Jack Sanborn Scouting Report for the NFL Draft

Measurements

6’2″ 236 lbs.

Jack Sanborn 40 Time (estimate): 4.6-4.7

Jack Sanborn has now played at Wisconsin for over a decade. Well, not actually Jack Sanborn, but a linebacker like this has been at Wisconsin for at least a decade. I can’t tell any of them apart, and I find myself loving them way more than I should have any right to, especially as an alum of one of their rivals. You can change their names, but not who they are deep down. They are Chris Borland. They are Joe Schobert. They are Jack Sanborn. They will not overwhelm you with athleticism, but they will always be in the right spot at the right time. I thought about taking a look at their games in 2011 or 2016 but finally settled on Wisconsin’s game against Penn State earlier this season.

 Jack Sanborn Strengths

Pass Rush

Although Sanborn plays the middle linebacker position, he has developed at least competent pass rushing capabilities when asked to blitz.

 

This is a terrible job by the Penn State offensive line as instead of passing rushers off to their teammates, they basically decide to halfheartedly block one guy and barely touch Sanborn. That’s not ideal. Still, Sanborn does dip his shoulder enough to avoid the guard’s attempt at saving face and gets to the quarterback to bring him down for the sack. He also takes a very tight angle on his loop getting just outside of the tackle’s outside shoulder to give him the shortest distance to the quarterback. Something I have always liked from Wisconsin defenses is their willingness to blitz from the middle. Sanborn has developed into a guy who can knife through gaps when asked to blitz, and that greatly adds to his value.

 

Tackling

Sanborn’s greatest strength is his tackling.

 

I put in two plays, because I enjoyed watching him tackle that much. On the first play, the Penn State running back gets stuffed but finds a way to bounce things the other direction. Unfortunately, he had no shot of slipping away again. Sanborn gets low and wraps up both legs before taking him to the ground. Not only does Sanborn get him to the ground, but he eliminates any possibility of pushing forward for extra yards.

 

The second play is even more impressive. If I was Jon Gruden, I would probably say, “This Sanborn guy here, I call him an Oreo, because he double stuffs the running back and nearly sends his gooey goodness all over the field. I hope the running back drank his milk, because he’s going to want strong bones with a hit like that.” I am not Jon Gruden, so I will just say that this is a really beautiful form tackle.

 Jack Sanborn Weakness

Awareness

This is an area for improvement for Sanborn. Below is a pass play where he’s not quite as decisive as you would like to see.

 

Here, he settles into an underneath zone, but he is looking all around him without noticing that the quarterback’s eyes are staring down the area he wants to throw to the entire time. He doesn’t look at the quarterback’s eyes until he’s in his throwing motion. I don’t think he needs to make a desperate effort to try for an interception on this play, but he seems a beat slow on processing the information. This shows up in the run game as well as he is often chasing misdirection before correcting course. You simply can’t be a great off-the-ball linebacker if you are unable to quickly decipher information.

As for his man-to-man pass coverage, it’s not a part of his game that I saw in this film. There were a few times that he covered a running back out of the backfield, but he mostly stayed in the area of a back as Penn State never sent that back down the field on a route. He seems like a fine athlete, but not extraordinary, so it could be an issue. Considering his late reactions on things, I could see him having trouble covering NFL tight ends.

 

Conclusion

There are aspects of Sanborn’s play that I really like. He’s going to charge forward, and do his best to cause chaos. He has some natural ability with pass rush, and his tackling is a thing of beauty. Unfortunately, his ability to decipher information is a tick slow for my liking. You can get away with that if you are a freak of an athlete, but Sanborn is only decent. He actually shows impressive quickness but doesn’t have flat out speed at the position. He’s likely more of a depth piece and special teams contributor early on. If schemed correctly to hide his weaknesses, he could be valuable in a variety of subpackages down the line. I just don’t see Sanborn as a full-time starter.

 

Jack Sanborn NFL Comparison: Check back near draft

Author: Joe Loncarich