An in depth and complete scouting report and draft prospect profile of Michigan Linebacker Junior Colson for the NFL Draft.

Prospect: Junior Colson

School: Michigan

Age: 21

Junior Colson Measurables:

• Height: 6’2” (NFL Combine)
• Weight: 238 (NFL Combine)
• Side Notes:
  • Believe he missed due to injury/continued recovery
  • Measured in 1” and 9 lbs lighter at Combine than ESPN listed him at
  • Missed Pro Day due to injury

Tape Watched: Penn State, Rutgers, Washington

Prospect Grade: 65%

Projected Draft Day: Late Round 3- Round 4

Player Comparison: Blake Cashman

Junior Colson Player Summary:

The  Positives

• Good mentality for a LB
  • Relatively aggressive
  • Likes to come down hill
• Pretty good in space
  • Spatial awareness pretty good
• Lines up at inside and outside
• Can see improvements in his run reads down the stretch in Bama and Washington games. Blocking scheme recognition and key reading still need to be coached because as we state below, he’s a big QB eye reader

The Negatives

• Needs work against the run. Needs more consistency…
  • on reading keys to backfield
  • with gap filling
• How he reads plays/flow is very QB eyes oriented

Side Notes

• Played Penn State game with a club on his left hand
• Most of the above notes came from the Penn State game. Almost all hold up in the Rutgers game. Without the club he looked to play more free and less timid. Against the run he looked a tad better, but still needs work. 
• Negative about block shedding removed due to the fact that most of the game film we watched he was wearing the club. His tackling and block shedding we don’t want to make serious notes of due to the fact that the club makes those traits more difficult

Junior Colson is a good not great linebacker prospect in this year’s class. He has the right mentality to play LB, as he is fairly aggressive and likes to come down hill. He’s solid in space with good spatial awareness. He needs work against the run though. It feels like it’s more so a consistency issue than an inability to do it. Reading his keys isn’t terrible. It’s more so his understanding of filling which gaps. When you watch him fill gaps at times, you can see the running lanes he leaves open. Will definitely compete to be a role player as a rookie, could be a rotating starter by end of year if they clean up his box play. 

Updated 4/11/24: After a rescout of Colson, we definitely like him more than after the original scout. It feels like we were too tough on him especially with him trying to play with a club. Truth be told, it’s hard to evaluate a player’s true tackling and block shedding ability when they are playing with one hand. That being said, we gave Colson the benefit of the doubt in his grade because he flashed a lot with the club, which to us means he could play even better without it. 

The one thing we noticed this time around was that his reads are big time from the QB’s eyes and trying to read the backfield. His coaches at the next level are going to need to work on his block scheme rec and key reading. We still think he will probably start as a special teamer and in some sort of a rotation, but could start earlier than we originally thought. 

Updated 3/7/24:

• Combine notes added to measurable portion of profile

Updated 4/11/24:

• Grade switched from “56%” to “65%”
• Projection switched from “Late Day 2” to “Late Round 3- Round 4”
• Comp switched from “Bigger Owen Pappoe” to “Blake Cashman”
  • The injury and lack of being able to test and do field work is hurting his stock, but to us is still Late Day 2 on tape
• Positives Added
  • Can see improvements in his run reads down the stretch in Bama and Washington games. Blocking scheme recognition and key reading still need to be coached because as we state below, he’s a big QB eye reader
• Negatives Added
  • How he reads plays/flow is very QB eyes oriented
• Side Note Added
  • Negative about block shedding removed due to the fact that most of the game film we watched he was wearing the club. His tackling and block shedding we don’t want to make serious notes of due to the fact that the club makes those traits more difficult
• Negatives Removed
  • Needs to be better with block shedding