Penn State’s Wisniewski Could Be Eagles Guy, If…….

Penn State’s center Stefen Wisniewski could be a guy who the Eagles select depending on how long he stays on the board and how they feel about their center situation. It also depends on how many picks they want to use on the offensive line. If they grab this young man, it’s because they feel really good about Jamaal Jackson’s return and they want to upgrade at the center position.

The Nittany Lion is a hard worker who would be a great leader for an offensive line because of his football savvy. He’s got the blood line because his father, Leo, who had been a captain for one of Joe Paterno’s teams, and his uncle Steve was an All-America guard for Joe Pa and he was a dominant Pro Bowl offensive lineman in the NFL for years.

NFL scouts and players personnel people salivate about bloodlines because they think it’s a factor which gives them more confidence that a young man has what it takes to succeed in the league. Wisniewski has something his uncle and dad had, which is “the want to factor”. The young man comes to work with a hard hat and he has great strength which he showed with 30 reps of the 225 lbs.

Wisniewski has the big powerful lower body with tremendous power, so he’s capable of moving a nose tackle or defensive tackle off the line of scrimmage. He ran a 5.32 in the forty yard dash.

I like his quickness in short areas which is what playing center in the NFL is all about. This young man is an effort guy, who does a good job of finishing the block and a good center is invaluable now because so many teams play 3-4.

Wisniewski is going to have some adjustments to make as a pass blocker because NFL pass rushing tackles are much more athletic and technically sound than the guys he was beating up on in college. He’ll have no problem stepping in right away to run block because he likes to be physical. His intelligence will serve him well as an NFL center because he’ll have to learn to detect blitzes and adjustments to different fronts.

He’s got good size for the center position. Remember centers are more important now than they were in the past because a great center who can single block a nose guard will allow you to run the ball all day long against a 3-4 defense. Of course that’s taking for granted that the Birds will want to run the ball at times.

Wisniewski’s versatility would be one of the keys to the Birds grabbing him. He would have to be able to move over the play the guard position if needed. They might want to leave Jackson in place for a year or two before moving the former Nittany Lion over to the center spot. If Jackson were to go down and struggle with coming back from the knee, Mike McGlynn might be the guy at the center position.

We’ll also have to see how much control are they going to let new offensive line coach Howard Mudd have over the line personnel. He always had a great center playing for him in Indianapolis with Jeff Saturday. He may want the same thing here.