MADISON, Wis. - Zack Baun came to Wisconsin as a high school quarterback. His development as an outside linebacker could make him a first-round draft pick in next week’s NFL Draft.

Baun’s development started slow. While he played 12 games as a redshirt freshman, Baun missed the entire 2017 season with a foot injury suffered during fall camp. And while it took him time to shake the rust off in 2018, Baun showed flashes of his potential toward the end of that season.

Named a team captain last year, Baun led the team and ranked second in Big Ten with 19.5 tackles for loss and 12.5 sacks (ranking second among Power Five conference linebackers in both categories). He also recorded 10 quarterback hurries and tallied 76 total tackles. A Butkus Award finalist, Baun’s senior season earned him consensus first-team All-America honors, becoming the first linebacker in school history to earn that distinction.

BadgerBlitz Wisconsin NFL Draft Preview - A breakdown of Zack Baun and his comments from NFL Pro Day

Baun burst onto the scene in 2019 after a tremendous offseason that helped refine a lot of his techniques. One standout of his skills is his motor and his ability to explode off the snap. Running a 4.08 in the 20-yard shuttle at UW’s Pro Day, Baun possesses a strong lower body which helps produce a good burst to get up the field and makes up for him lacking top-end speed. His TFL numbers show his ability to create chaos in the backfield with a variety of techniques (spin, speed, rip, swim, etc.) to aid him in outside run support. It’s impressive how polished his technique is considering his relative newness to the position.

Baun is aggressive when he moves downhill in run support, has sideline-to-sideline range, moves well to win first contact and drops fluidly into coverage. His flexibility and his bend are two of his better traits, as his 7.00 three-cone drill at the NFL Scouting Combine (fifth among tested linebackers) demonstrated. His use of his hands serves him well, allowing him to win first contact and shed blockers to get into the backfield without slowing his speed rush.

He’s a good tackler for his 6-2 size in large part because he takes the right angles and slashes toward the ball carrier. Baun has a good drive when he’s flat footed and needs to change directions, giving him good balance and lateral movement. In a posted online interview with the Dallas Cowboys, Baun said that if someone were to give him a compliment as a football player, it would be that his motor is unlike any other. Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Nolan said that was a good answer.

There’s a passion to Baun’s game and a high football intelligence. As a former dual-threat high school quarterback, Baun has the knowledge and ability to diagnose plays pre-snap and be assignment/gap sound, putting him in the proper positions to chase down runners or throwers and cover tight ends or running backs in pass coverage. Per Pro Football Focus, he was the only draft-eligible edge rusher with over 100 coverage snaps and was the highest-graded edge rusher in coverage.

Other strengths, according to NFL.com, include him being a “rush zombie with a good secondary rush motor, possessing smooth drops and fluid hips to amplify zone cover radius, having a good tackle range with speed to go get ball carriers, being flexible and strong to maintain balance through contact and having proper sink and extension to set a solid edge.”

While he has solid size for a traditional linebacker, one big knock on Baun is that he doesn’t have great size for a full-time edge rusher, and that his power moves that worked so well on college linemen could get stalled against the bigger brut strength at the NFL level. Not the longest linebacker either, Baun could struggle with those big offensive tackles in both the run and the pass if his athleticism doesn’t carry him through.

Like any defensive player, Baun must improve his tackling at the next level by limiting arm tackles and perfecting his form. His shorter height shouldn’t hurt him in that regard, but it will take him time to be an impact player when lined up on the line of scrimmage. Baun’s game also appears tailored to a 3-4 scheme and not a 4-3, so the “fit” into a defensive scheme will be vitally important. Baun is better when he can play with versatility and not when he’s lined up as a 4-3 defensive end or an every-down cover.

Per NFL.com, some of Baun’s other weaknesses include the, “need to harness energy as an open-field tackler, occasionally telegraphing rush plays with pre-snap setup of feet, (an) antsy demeanor that causes delays coming off the ball at times, (his) rush momentum can carry him beyond the arc, (can be) mechanical in his rush counters and currently wins with athletic ability over skill level as pass rusher.”

It was also reported last week by ESPN that Baun notified all 32 teams that he tested positive for a diluted sample at the NFL Scouting Combine, a result he blamed on drinking too much water for weight-related weigh-in purposes. Fortunately for Baun, the positive test won’t count against him under the NFL’s new collective bargaining agreement.

Baun’s senior season and postseason workouts have seen his name start to be mentioned in mock drafts near the end of the first round.

NFL.com's Peter Schrager sees Baun being a fit for the Packers at No.30, saying he knows “quite a few teams who like him as an end-of-first/early-second-round guy.”

ESPN’s Mel Kiper, the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Toronto Post have Baun going to New England with the No.23 pick, especially after the Patriots lost Kyle Van Noy and Jamie Collins in free agency. Last season, Collins led the Pats in sacks, tackles and tackles for a loss. Van Noy led the Patriots in quarterback hits and was second on the team in sacks.

Other mock drafts have Baun going late in the first round to the Seattle Seahawks at No.27 (CBS and The Sporting News), the Baltimore Ravens at No.28 (CBSSports.com’s Josh Edwards and Sports Illustrated), the Tennessee Titans at No.29 (Draft Diamonds), the San Francisco 49ers at No.31 (The Huddle Report) and the Kansas City Chiefs at No.32 (Athlon Sports and NFL.com).

If he falls to the second round, Baun has been pegged at multiple picks: No.33 to the Cincinnati Bengals (Bleacher Report, CBSSports.com’s Chris Trapasso and Ryan Wilson and NFL.com), No.35 to the Detroit Lions (WalterFootball), No.36 to the New York Giants (Draft Network), No.40 to the Houston Texans (WalterFootball), No.41 to the Cleveland Browns (Tankathon), No.55 to the Atlanta Falcons (Draftek) and No.64 to the Chiefs (Draft Wire).

Considering his career arc, it’s evident that Baun’s best years of football are ahead of him and that he can excel in a defensive system that will allow him to be mobile. His ability to get after the quarterback gives him a high ceiling and should excite defensive coordinators. Baun can make his mark as a situational pass rusher in the league, which gives him value to multiple teams that have a system that can highlight his football IQ, athleticism and burst.