HEIGHT: 6'1"

WEIGHT: 241

HAND: 10¼"

ARM: 31½"

WINGSPAN: 77¾"

40-YARD DASH: 4.58

3-CONE: N/A

SHUTTLE: N/A

VERTICAL: 35"

BROAD: 10'4"

POSITIVES

— Good movement skills and use of hands in man coverage.

— Shows good eye discipline and peripheral vision in zone coverage to locate threats coming into his area.

— Solid at reading the quarterback's eyes and anticipating throws.

— Show flashes of using his change-of-direction skills and quickness paired with a decent rip move to make offensive linemen miss.

NEGATIVES

— Slow to key and diagnose run plays, limiting his play speed versus outside runs.

— Too quick to trigger downhill against the run. Gets caught in the trash against zone runs.

— Lacks strength to get extension and hold his ground against offensive linemen and good blocking tight ends. Poor pad level when taking on blocks, too.

— Slow run-pass transitions versus play action.

2023 STATISTICS

— 13 G, 49 TOT, 9 TFL, 2.5 SK, 0 PD

NOTES

— Born Feb. 18, 2002

— 4-star recruit in the 2020 class, per 247Sports

— Injuries: 2022 (Leg, missed 1 game)

OVERALL

Curtis Jacobs has the potential to be a solid coverage linebacker in the NFL. He's a good athlete and has shown the ability to cover tight ends in man coverage. He also has good awareness in zone coverage to make him scheme-flexible. Slow run-pass transitions against play action and a lack of ball production are his biggest issues in this area of the game.

However, run defense is a different story.

Jacobs has shown a few flashes of making offensive linemen miss when they climb to the second level to slip blocks and the ability to use his hands to use a blocker's momentum against them.

But more often than not, he gets stuck on blocks and driven backward—sometimes ending up on the ground—when taking on blocks. He needs to get stronger at the point of attack, but he's already listed at 235 pounds. That's a good size for a modern linebacker, so his strength might be tapped out already.

The Penn State product also has shaky instincts as a run defender. He has a habit of crashing downhill too quickly and getting caught in the trash when the running back bounces on zone runs. Additionally, he often fits to the wrong side of the blocker either taking himself out of his gap or taking the blocker on square, contributing to his issues at holding ground.

GRADE: 6.2 (High-Level Developmental Prospect — 5th Round)

OVERALL RANK: 147

POSITION RANK: LB9

PRO COMPARISON: Ben Niemann

Written by B/R NFL Scout Matt Holder

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