Overview

Position: LB

College: UCLA

Class: Junior (RS)

Age: 22

 

Measurables

Height: 6’2 1/2″

Weight: 242 lbs.

Arm length: 31 5/8”

Hand size: 9 1/4″

 

Athletic testing

40-yard dash: N/A

10-yard split: N/A

Vertical jump: 39.5”

Broad jump: N/A

Bench press: 20 reps

3-cone drill: N/A

Short shuttle: N/A

 

Strengths

Ideal size and length. Excellent overall athleticism. Tremendous fluidity and foot quickness. Remarkable smoothness and agility in movements. Outstanding speed and hustle to track the ball towards the sideline and down the field. Very effective working on an angle to pursue runs on the edge. Natural athleticism getting into position to tackle when he finds the path. Will fly directly to the ball in the open field. Instant reaction time and acceleration towards the sideline. Quick breaking down to tackle. Stays wide and balanced in space. Great tracking ability and pursuit in the open field with a ball-carrier in his sights. Terrific overall balance to always keep his feet. Exceptional burst to get downhill when he sees a crease to get through to the ball. Reliable wrapping up in the hole. Aggressively strikes bigger ball-carriers working downhill. Able to effectively get low as a tackler. Strong taking on offensive linemen. Flashes as an extremely effective goal-line tackler when kept clean. Strong corralling opponents he gets his hands on them. Fast as a blitzer and will use his hands to get past blockers. Showed some dip when blitzing from the edge. Great play recognition versus screen passes. Extremely fluid movement skills in coverage. Does an outstanding job being light on his feet in the backpedal and shuffle. Very fluid flipping his hips. Terrific overall range in zone coverage. Big and athletic to get in passing lanes. Extremely quick and fluid to stick with route breaks underneath. Natural stickiness and reaction time in coverage. Will jump on tight ends in underneath coverage. Quick reacting to throws in coverage. Fast covering in the flat. Very comfortable in deeper coverage drops. Excellent recognition to identify routes and route combinations. Tremendous ball skills and athleticism to play the ball in the air.

 

Weaknesses

Inconsistent read for which hole to play as a run defender. Want to see him avoid getting blocked in the hole and more focused on trying to tackle instead. Could be better filtering through traffic around the line of scrimmage to not get caught up. Not as aggressive getting to the ball when runners get through the line of scrimmage. Average instincts for anticipating and defeating blockers on the second level. Will put himself out of position defending the run by getting blocked and allowing cutback opportunities. Takes too long to disengage from blocks. Shouldn’t be pushed backwards as much and as far as he does at his size. Could be more aggressive striking through as a tackler at times. Will lose his eye discipline and be late to cover crossing routes.

 

NFL comparison

Kenneth Murray Jr.

 

Conclusion

Overall, Schwesinger is an extremely smooth, fluid, and athletic linebacker with prototype size and elite cover potential. The inconsistency defending the run might lead to some frustration, but there have been plenty of flashes shown along with the skillset to improve.

 

Big Board ranking: #69 | Positional ranking: #4