Scooby Wright – Arizona Wildcats

Position: Inside Linebacker
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 246
Year: Junior
Hometown: Windsor, CA
Experience: Jr.

Measureables:

40yd dash: 4.90 sec
Broad jump: 9 ft. 4 in.
Vertical: 31 in.
3-cone: N/A
20yd. Shuttle: 4.47 sec
Bench Press: 22 reps

Career Notes:

Started 12 of 13 games at strong-side linebacker as a Freshman, earning All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention. Wright finished 3^rd on the team in tackles, including 9 for a loss. Recorded his only career interception against Marcus Mariota.

Wright dominated the defensive side of the ball for the Wildcats in 2014, winning basically every award possible on what was the best Arizona team in almost 20 years. He finished 9th in the Heisman Trophy balloting, unheard of for a defensive player, let alone an inside linebacker. He led the NCAA in Total Tackles, Tackles for Loss, and Forced Fumbles.  Wright also finished 3^rd in sacks and 2^nd in solo tackles and swept the major defensive awards, winning the Bednarik, Lombardi, and Nagurski award rewarded to the nation’s best defensive player, lineman, and most outstanding defensive player respectively.

His junior campaign was a lost season from the start due to a knee injury in the season opener. He returned later in that month after undergoing surgery before suffering a foot injury. With the season effectively over for Arizona and Wright noticeably feeling the effects of his surgery, he remained sidelined until the bowl game, playing the entire game and looking like his old self.

Injury Report: 

Wright played in just 3 games during his junior season, initially leaving the season’s first game after injuring his knee with a lateral meniscus tear.  Upon returning against UCLA, he subsequently injured his foot and missed the remainder of the regular season. He did manage to return for the bowl game where he looked healthy, recording 15 tackles (11 solo) and 2 sacks. 

Career Stats:

Stats from sports-reference.com

Analysis:

Against the Run: 3.0/5.0

When he wasn’t almost immediately engaged with offensive lineman, he showed the desire to muck it up on running backs and QBs. Take this play from his game against UCLA.

UCLA QB (and current Packers backup) Brett Hundley takes the snap from the shotgun, initiates a read-option with the RB and decides to keep it on an inside draw. Scooby initially misreads it and follows the RB before quickly recovering to make the solo tackle on the QB for a minimal 2^nd down gain.

He fared better against Centers than Guards, the latter of which more than a couple of times drove him out of the play and opened a large hole. Despite his listed 246 lb. frame, he likely will need to increase his muscle mass to hold up against bigger and quicker NFL guards if he is going to be an impact defender in the run game.

Pass Rush: 2.0/5.0

His pass rush moves are rather non-existent. The Wildcats moved him around the formation every so often. He lined up several times as an OLB in a 2 point stance, but had no moves other than just pure speed off the edge. Hundley took advantage of his poor instincts as a pass rusher, twice running for big gains in vacated gaps.

His best pass rushes were delayed blitzes, either schemed or improvised, including this improvised blitz:

On this play, Wright recognizes the shallow cross, evades the receiver and reads Hundley before ankle tackling him for a sack. During both games he showed just one pass rush move – a spin move that didn’t fake out anyone.

Coverage: 3.0/5.0

He isn’t often tasked with covering except for the odd 3^rd and long and other obvious passing situations. But he was surprisingly very good at sitting in a middle zone of a defense and flowing to the ball once it’s in the air. Perhaps the best example of that was this play:

Despite the ball being thrown in between his zone and the one to his right, he flees his zone immediately at the release of the ball and is in position to make the tackle as soon as the ball is caught. He wasn’t often challenged in his zone, meaning at the very least he was not such a liability that he was consistently challenged in coverage.

Agility:3.0/5.0

Shows off agility on perhaps his best trait: acting often as the schemed isolation run defender on outside runs. He shows tenacity in running sideline to sideline, where his straight line speed really shined. However, he did time slower than I expected at the combine with just a 4.90 sec 40 time. But I think he will really struggle in the shuttle run because despite making play after play, he often is just a tad slow in getting a TFL or a shoe string tackle on a running back. Take this play against Arizona State.

Admittedly this is a tough play, but one a great player takes. And it isn’t the exception either. He constantly is in solid position to make an impact play and comes up just a bit short, which will hurt him in the NFL where the backs are both faster and shiftier.

Impact Play Ability: 3.5/5.0

Despite playing a position not typically tasked with creating big plays, Wright has shown flashes of the ability to create negative plays and turnovers. He shows a propensity to split gaps despite playing in Arizona’s 3-3 front where he takes on more blocks than he ideally should. He uses this ability to get in the backfield making him a force in the run game. He also shows the ability to force fumbles by prioritizing stripping the ball when other teammates have wrapped up backs and receivers. While he plays as a pass-rushing OLB in certain sub-packages, he mostly sees snaps there because of Arizona’s lack of options at the position rather than Wright’s strong pass-rushing skills. He is a solid interior blitzer from the inside linebacker position, especially on delays where he can read the gaps in front of him. 

Summary:  Without fully evaluating the other 4 top ILB, it’s hard to believe that Wright will be the best player available for the Packers with their 1^st round pick. He did not run well at the combine, particularly at the 40 yard dash where his 4.90 second time frankly was rather poor. Because of his limitations, the same could even be said for their 2^nd round pick. He seems close to cracking the top 100 player and a 3rd/4^th round pick depending on how you determine the true positional value of the ILB. Based on Ted Thompson’s draft history, it seems likely that another team will draft Scooby Wright before the Packers are willing to take the plunge. His best fit even may be at a 4-3 WLB where he won’t often be expected to rush the passer or taking on pulling guards, but still will able to use his speed to be an impact run defender by shooting gaps and having defensive lineman in front of him to take on blockers.

Overall Grade: 2.9/5.0  

If drafted by the Packers:

For the Packers 3-4 base scheme, he almost certainly will have to play one of the 2 ILB spots because his pass rush ability largely amounts to simple speed rushes without a ton of different moves. He can probably play all 3 downs in the NFL, making him potentially a huge asset despite his lack of pass-rushing ability. He wasn’t often tasked with guarding quicker backs for Arizona, mostly just dropping into shallow zones, but clearly has worked to be a solid zone defender. With the variety of fronts that Dom Capers employs in his defense, it’s hard to say that Wright can effectively play ILB with only 1 or 2 down lineman that some of his nickel packages require.

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