NFL Draft
1/14/25
6 min read
Carson Schwesinger 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For UCLA Bruins LB
Height: 6020 (unofficial)
Weight: 233lbs (unofficial)
Year: Redshirt Junior
Pro Comparison: Sean Lee
Scouting Overview
UCLA Bruins linebacker Carson Schwesinger is a delightful talent with high-end instincts and a modern NFL linebacker’s athletic profile. It is startling to watch him play the run in a variety of ways. He is a capable plug player who attacks blocks and plays off of contact but also an impactful scrape linebacker who flows over the top of the line of scrimmage before attacking creases to tackle ball carriers.
Schwesinger is a three-down linebacker with viable coverage ability in underneath zones and provides a high floor, even as a rookie — thanks to his extensive resume in the kicking game as a special teams contributor. His projection should have NFL coaches chomping at the bit to work with him, as his play style echoes his status as a former walk-on who grinds out gains and wins with play recognition & instincts.
2025 NFL Combine Results
TBD
Positives
- Outstanding instincts in all phases despite only one year of starting experience
- Plus athlete with dynamic closing ability to defeat angles in the box and shoot gaps for splash plays
- Physical finishing ability in head-up tackle situations and reliable wrap-up tackler in space
Negatives
- Sample size as a starter is limited, creating a high-variance projection to the pros
- Can be pulled out of leverage position by the quarterback’s eyes in zone drops in coverage
- Aggressiveness and ambition in angles to the football can concede some added yardage on outside runs
Background
Schwesinger is from Westlake Village, CA, and played high school football for Oaks Christian HS. There, he was an unranked high school recruit who ultimately walked on at UCLA. He redshirted his true freshman season in 2021 before playing in 13 games as a special teams contributor and reserve linebacker in 2022.
Schwesinger filled the same role for the Bruins in 2023 before assuming a starting role in 2024. He started 10 games while playing in 12 total for UCLA, claiming AP First Team All-American honors in the process. He led the Big Ten in tackles (136) and was a finalist for the Butkus Award.
Schwesinger declared for the 2025 NFL Draft and accepted an invitation to the 2025 Reese’s Senior Bowl, bypassing his final season of eligibility.
Tale Of The Tape
Holy smokes. You'd think this was a four-year starter based on the reads that Schwesinger is making and the processing speed in the box. He's a fast, fluid, confident defender who trusts his keys to leverage runs properly.
He's explosive out of his read steps and does well to feel pulling guards and split-flow action to take him to the football. On more than one occasion, he seemed to teleport from one side of the center to the other before the back was even through his track and out of the mesh point. The speed in which he sees plays developing allows Schwesinger to defeat blocks with angles.
However, don't sleep on his ability to utilize his hands and length to attack blockers, press, disengage, and subsequently attack the ball carrier. He'll swim or rip through contact in head-up, downhill situations and illustrates cognitive awareness to his teammates when scraping and faced with a climbing lineman. This allows him to decide in a snap whether or not to play over the top of the block or duck and dart underneath and shoot the line of scrimmage.
Schwesinger boasts a ton of burst, watching him explode into pursuit on outside runs puts him in position to minimize yardage gained in these looks and work into the ball carrier's hip. He's put down bigger backs in head-on collisions, and he's successfully chopped down speedy, explosive backs pressing for the edge by running them down. He sports a missed tackle rate of less than 8 percent and brings an impactful blend of wrap-up ability and explosive collisions.
The profile is diverse in more ways than just fitting the run and how he tackles.
Schwesinger is a three-down threat who boasts passing-down value with his ability to pressure and blitz from depth and how he moves in space. He's better as a blitzer — disguising his intentions to trigger well and holding his water effectively until the snap.
He illustrates the necessary first-step explosiveness to get down into gaps with enough quickness to challenge backs with momentum. He also has smooth body control to rip or lean through contact and cross the face. Schwesinger is still capable of playing through skill players in protection and, on more than one occasion, blew straight through the body of a back to create pressure and collapse the pocket.
In coverage, Schwesinger is a much more viable zone defender than he is a man coverage option. That said, he still gets moved and displaced by opposing quarterbacks with their eyes and can be tugged out of throwing windows prematurely. He intercepted two passes against Iowa in 2024, one off an extended play and a poor decision under pressure and the other with an aware move to sink into a secondary throwing window to take away a layered throw over the middle.
He can tackle hook zones, deep middle in Tampa 2, push to the flat amid a lack of initial leverage as the MIKE aligned in the midline of the core, and more. Schwesinger possesses enough length and burst to crowd the catch point on sit routes over the ball. He showcases good patience to catch shallow crosses that work into his area and cut them for potential big hits on late decisions underneath.
This isn’t the biggest or the strongest linebacker. But what he lacks in mass, he makes up for with plus movement skills, play recognition that’s matched by few, and a red-hot motor. Schwesinger, as a one-year starter, appears to have more room to grow, too. He should be coveted accordingly.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Schwesinger projects as a starting MIKE linebacker for an NFL defense. His natural instincts appear to be off the charts, and he’s athletic enough to play in space as a middle-of-the-field defender — including running the pole as a Tampa-2 defender in the middle.
Schwesinger’s ceiling is that of an impact starter, although NFL teams should be leery of his early opportunities given the leap in speed and strength of NFL opposition as a one-year college starter.
Grade: 79.00/100.00, Second Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
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