Scouting Profile: Carson Schwesinger - LB - UCLA
Sales Pitch: Electric open-field athlete with excellent downhill instincts. Size and strength concerns will drop his stock but has some of the best 2024 tape in the class.
*Gold Numbers Indicate NCAA Top-25 for 2024*
*Red Numbers Indicate NCAA Bottom-25 for 2024*
Scouting Report
Carson Schwesinger was lightly recruited in high school before walking onto the UCLA team. He redshirted his freshman year and saw minimal playing time until 2024, when he broke out with 100 tackles as a red shirt junior. Schwesinger, in his first year as a starter for the Bruins, was a 1st Team All-American and All-Big 10 honoree with a Butkus Finalist appearance to top it off.
Schwesinger is an undersized linebacker with tremendous athletic ability. He has quick feet and elite sideline to sideline speed. Despite his small frame, Schwesinger is a tenacious run defender who doesn’t shy away from contact. He shows strong run game instincts and is quick to process and attack downhill. His burst and ability to get small in traffic allows him to shoot gaps to create splash plays. When he is kept clean, he does a good job surfing traffic and tracking ball carrier paths. Schwesinger is at his best chasing down outside runs, where his athleticism is on full display. He plays with constant motor as a backside defender, and is a sure tackler in the open field. Schwesinger has the athletic ability to be a quality coverage player in both man and zone schemes. He has the agility to mirror targets in space and the fluidity to open up his hips and run the seam. He is quick to read the QBs eyes and drive out of his zone to tackle receivers. Schwesinger is also an excellent blitzer. He times up the snap count well and uses his quickness and flexible frame to dip around contact and create pressure.
Schwesinger, at 225 pounds, is very small for the position and would be one of the lightest linebackers in entire league. It raises serious questions about if he can play in the box at that size. When offensive lineman are able to get their hands on him in the run game, he is easily discarded. Schwesinger’s lack of size also limits him as a tackler. Bigger backs easily run through his chest for extra yards in the hole. Schwesinger typically makes up for his lack of size with aggression and toughness, but that is a double edged sword. His desire to attack downhill and negate lineman size results in him often being out of position on play-action fakes. On horizontal runs, he has a bad habit of overrunning plays and opening cutback lanes as well. The same aggression gets Schwesinger in trouble in coverage. He loves to jump routes and read QBs eyes, but can be manipulated by experienced signal callers. He will lock onto the first target that crosses his face and lose track of intermediate routes behind him. For a player of his size, he cannot afford coverage lapses if he wants a role as a fulltime starter.
Schwesinger profiles best as a WILL backer in a gapped up scheme that lets him run sideline to sideline. The size and strength limitations will always be there but his athleticism and football instincts will make him hard to keep off the field. Schwesinger projects as a Day-2 pick who will be an instant energizer on special teams, with sub-package versatility and starter upside down the line.