2021 NFL Draft: McDuffie Ready To Go Pack Go

The first two days of the NFL Draft are as celebratory as any event on the sports calendar. The rock concert backdrop offers an engineered glitz for the moment, but those first days seldom disappoint the fans and special guests craving new football content months after the Super Bowl's end. It's the unofficial start of a new year, and it's stamped by the images of new professional players celebrating either with their families or at remote locations in front of primetime audiences.

Yet the draft's greatest rounds, the ones that arguably mean the most to both a franchise and the players chosen, are the complete antithesis of both of those days by the time they kick off on Saturday. The third day - rounds four through seven - are when teams choose their hidden gems and build their championship rosters.

Those hidden picks are the gems of the draft, and it's where Boston College is still proving itself on an annual basis. The later rounds - home to players like Tommy Sweeney and Matt Milano - are where they grab the brass ring and start their own journeys.

On Saturday, Isaiah McDuffie became the latest late-round gem when the Green Bay Packers chose him in the sixth round with the 220th overall selection.

"Isaiah is just fast, tough, physical, and relentless," head coach Jeff Hafley said prior to the draft. "You see the way he plays, he's productive. I think his best football is ahead of him, and any team that gives him an opportunity is going to get a guy that's going to get better and better and better. He's going to give everything that he has."

McDuffie's draft slot made him the 220th Boston College player ever selected by an NFL franchise. He became the 10th player chosen by Green Bay and joined running back AJ Dillon after the Packers drafted him in the second round last year. McDuffie joined Hunter Long as the only Eagles drafted this year, making 2021 the seventh time in the last eight years that NFL teams selected multiple Eagles.

A junior-eligible player who spent four years at BC, McDuffie excelled as one of the Eagles' central heartbeat linebackers. He ranked fifth in the nation with 107 tackles last year and 30th nationally with just under 10 tackles per game, and he finished his career with more than 330 tackles while playing the majority of two full seasons in the program.

Just under 200 of those tackles came as part of two standout seasons in 2018 and 2020. He registered 48 solo tackles with over five tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks in 2018 before an injury limited him to four games in 2019, but he returned to form this past season with 54 solo tackles and 6.5 tackles for loss. He set a career high for tackles in a single game with 16 against No. 2 Notre Dame this past season, a number that tied for second-most among ACC players all season.

"We didn't really have spring football (last year)," Hafley said after BC's Pro Day in March, "so we didn't get a chance to evaluate him and team him (our) game. Training camp was not a normal training camp. I haven't been around (BC) for a very long period of time, but for a player without spring ball on a brand new scheme, he picked up (a new position) really well. He had a really good year, and I think that's one of the most impressive things about Isaiah. He came in and learned what he had to do, and his production was through the roof."

It established McDuffie as a draftable prospect, and he declared for the NFL shortly after the season ended in December. He was one of three defensive players and one of two linebackers featured at BC's Pro Day, and his results, which included the fastest 40-yard dash time and the second-most bench press reps among players from last year's roster, established him as the 17th-best outside linebacker prospect on Mel Kiper, Jr's big board.

"The adjustment (to outside linebacker) just showed my versatility being able to play inside and outside the box," McDuffie said after Pro Day. "I took it as an opportunity to show what kind of player I am, and I enjoyed playing (outside)."

McDuffie now joins a defense that ranked as one of the best in the NFL last season against both the pass. The Packers held opposing offenses to the seventh-least yards in the air last year and just missed becoming the ninth team to allow less than six net yards per attempt. They were slightly less effective against the run with an average of 4.5 yards surrendered per carry, but they remained in the top half of the league in yards allowed.

McDuffie's presence will largely push a linebacker unit that spread its tackle numbers throughout its personnel but received more than 12 sacks from All-Pro Za'Darius Smith. The 2019 free agent signing was selected to the Pro Bowl after producing his second straight season with more than 10 sacks.

"As a linebacker in the National Football League, he can run," Hafley said after Pro Day. "He looks great with great speed. He is obviously extremely physical and plays with his hair on fire. He practices that way. He is extremely tough. I think in a league where you need guys who can run, that's what he can do. That's very important right right now in most NFL schemes with the way the game is going. I think his potential is really, really high, and I think he's going to keep getting better and better."

"Playing in multiple schemes definitely helped me because NFL teams do different things," McDuffie said. "There's some of what I ran my freshman, sophomore, and junior year and some of what I ran this (past) year, so that's definitely a big factor that's going to help me, for sure."

2021 NFL Draft: McDuffie Ready To Go Pack Go

Players Mentioned

AJ Dillon

Hunter Long

Isaiah McDuffie

Tommy Sweeney

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