Raiders Draft 2025: Carson Schwesinger can excel in the middle or outside

UCLA linebacker has three-down defender skillset who can stymie the run and cover on the back end

With the departures of starters Robert Spillane and Divine Deablo via free agency respectively, the Las Vegas Raiders have needs at both middle and outside linebacker.

Even with the additions of veterans like Elandon Roberts and Devin White, the Silver & Black would do well to take stock of what the 2025 NFL Draft has to offer in the linebacker prospect department.

And there’s a talented prospect that can play in the middle as the green-dot linebacker or outside in UCLA’s Carson Schwesinger. The 6-foot-2, 242-pound Moorpark, Calif. native put quite the stamp on his final season as a Bruin in 2024 racking up a collegiate career-high 136 total tackles with four sacks, two interceptions, and a forced fumble.

By The Numbers
Carson Schwesinger

• 2024: 12 games, 136 total tackles, 9 tackles for loss, 4 sacks, 2 interceptions, 3 passes defensed, 1 forced fumble
• Career: 3 season (2022-24), 38 games, 163 total tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 5 sacks, 2 interceptions, 3 passes defensed, 1 forced fumble

How He Fits

After losing Spillane and Deablo in free agency, Las Vegas inked veterans Roberts and White to help fill the void. Those two newly-inked Raiders are 30 and 27 years old, respectively, thus, another young talent like Schwesinger would be a fine addition to a linebacker room filled with youth.

Raiders head coach Pete Carroll loves versatility from his football players and the UCLA Bruins showcased the variety of ways Schwesinger can be deployed. Going from special teams maven to starting linebacker, Schwesinger can line up at middle linebacker or outside at Will.

While Roberts and White have the edge in terms of pro experience, Las Vegas is going to have open competition to identify starter and a young, energetic, and intelligent prospect like Schwesinger will only make the entire position group better.

Schwesinger arrives as a readymade special teams dynamo and Tom McMahon’s group needs a maniac-type. His resolve on special teams coverage units is team captain-worthy stuff.

Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images

Strengths

A disruptive tackling machine with a penchant to be around the football quite frequently, Schwesinger displays uncanny instincts as a read and react defender. He can recognize plays early, diagnose, and pull the trigger on getting to the football.

This really shows up as a run defender. he can shoot gaps quickly and beat blockers to stymie the ballcarrier behind or at the line of scrimmage. Not only that, but he uses the same instincts to be an effective blitzer, too.

While his overall straight-line speed doesn’t jump out, it’s his football intelligence that allows him to play much faster than a stopwatch will tell you.

Schwesinger also displays a motor that has reserves upon reserves as he maintains his tenacity snap-to-snap. This allows him to be a sideline-to-sideline linebacker that can chase, run, and hit.

Schwesinger is an effective defender in coverage thanks to the football IQ and ability to turn his hips to match up with tailbacks and tight ends, alike.

And, perhaps, the most important aspect of being a linebacker: Schwesinger is a solid fundamental tackler whose technique means sound open-field tackler.

All these traits sync well with the kind of defensive scheme Patrick Graham runs for the Raiders.

Weaknesses

Is that one big season in 2024 enough? Some evaluators don’t believe so and are concerned he’s a one-hit wonder type for not doing it for more than one season.

Schwesinger is also a lighter-type linebacker who is thin-framed and angular compared to more squatty and stout inside linebacker types. That means he can be washed out of plays by lead blockers and when bigger bodies attach to him, he has issues disengaging.

While he can create explosive hitting power, he doesn’t have the ideal wallop one would expect from a traditional inside linebacker, which portends to a fit as an outside linebacker.

While Schwesinger wasn’t susceptible to play-action or read-option-type misdirection, it’s going to be intriguing to see how he fares at the pro level where everyone is bigger, faster, and stronger than what he saw during his UCLA days.

His instincts and football intelligence have hindered him as he’s gotten caught looking in the backfield resulting in overrunning the play and losing gap discipline. At the NFL level, that can be quite detrimental to a defense.

Projection

Schwesinger is seen as a prospect that can go as high as the second round and as low as the fifth. Initially seen as a Day 3 prospect, Schwesinger opened eyes with his strong 2024 campaign and it appears he’s slated for a Round 2 or 3 selection.

The Raiders own the 37th overall pick in the second and 68th overall selection in the third stanzas. And the team owns the 108th overall pick in the fourth round, too.

There are higher touted linebacker prospects ahead of Schwesinger which likely makes him a Day 2 pick. NFL analyst Bucky Brooks ranked the UCLA linebacker as the fifth best prospect in his top five prospects by position list.

That all said, it wouldn’t surprise to see Schwesinger still on the board on Day 3. And if he is, Las Vegas would be wise to try and snare the talented Bruin.