Dee Winters

Pos: LB

School: TCU

Ht. 6’0″ 

Wt. 227

Games Watched: Kansas State, Michigan, Oklahoma State

One Liner: Instinctual linebacker who wins with reaction speed, coverage ability and reliable tackling.

Strengths: 

  • Very good instincts. Winters benefits from being able to diagnose running plays early on in their development. As an experienced Senior, Winters maintains good positioning and keeps himself involved due to his instincts.
  • Very good read and react player. With his instincts and football IQ, Winters is able to quickly read a play and wastes no time in reacting and attacking a gap or settling into his buzz/hook zones as TCU’s weakside backer. 
  • Good tackler. Winters displays reliable and safe tackling technique that allows him to wrap up ball carriers with high efficiency.
  • Good coverage technique. Winters displays decent range and short area movement skills to cover in zones while maintaining solid eye discipline and positioning to keep himself involved against a variety of route concepts. 
  • Good strength. Winters brings a solid jolt with upper body strength to pop blockers back and generate some shock. 

Weaknesses:

  • Marginal explosiveness. While Winters reads and reacts well, there isn’t much jolt to his game once he makes his reads. This results in him chasing rather than attacking more often than one would like to see
  • Adequate block shedding. Winters has solid functional strength, but outside of a hand pop and shock, Winters lacks the ability to separate from blocks in space. 
  • Adequate athleticism. Winters is far from a freak athlete, and his 4.49 40 time doesn’t show up on tape often enough when attacking gaps or chasing ball carriers.
  • Adequate frame. Winters has some bulk to his frame which makes this less than a marginal concern, however his frame may limit his ability to take on blocks and man the middle of the field as a MIKE linebacker at the next level. 

Overall Assessment: Dee Winters is a undersized yet competitive and nuanced linebacker who projects as an immediate special teams impact player and a sub package WILL LB. Winters brings NFL caliber smarts and technique to the table, and combines this with desirable strength and pop generated from a muscular frame. Winters has a low ceiling due to a lack of high level athletic traits, but he can become a quick contributor as a weakside coverage backer with the potential of being a role player if he develops some shedding techniques. 

Scheme Fit: even front WILL LB that can be relied upon to help the defense on passing downs.

Pick Projection: Late 3rd – Early 4th

Grade: 6.12