2023 NFL Scouting Combine Day 1: Linebackers and defensive linemen to watch

For everyone who has been slow-playing things, it is now OFFICIALLY officially draft season as the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine on field work begins.

The league shuffled the schedule again and this year they are starting with the defensive line and linebackers. We also haven’t gotten anything besides interview tidbits so far because they also moved the weigh-in to the same day as the on-field work so you should start seeing all the measurements rolling in as the day progresses, leading up to the on-field events.

First big news with this group is that the top defensive line prospect, Jalen Carter from Georgia, will not be participating today after the news dropped yesterday that there had been two arrest warrants issued for him in connection to a traffic incident in which his teammate and another Georgia football staff member lost their lives. There are reports that he turned himself in last night and was booked then released and is now back in Indy but so far the reports are he will not be participating today.

Now, who am I going to be interested in today? Well, the Chargers likely need to add to defensive line, edge rusher, and linebacker in some way this offseason, especially if they can’t keep guys like Morgan Fox and Drue Tranquill. Therefore, I’ll be keeping an eye on some edge rushers that could go throughout the draft, but mostly day one and two names as the Chargers at a minimum need to add a guy who can compete with Chris Rumph for EDGE3. Linebacker will depend heavily on what happens with Tranquill, so for now I’ll be keeping an eye on day two and three level players. For defensive linemen, I’m fairly confident they’ll be able to handle internally or with a cheaper external free agent, so I’m mostly interested in some day three names there to add more depth.

But let’s get some specific names to look at:

Edge Rusher

• Myles Murphy, Clemson
• Keion White, Georgia Tech
• Will McDonald IV, Iowa State
• Tuli Tuipulotu, USC
• BJ Ojulari, LSU
• Nolan Smith, Georgia
• Isaiah McGuire, Missouri
• Andre Carter II, Army

Linebacker

• Daiyan Henley, Washington State
• Dorian Williams, Tulane
• Ivan Pace Jr, Cincinnati
• Jack Campbell, Iowa
• Dee Winters, TCU

DL

• Moro Ojomo, Texas
• Byron Young, Alabama
• Zacch Pickens, South Carolina
• Siaki Ika, Baylor (he’s an exception to what I stated above. He is very likely a fairly early day two pick).