One of seven permanent season team captains for the 2023 Kentucky Wildcats, Trevin Wallace was a premier defensive playmaker across the 2022 and 2023 seasons. With his 2024 NFL Draft scouting report, can he expand his imprint to the professional ranks?
Trevin Wallace’s Draft Profile and Measurements
- Height: 6’1 1/8″
- Weight: 237 pounds
- Length: 33″
- Wingspan: 79 1/4″
- Hand: 9 1/4″
- Position: Linebacker
- School: Kentucky
- Current Year: Junior
A former four-star recruit out of Georgia, Wallace was the nation’s second-ranked linebacker in the 2020 recruiting class. While his positional designation from recruiting outlets was linebacker, he truly played all over the football field.
In high school, Wallace saw action at wide receiver, running back, quarterback, and multiple linebacker spots. Beyond that, he took reps as a kick and punt returner. It came as no surprise that Wallace was named a Sports Illustrated All-American.
Once he joined the Wildcats, Wallace made an immediate impact, earning All-SEC Freshman Team recognition in 2021. He brought that momentum into 2022, amassing 54 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, and two interceptions in another ascendant campaign.
Trevin Wallace is a LB prospect in the 2024 draft class. He scored a 9.34 #RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 193 out of 2889 LB from 1987 to 2024. https://t.co/oezEG4lUSY pic.twitter.com/z0mEhWzRR6
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 22, 2024
Wallace earned the title of team captain as a junior in 2023, carrying that title with responsibility both on and off the field. On the field, he accrued 80 tackles, 8.5 TFLs, and 5.5 sacks (all career-highs) and also logged an interception and a forced fumble.
One of a mere few true juniors to be invited to the Reese’s Senior Bowl, Wallace shined in coverage drills with his natural athleticism. And later, at the NFL Combine, he awed evaluators with a 4.51 40-yard dash, a 37″ vertical, and a 10’7″ broad jump.
The 2024 NFL Draft LB class hasn’t always been a source of excitement, but Wallace’s profile could change that. The Kentucky product has all the tools to develop into an all-league talent in the NFL — if he can iron out a few areas of his game.
Wallace’s Scouting Report
Strengths
- Explosive, high-energy athlete with great foot speed and rapid acceleration.
- Packs a lot of condensed mass within his frame and has elite proportional length.
- Has legitimate full-field range and long speed when he’s able to open up his strides.
- He can use his swift hip flexibility, change of direction, and burst to recover positioning.
- Has shown to use his length to stack, pry through, and shed second-level blocks.
- Can flow to the play side of zone runs while pressing the line and occluding RB gaps.
- Once he triggers, attacks plays with voracious energy and can’t be fended off for long.
- Has the willing physicality to meet reach blocks head-on and compress the play side.
- Shows glimpses of impressive reaction and adaptability when recognizing QB draws.
- Can pass off receivers from stacked alignments and man up TEs from the slot.
- Able to match releases with micro-movements and has the speed to erase wheel routes.
- Has shown he can sink his hips in coverage and redirect to run with crossing threats.
- Gets depth with urgency but can also quickly recognize and react to delayed RB routes.
- Can leverage his burst and length into menacing power as a blitzer versus TEs and RBs.
- With his closing burst and length, can wrangle runners like an apex predator in pursuit.
Weaknesses
- Sometimes overshoots gaps in lateral pursuit and allows lead blockers to seal him out.
- Needs to be more disciplined with gap positioning and avoid opening hips prematurely.
- Overruns cutback angles and can be easily manipulated by RBs who know how to press.
- Can be too easily swayed laterally when tracking RBs, drifting past optimal leverage.
- Needs to find a better balance of patience and decisiveness when patrolling gaps.
- Can be late to enter boundary pursuit on sweeps, exposing himself to moving linemen.
- Sometimes plays right into the offense’s hand with his desire to instantly get downhill.
- Over-aggression can cause him to bite on play-action fakes, vacating coverage zones.
- At times, fails to recognize motion WRs on play-action fakes and flushes out of plays.
- Can be late to enter pursuit as a QB spy when passers break contain and scramble.
- Sometimes extends prematurely on pass-rush reps, nullifying power load in strikes.
- Still learning how to consistently threaten gaps with burst and bend while using hands.
Current Draft Projection and Summary
Wallace grades out as a top-75 prospect in the 2024 NFL Draft and one of the top prospects at his position. For teams needing a dynamic WILL linebacker with immediate coverage and blitz utility, he’s worthy of early-to-mid Day 2 consideration.
Wallace’s energy as a two-phase player underpins his game, and his relentless motor permeates to his teammates on every down. You always want your linebackers to be the heart and soul of a defense, but Wallace takes it a step further — setting the tone with his confidence and willingness to impose physicality.
That confidence can stray too far into the “over-confidence” realm at times, particularly in run defense and against play-action fakes. Wallace can be prone to triggering prematurely toward incorrect gaps or against misdirection, which can render him out of position.
That said, if Wallace can learn to find a better balance of patience and decisiveness as a professional, and if he could more consistently read and react to blocking schemes, that’s the only roadblock standing in the way of an impact starter ascent at the NFL level.
In coverage, Wallace has the explosiveness, foot speed, and fluidity to get depth, recover ground, maintain hip leverage with adjacent threats, and close ground in an instant on breaks. He can man up tight ends out of the slot or blanket running backs on wheel routes with his speed, and his length makes him a constant disruptive threat.
In the box, while Wallace’s instincts can still improve, he has the play strength and take-on technique to stack-and-shed blocks. He’s incredibly willing to enter the scrum, wall off reach blocks, and take away options for the offense. That consistent willingness is something defensive coaches can work with.
There’s a fair amount of projection involved with Wallace, but at just 21 years old, there’s plenty working in his favor. He’s explosive, rangy, physical, confident, a superb tackler, and well-versed as a coverage defender, with the aggressiveness and blitzing chops to make his presence felt.
Early in his NFL career, Wallace can be a quality starter as a weak-side or WILL linebacker with three-down utility. And in time, with more reps, he can grow to be an impact starter at WILL or even a potential option at the MIKE spot.
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