Texas Tech football: Red Raiders that could be 2022 draftees

LB Collin Schooler

It will be interesting to see if linebacker Collin Schooler is a draft pick next year.  That’s because he is the type of player who relies on instinct and football smarts more than athleticism to make plays and players of that ilk are often passed over in the Draft process.

We know that the teams in the league place a huge emphasis on how a player tests physically and if Schooler is going to get a shot, he’s going to have to test well enough to impress.  That’s what is going to determine his ultimate draft fate.

On the other hand, if productivity at the college level were the only factor, there would be no question about Schooler’s draft ranking.  That’s because he’s been one of the nation’s leading tacklers during his career.

Thus far, he’s amassed 376 tackles in his career, that’s an average of 94 tackles per year, a number brought down by the fact that he played only nine games in 2020.  Prior to last fall’s shortened season, the sideline-to-sideline tackling machine had managed to record at least 96 tackles every year of his career.

But we learned not too long ago that college productivity doesn’t always correlate to NFL Draft status.  Just ask former Red Raider Dakota Allen.

Despite playing only three years of FBS football, Allen was able to rack up 249 tackles for his career.  A linebacker with a style that was reminiscent of Schooler’s in that he was a cerebral player who relied on football IQ to be effective, he was only a seventh-round selection in the 2019 NFL Draft (by the Los Angeles Rams).

Schooler is a fantastic college player who will leave the game as one of the most productive players of his era after this upcoming season is open.  And because of that, some team will likely call his name in next year’s Draft.  But if he doesn’t test well enough, and prove that he’s a good enough athlete to play at the next level, he may not be picked until late in day three.