Colby Wooden Scouting Report

By: Michael Higgins

(Image courtesy of Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

School: Auburn (Junior)

Position: EDGE

HT: 6’5

WT: 284 lbs

Sideline Prospect Ranking: 42

Colby Wooden is a big body who you will see classified as an edge rusher but he sees just as many snaps on the interior of that defensive line for the Auburn Tigers. It is not a case of him not working out at the edge position and switching to the interior by default. Rather, he is an effective player all over the line and where he lines up is a game-by-game adjustment. The senior has shown improvements in his game every year that he has been at Auburn and his development is very promising. Wooden has registered a combined 50 QB hurries in the last two seasons, which have produced 13 sacks. He moves and carries his weight well for his size. He is not a power rusher, but more of a technical and finesse rusher. With that being said, due to his size, he is the definition of an anchor on the interior. He does well to plant his feet and absorb the blocks he sees from offensive linemen in order to penetrate through and towards the backfield. Wooden plays with a high motor and his feet never stop moving when he is engaged with blockers. This allows him to be a plus run defender, but he also shows flashes in his pass rush sets. His ability to line up all over the line makes him an every-down rusher. When Wooden fully develops, expect to see him out there for 85% of defensive snaps. His upside on pass rush sets comes from his ability to be a mechanical and deliberate rusher in his sets. He has a variety of pass rushing moves at his disposal that he uses to beat the slower footed interior linemen that he matches up against.

Wooden’s positives do not come without some negatives in his game, just like any other collegiate prospect. Colby Wooden displays great technique, but occasionally raises his pads too high, thus losing all of his leverage and momentum going into the blocker at the line of scrimmage. He needs to keep his center of gravity lower when engaged in order to be able to push these bigger interior linemen back. This issue of having too high of a pad level not only results in a loss of leverage, but also sloppy hands. His hands are not used effectively and can be found connecting with the shoulder pads of blockers.

If Colby Wooden can have more consistent pad height and clean up his hand placement, his overall game will improve and he will be a consistent force on the interior. Colby is an effective run defender and pass rusher, there is nothing he explicitly cannot do, but just areas that he needs to look to improve. He will be a defensive mainstay right away, the extent to his impact will result from what he is able to carry with him from the SEC to the NFL, as well as if he can find a consistency for his game that he has not tapped into yet.

Scheme Fit: Odd Man Front

Ideal Role: 3-tech

Best Team Fits: SEA, DET, ATL

Player Comparison: Christian Wilkins

Player Grade: 80.3