Trace McSorely has reportedly declined an invitation to work out with defensive backs at the Scouting Combine after playing quarterback at Penn State, but other requests to step into a new position in Indianapolis have been better received.
Ed Oliver was strictly a defensive lineman at Houston, but he’s been asked to work out as a linebacker as well and said from Indianapolis that he’s happy to go that route.
“I’d ask myself to play linebacker too,” Oliver said, via the Houston Chronicle. “I’m a very athletic defensive tackle. You never know, I might end up playing linebacker in the league. I’m not objectionable to it. I’m a D-lineman. I feel like I’m a three-technique. But if they pay me to play linebacker, guess what I’m going to be doing?”
Oliver may be amenable to going through the motions at linebacker, but he’s not shy when it comes to selling himself as a lineman. Oliver compared himself to two-time defensive player of the year Aaron Donald because of Donald’s “stature and his style of play” and said that he feels “like I’m the best D-lineman here.”
This year’s draft pool features a strong group of defensive linemen, so Oliver will likely get some pushback on that claim before he and everyone else gets to prove it on the field in September.