Outside Linebacker/Middle Linebacker

TCU

6-2 229

40 time: 4.57

Draft board overall prospect rank: #59

Draft board outside linebacker rank: #4

Overall rating: 76* 

            3/27/10: Daryl Washington is an undersized, but extremely smart, extremely instinctive, and extremely fluid linebacker. He has great speed, with a 40 time of 4.57, and moves even faster than that on the field, in pads, as I have seen him chase down running backs from behind on several occasions. He has great acceleration and freakishly long arms that allow him to close gaps and cover space in a hurry. He takes very instinctive and natural routes to the ball carrier and is a very solid fundamental tackler who shouldn’t need a lot of coaching in that area. Despite his small size, he is in good shape and hits fairly well, but he needs to bulk up some to avoid being taken out of the game by blockers. He has had a lot of trouble in the past disengaging from 2^nd level blockers and guys who are trying to keep him out of the backfield. He doesn’t blitz up the middle very well, but he can run blitz from the outside fairly decently and get into the backfield. He’s a leader on the field and was voted team captain. He looks very fluid and natural and athletic dropping into coverage and can guard running backs out of the backfield fairly effectively and use his long arms to break up passes. His back pedal is very mature for his age and he has the speed to run with most guys. He is very adapt at rerouting smaller receivers, but because of his lack of size, there are issues with how well he will be able to do that at the next level. He did struggle a bit with assignments in zone last year, but because of his fluidity, he should make a very natural zone style linebacker, either as an outside linebacker or a middle linebacker. If he bulks up, he should be able to fit in any 4-3 scheme, but he doesn’t have the explosive size/burst combination to be a gap filling 3-4 middle linebacker which will limit his draft range. He probably won’t start out as a starter right away because he actually is very inexperienced as a starter, but he has a ton of success on special teams in the past and should be very productive there to start his career. He played a lot of special teams at TCU and was a standout and because of his humble nature, he shouldn’t have an issue with playing extensive special teams early on. As with any TCU player, level of competition is a bit of an issue, but I’ve seen all the raw talent and attributes that a starting caliber linebacker needs in the NFL and have I no doubts about his ability to put on the necessary weight. He’s a mid-to-late 2^nd round prospect with very good upside. Teams like Indianapolis and Philadelphia who love speedy linebackers will love him in the late 2^nd round range and I would be very surprised if he fell to the 3^rd.

NFL Comparison: Will Witherspoon

*=For a breakdown of what this means, click here