Name: Leo Chenal
School: Wisconsin
Year: Jr
Position: Linebacker
Measurables: 6’2 5/8th 250
Stats:
General Info:
He was a consensus three-star recruit by Rivals, 247, and ESPN. Attended Grantsburg High School in Grantsburg, Wisconsin. Chenal was on the honor roll all four years of high school. He also lettered in basketball and track as well. Played running back and linebacker. 385 tackles, 55 tackles for a loss, and 7 sacks in his high school career. He rushed for 3706 yards and 68 touchdowns. Two-year team captain. The former Badger’s brother John is a fullback at Wisconsin. He played in 11 games as a freshman with 2 tackles for a loss and one sack. His Sophomore season was his first as a starter. He started all seven games of a shortened 2020 COVID season. He collected 46 tackles, 6 tackles for a loss, and 3 sacks in the shortened season. All-Big Ten Honorable Mention in 2020. He has played and started 10 games in the 2021 season. He had 106 tackles, 17 tackles for a loss, 2 forced fumbles, and 7 sacks. He missed the first two weeks of the 2021 season with COVID.
Positional Skills:
Strengths
Chenal is a large linebacker, larger than most that we are seeing these days. He is a bit of a throwback being 6’2 250 and having played at 260 this season. He brings a strong/physical and aggressive nature to the field. He has shown to be a decent blizter, he has a dip move that he implements. He does have a lot of experience dropping into zones. He seems to have a decent feel for it. Chenal is active and always looking for work. He dropped 10 pounds from this past season which should help his agility. Chenal has shown to have the strength to deal with offensive linemen. He does Use his hands to keep his feet clean when he is near the line of scrimmage. On film, he does show good tackling form and technique. If he gets his arms around you, you are going down. he has versatility going for him. He has experience lining up inside, outside, and also on the edge.
Weaknesses
His size is probably what holds him back a bit, his speed and agility are pretty average. In coverage, his feet look heavy when he has to shuffle and turn. His man coverage skills are an unknown right now, with his average athleticism on film he might struggle with that part in the NFL. He does not seem to have a plan when he is blitzing, he seems to just put his head down and drive into the offensive lineman. He relies too much on his strength instead of setting up moves and using different moves to get past blockers. when he attacks blockers his pad level is too high and he tends to either get stuck or bounce off them. He has shown on film that sometimes he will miss a tackle here and there. It is usually due to him trying to tackle the player too high around the shoulders. When filling run gaps, he will occasionally take false steps, although for the most part he doesn’t he could be better. His arms are only 31” long which is short for a guy that is almost 6’3. They are probably part of the reason he misses some tackles due to not being able to wrap up. This will also cause him problems as a pass rusher in the NFL when he goes against offensive linemen whose arms are three to four inches longer.
Fit with the Packers:
Chenal would be an Okay fit for the Packers. He is kind of a throwback type of linebacker. That is probably why a lot of packers fans like him, and he went to Wisconsin too. Despite his amazing testing at the combine if you watch his film the agility doesn’t show on film, it’s not terrible, it’s just ok. The explosion and straight-line speed is there. Chenal is definitely a hammer in the run game and has extraordinary strength for a guy who is only a junior. He looks mostly like a two-down linebacker that you can occasionally use on 3rd downs as a pass rusher. He probably would be a bit of an upgrade over Barnes with his run defense and size and strength. Where he is expected to get drafted it probably wouldn’t make sense for the Packers to draft him though and they run a lot of nickel and the 2nd linebacker only plays 20-30% of the snaps depending on the game plan. Chenal would need time to work on his pass cover skills as well since he didn’t do it much at Wisconsin. He would probably be a better fit on a defense that relies on aggressive blitzing and run defense.