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Mark Nzeocha is not your typical seventh-round pick, as he has an extremely interesting story that led him to this point, via NFL.com' Lance Zierlein:
Went to high school in Germany at FOS Ansbach, but played club football for the Franken Knights youth team because his high school had no football team. Was a member of the German National Team who played in the 2009 Junior World Championships. Came to Wyoming as a safety/linebacker and immediately produced despite limited playing time. Recorded 32 tackles as a sophomore before exploding on the scene with 101 tackles (10 for loss) as a junior. As a senior, posted 59 tackles with two sacks, five passes defensed and two forced fumbles in just seven games before suffering a season-ending injury. Turned 25 years old on Jan. 1. His younger brother, Eric, also plays for Wyoming. Was named to the Academic All-Conference team in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Nzeocha is an intriguing selection because of his freakish athleticism. He was the second-most athletic off-ball linebacker in this class, and he tested into the 95.3 percentile among off-ball linebackers in the NFL, per 3SigmaAthlete's Zach Whitman.
The incredible aspect of Nzeocha's incredible testing scores is that he did it despite coming off a torn ACL in October. The fact that he can even go through drills let alone test that well is a remarkable feat.
On the field, Nzeocha isn't bad either, as he made plays all over the field for Wyoming while he was healthy. He is your prototypical run-and-hit linebacker as he uses his speed to flow sideline to sideline. He does play with some power at the point of attack.
Nzeocha struggles when he gets caught up in the trash and has to navigate through multiple players. Because of his inexperience playing football, Nzeocha doesn't have good instincts, as it takes him some time to read and diagnose some plays. He tends to get fooled by play action, and he isn't very aware in coverage.
At 6'2" and 232 pounds with 33-inch arms, Nzeocha has great size to be a "Will" linebacker in the Cowboys scheme. Couple that with his athleticism and you can see why the Cowboys would be excited to select him in the seventh round.
Nzeocha will likely make the 53-man roster because of his ability to be an elite special teams player. Hopefully for the Cowboys, he can develop and become a player who can play some snaps on defense in case the Cowboys are hit with a rash of injuries.
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