Indianapolis Colts 2020 Mock Draft: Colts go defense in first round

Woodward is a coverage linebacker who has the incredible tackling ability. He reminds me of Kuechly when he was in his college days. Woodward is always around the ball when the player tackled. Even going as far as swinging out wide against a tight end and covering running backs out of the backfield.

In 2018 his overall grade was 92.4 after playing nearly 800 snaps (788). He had 79 solo tackles and 39 assists with most of his snaps coming on either run-defense or coverage. His tackling grade is 90.9 with only 7 missed tackles in 788 snaps – less than 1%.

His pass-rushing grade is weak at 62.2 but the Colts don’t ask their linebackers to blitz that much – if they do it’s usually Leonard. I’ve been begging the Colts for years to find a run-stopper and tackler who can tackle anything that comes his way.

Woodward can be that person. What’s most impressive about him is his awareness. He can take on a blocker without ever losing sight of the ball carrier and always knows where the ball is on the field.

His burst of explosive speed makes his run defense very strong, but he isn’t’ asked to do much in the simple Utah defense, which brings down his skill level a little bit, and he tends to be aggressive on the play actions which can cause him to lose sight of receivers on the crossing patterns. Even with his flaws, coverage and run-stopping linebackers could do well in the Colts system with Eberflus.