Connor O'Brien, Outside Linebacker
Height: 6-3
Weight: 205
Rankings: 34 Scout 3* / 30 Rivals 3* / 41 (247) 3*
Offer sheet: Arizona State, Cal, Colorado, Oregon, Oregon State
Stop me if you've heard this one before: Justin Wilcox is taking a safety and moving him down into the box to be an outside linebacker. That's the plan with O'Brien, and he'll follow in the footsteps of some pretty successful UW players to make that move in Vic Aiyewa and Travis Feeney. O'Brien fits the mold pretty perfectly: he's got the speed and range to play in space that is necessary to compete with the spread teams in the conference, but also the frame and strength to be able to anchor against the more traditional offenses. Nobody sees as wide an array of offenses like they do in the Pac-12, and players with versatility like O'Brien has are a must to deal with it.
You'll see the depth that Steve Sarkisian and staff has built up take effect when you watch Connor's development. He won't be required to play early, and will be able to develop and acclimate to the game before thrust into the spotlight. He'll redshirt and get his body Pac-12 ready, and may even have a few years to do that because the outside backers could be around for 3 more years depending on how long Shaq sticks around. We may not see O'Brien competing for a regular starting spot until 2016, but he'll get special teams work and may fill in when injuries hit or become part of a rotation.
Junior highlights