Junior
Colson.
Junior
Colson.
Michigan· 6'2"· 238 lb
"The Chargers drafted a signal-caller, not a play-maker — then an appendectomy and a knee kept the one thing Junior Colson does best, being on the field to run a defense, almost entirely off the field."Pre-draft read
Colson was Michigan's every-down Mike, the green-dot voice who set the front and played from a stacked, downhill posture. His value came from processing: he read guard movement early, filled the correct gap with his pads square, and tackled with wrap-and-drive reliability, not highlight collisions. Three seasons of clean run fits made him the metronome of a national-title defense.
The second trait was assignment durability. He rarely busted, handled checks against motion and tempo, and kept the second level organized. Versus the run he graded as a plus starter; in coverage he was functional in zone spacing but late to redirect on option and choice routes. The athletic ceiling was average, not explosive; dependability was the signature.
Fits best as the Mike in a gap-and-a-half, zone-coverage front (Cover-3 match / two-high zone) that lets him play downhill behind big bodies and call the defense.
Year 1: green-dot backup ILB and core four special-teamer. Ceiling: three-down starter in a run-first zone defense who handles the communication and produces 110-plus tackles.
A man-match, sub-heavy defense that leaves the second linebacker matched on tight ends and backs down the field, or a two-gap front that asks him to hold up against guards for a full down.
He needs a nose tackle who eats blockers; the less traffic he has to fight through, the faster his diagnosis shows up.
2024 NFL Draft Highlights: LB Junior Colson
Draft-year cutup of his run fits and box tackling at Michigan.
Junior Colson 2023 Full Season Highlights
Full Lott Trophy season: downhill triggers, block deconstruction and finishing.
3rd Round Pick LB Junior Colson College Highlights
Team-produced reel released after the No. 69 selection.
A three-year starter and defensive signal-caller for a program that won three Big Ten titles and a national championship, Colson is an old-school stack linebacker whose identity is communication, run fits and finished tackles. He is built like a pro (6-3, 238) and plays with the calm of a player who has never been overwhelmed by information.
The production was steady rather than spectacular: 229 tackles in 43 games with 8.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks, capped by a Lott Trophy season in 2023. The tape shows a linebacker who diagnoses fast between the tackles, takes on blocks with leverage and closes the last two yards. The flags are athletic: average burst out of his drops, tight change of direction, and limited production as a blitzer or splash play-maker, which caps how much a defense can ask him to do in space.
Boards had him as a clean Day 2 evaluation with a narrow band — a plug-in starter for a run-first defense, a special-teams core player at worst, and a low chance of ever being a difference-maker. At No. 69 the Chargers were buying scheme familiarity as much as tape: Jim Harbaugh drafted his own signal-caller, and the pick was priced as safety rather than upside.
- 01
Run diagnosis
Reads guard and center movement instantly, triggers downhill before the mesh point and consistently arrives in the correct gap with his shoulders square.
- 02
Tackling reliability
Wrap-and-drive finisher who takes the ball-carrier's legs and rarely misses in the box; 229 career stops with very few negative angles on tape.
- 03
Football intelligence
Wore the communication role for three seasons, set the front, handled motion and tempo checks, and almost never left the second level misaligned.
- 04
Block deconstruction
Uses leverage and hand placement to keep guards off his frame, spilling or squeezing as the call requires instead of getting washed at the point.
- 05
Availability and toughness
Played 43 straight games in a physical conference, stacked three high-snap seasons and never needed to be protected in short-yardage or goal-line work.
- 01
Coverage redirect
Tight in the hips and late to flip on option and choice routes, which lets tight ends and backs separate on the second move.
- 02
Range to the boundary
Average burst and long speed show up on wide zone and perimeter runs where he arrives a beat after the ball-carrier crosses his face.
- 03
Splash production
Only 8.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks across three starting seasons; he finishes plays more often than he creates them behind the line.
- 04
Blitz value
Limited pass-rush plan and no real counter when the first path is closed, so he offers little as a designed pressure piece on third down.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Michigan | 14 | 60 | 0.5 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2022 | Michigan | 14 | 80 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | Michigan | 15 | 89 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Career | — | 43 | 229 | 2.5 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
Michigan career verified against cfbstats; season totals sum to the career line. Interceptions and fumble recoveries not verified for every season are left null.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Run-first Mike who leads a defense in tackles and gets subbed in obvious passing situations.
Same downhill communicator profile who grew into a 140-tackle every-down starter once the snaps arrived.
Special-teams core and rotational box linebacker whose defensive value depends on the coordinator's trust in his coverage.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The Chargers reunited him with Jim Harbaugh, but Year 1 never got started: an emergency appendectomy in August 2024 wiped out most of training camp, a hamstring cost him Weeks 3 and 4, and an ankle put him on injured reserve from Week 10 to Week 13. He finished the rookie season with 11 games, one start and 29 tackles with a pass defensed, almost all of it special teams and situational box work while Daiyan Henley locked down the every-down job. The plan for 2025 was a bigger rotational role, and it died in camp — the Chargers placed him on season-ending injured reserve on August 26, 2025, and he never played a regular-season snap. He entered the 2026 offseason healthy but on the roster bubble, with Henley, Denzel Perryman and Troy Dye ahead of or alongside him on the inside.
The evaluation still looks correct; the career has simply never been given a chance to test it. Nothing has been disproven — he was never a coverage weapon or a splash producer, so his value always depended on volume snaps as a communicator, and he has been available for 11 of 36 possible games. This reads as an injury story rather than a talent story, but the clock on a third-round linebacker who has missed a full season is unforgiving, and the Chargers are already treating him like a special-teams roster decision instead of a defensive plan.
Data note: Michigan career verified against cfbstats; season totals sum to the career line. Interceptions and fumble recoveries not verified for every season are left null.