&M ever beat him, according to Vinson.
“This is our biggest, meanest and strongest guy on our football team, and he’s carrying around a chessboard,” Lawrence said. “He then played lights-out. So I said, ‘Hey, man, make sure we get that chessboard packed every week.'”
RAVENS GENERAL MANAGER Eric DeCosta could tell by watching Vinson’s tape that he had tremendous size and strength. He just didn’t realize how much strength.
During Vinson’s predraft visit to Baltimore, DeCosta was greeted with a handshake that almost broke his hand.
“Then he tried to shake my hand when he was leaving my office,” DeCosta said. “I just looked at him and said, ‘I’m good.'”
In his final season at Alabama A&M, Vinson was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference Offensive Lineman of the Year. He totaled 61 knockdowns and allowed one sack, which came against Auburn in the season opener.
Ravens offensive line coach George Warhop thought Vinson’s college tape “was really just OK.” Then, Vinson became one of Warhop’s favorite prospects by how he performed at the Senior Bowl.
“He wasn’t perfect, but he competed,” Warhop said. “Once I saw that and how God made him — and there’s not that many guys like that — I was like, ‘If we have a chance, we need to draft him.'”
Ravens coach John Harbaugh said Warhop was “beating the Carson Vinson drum” all week leading up to the draft. When Baltimore made the decision to take Vinson with the 141st overall pick, DeCosta called Vinson to break the good news to him. Soon, the phone was handed to Warhop.
“All right, big man, don’t let me down,” Warhop told Vinson. “I’ve been fighting my ass off for you. I’m going to work the dog crap out of you.”
WARHOP HAS CERTAINLY lived up to his vow of tough love. From rookie minicamp in May to the mandatory one seven weeks later, Warhop could be heard barking out corrections to Vinson about his feet, hand placement and other technique issues — and it usually involved colorful four-letter words.
“I can crawl right up his stuff, and he does not ever blink,” Warhop said. “You see him out there, he just kind of looks at me, [he says] ‘Yes sir,’ he goes on, and he does what he’s supposed to do. But, he’s a young kid, so we’re trying to get him up to speed as fast as possible. So, it’s [by any] means necessary to get that done.”
As long as the Ravens stay healthy, they won’t need Vinson to play immediately. Baltimore re-signed left tackle Ronnie Stanley in free agency and returned second-year Roger Rosengarten at right tackle.
The Ravens have a history of developing Day 3 offensive linemen. Over the previous dozen drafts, Baltimore has had seven offensive linemen who eventually became starters after being selected in the fourth round or later: Ryan Jensen (2013), Rick Wagner (2013), Alex Lewis (2016), Jermaine Eluemunor (2017), Bradley Bozeman (2018), Ben Powers (2019) and Ben Bredeson (2020).
“I look at that frame, and you say, ‘Man, he can grow so much into that, and he’s got to get in that weight room and get to work right away,'” Harbaugh said.
If Vinson fulfills his dream of becoming a starter in the NFL, he won’t forget his HBCU roots. He remembers how Alabama A&M alumni such as Hall of Fame wide receiver John Stallworth and five-time Pro Bowl defensive end Robert Mathis made an impact on him.
“It’s really easy when guys say, ‘OK, this guy did it, this guy did it.’ But, when you see them in the flesh, it becomes real,” Vinson said. “So, I knew it was real because I’ve seen Robert Mathis in person, and he went to the same institution as I did. I’ve seen John Stallworth.”
Vinson added, “So, it’s really important not only just to give money — anybody can give a check — but it’s really important to be there and be hands-on.”
