Sebastian Cheeks has turned his Wisconsin season into a full-blown draft climb.
The Badgers edge rusher has been one of the country’s most disruptive pass rushers this fall, and the numbers back it up. Cheeks is sitting second among Power 4 edge rushers with 34 pressures, even though he has played one fewer game than most of the players around him on the leaderboard.
His latest eruption came against USC, when he piled up six pressures, 2.5 sacks and four defensive stops while causing problems for quarterback Jayden Maiava all game long.
That kind of production has pushed his stock well beyond where it started. At the beginning of the year, Cheeks was viewed as an undrafted prospect. Now, his rise has him in the conversation as a possible Day 2 selection in the 2027 NFL Draft.
ESPN’s Mel Kiper gave Cheeks a Round 3 or Round 4 grade in his weekly notes and highlighted the way the Wisconsin pass rusher attacks the quarterback from multiple angles.
“I love how Wisconsin edge rusher Sebastian Cheeks varies his path to the quarterback,” Kiper wrote. “He can get home on the inside or outside with explosion, and he always has a secondary move ready to go.
We saw that against USC, with 2.5 sacks. And at 6-3 and 243 pounds, he plays with more power than you might think -- he can drive offensive tackles back with his bull rush.
“His motor never stops. Cheeks will make plays against the run, too, but he needs to add more weight to his frame to really take another step there. Cheeks shows sustained intensity and is a consistent player, and I have him in Round 3 or Round 4.”
Cheeks’ outing against USC also earned him Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors, the first time a Badger has taken home the award since Darryl Peterson against Illinois last November.
Wisconsin, meanwhile, has been waiting a while for a Day 2 pick. The program’s last players selected in that range were center Joe Tippmann, who went to the New York Jets, and defensive tackle Keeanu Benton, who went to the Pittsburgh Steelers, both in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft. That same draft also saw edge rusher Nick Herbig go to the Steelers in the fourth round.
Herbig was the last Badgers edge rusher drafted, and he has already landed a four-year, $100 million contract this past offseason.
With Wisconsin sitting at 5-2 overall and 3-1 in Big Ten play, Cheeks and the Badgers defense will try to keep the momentum rolling as the season winds down. If the strong start continues, so should the buzz around Cheeks’ draft stock.
In Other News...
Wisconsins Rotation Is Taking Shape Around One Growing Concern
Wisconsins exhibition slate offered enough to feel encouraged and enough to keep the staff measuring the depth chart with caution. The Badgers finished 3-0, capped by a win over Oklahoma State, and Owen Foxwell looked like the guard most ready to steady things early. He brought efficient scoring and a clear presence in the backcourt, the kind of start that can settle a team while the rest of the rotation sorts itself out.
The bigger question now is what happens in the minutes around him. Other players have flashed, but nobody has yet locked down a dependable scoring role, which leaves the Badgers with a real sense of possibility and a lingering concern as the season approaches. Wisconsin has a workable foundation, but the way those non-Foxwell possessions are filled in may end up shaping how quickly this group finds its rhythm once the games start counting. [Read more 🡒]
Badgers Showed Real Promise But One Issue Still Stands Out
The Badgers closed the preseason with a convincing 82-65 win over Oklahoma State, a performance that offered a cleaner snapshot of what this group can be when the offense is clicking. Owen Foxwell led the way with 19 points and three assists, and he was especially sharp from deep, going 3-for-3 from three-point range as Wisconsin shot 43.9 percent from beyond the arc.
Even with the strong shooting night and a defense that held the Cowboys to 65 points, there was still a familiar issue sitting in the background. Wisconsin turned the ball over 15 times, and while that did not spoil the result in an exhibition setting, it remains the kind of detail that can undercut a promising night once the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]
Wisconsin Faces Two Iowa Unknowns That Could Decide The Heartland Trophy
Wisconsin heads to Iowa this week with the kind of game that can turn on small details, and the matchup already has a little extra uncertainty baked in. The Badgers, now No. 25, are facing an Iowa team that slipped out of the AP Poll after its loss to Minnesota, but the bigger question is what the Hawkeyes will look like on offense with the quarterback situation still unsettled and Hank Brown set to start.
There is another layer of unpredictability around Iowas backfield, too, with star running back Kamari Moulton out for the season and the workload shifting elsewhere. For Wisconsin, that means preparing for a rivalry game in which the usual scouting report may not hold up for long, and the Heartland Trophy could come down to which side adapts fastest once the ball is kicked off. [Read more 🡒]