Despite purported questions about Chris Borland's surgically repaired shoulder, all the former Wisconsin linebacker needed was one NFL team to take a chance on him. That team came Friday night, when the San Francisco 49ers selected Borland with the No. 77 overall pick in the third round of the NFL Draft.
Borland, the 5-foot-11 1/2, 248-pounder, has been compared favorably to former All-Pro linebacker Zach Thomas, who played 13 seasons in the NFL and recorded 1,720 career tackles. Though Borland is considered undersized by NFL standards, his statistics in college and his never-ending motor helped him stand out to pro scouts.
Borland finished his career ranked sixth all-time at Wisconsin in total tackles (420), fifth in solo tackles (234), fourth in tackles for loss (50.0) and tied for eighth in sacks (17). He also set the Big Ten record with 15 forced fumbles in his career, which was the second-most in FBS history.
Borland played in 55 games with 48 career starts. He was named a consensus first-team All-Big Ten selection, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and was a first-team All-American by the Football Writers Association of America as a senior. He also became the first UW linebacker to earn All-America honors since Hal Faverty in 1951.
Many pundits projected Borland would be a potential second-round draft pick. ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr., for example, had Borland as the No. 40 overall prospect. But it's possible he dropped, in part, because of shoulder concerns.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last week that one team had taken Borland off its draft board entirely because it concluded a screw in his twice-surgically repaired left shoulder had started to slide into the joint.
"I thought he should have been a late-one, early- to mid-two," Kiper Jr. said. "I know there were concerns about his shoulder. I know he's under 6 feet. I know he has short arms. But you talk about intensity, you talk about instinct, production, behind the line of scrimmage, around the line of scrimmage, down the field in coverage, this kid will light you up.
"He is a guy who really I thought production-wise and consistency-wise, there's not a defensive player in college football that's better than Chris Borland. The 49ers just keep taking football player after football player. And now you get a guy, an inside linebacker, who can get the job done at a high level."
Not everyone on the television broadcast agreed with Kiper's assessment Friday night. Former Indianapolis Colts general manager Bill Polian described the Borland pick as just "OK."
"He's lacking a little bit on the athletic side of it," Polian said. "In a 3-4 where he can just plug and play, that's kind of OK. (In a) 4-3, (he's) not a fit at all because the speed and the lateral movement isn't what you want."
Polian seemed to be in the minority when it came to Borland. Analyst Trent Dilfer called Borland "a plug and play special teams superstar," while Todd McShay described Borland as an "absolute animal."
"The bottom line is, he's a great football player because of his instincts and his toughness," McShay said. "I maybe saw him in six or seven tapes. I can probably count on one hand how many tackles he missed. And yes, he's got short arms. But it doesn't matter because he makes tackles and he gets off of blocks."
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