Arizona Cardinals select Owen Pappoe in 5th round of 2023 NFL Draft

Auburn Tigers linebacker Owen Pappoe has been selected in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals.

Owen Pappoe was a five-star prospect out of high school in the Class of 2019. That’s according to the On3 Industry Rankings. In that 2019 class, Pappoe was the second ranked linebacker and the 14th ranked player overall.

It was a promising start to Owen Pappoe’s career when he started as a freshman and then as a sophomore for the Tigers. However, at that point, injuries ended his junior year short. Still, Pappoe was made a team captain in two consecutive seasons.

Throughout his career, Pappoe made 256 career tackles. That included 15 tackles for loss and eight sacks. He also had two interceptions.

As an NFL prospect, Own Pappoe offers a ton of upside. He’s a stellar athlete and a great leader. He also has great speed, having run the best 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine among linebackers at 4.39 seconds. That was the second fastest time for a linebacker ever, behind UCF’s Shaquem Griffin.

What NFL Draft analysts are saying about Owen Pappoe

NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein broke down Owen Pappoe as an NFL Draft prospect, who offers a lot of upside as an NFL prospect.

As Zierlein explained, Owen Pappoe has excellent athletic ability. He’s twitchy and accelerates well while playing with good leverage. All of that is coming with an impressive, albeit undersized, build. On top of that, Pappoe is also solid in pass coverage.

Unfortunately, because of his size, Pappoe can struggle to play on the interior. This also can make it difficult for him to get off blocks. Because of that, he tends to struggle playing around the line of scrimmage and lets the game come to him.

“Undersized linebacker with impressive build, good speed and long arms. Despite all of his traits, Pappoe failed to rack up impact production during his time at Auburn due to his lack of instincts and playmaking ability,” Zierlein said.

“He struggles to leverage the gaps and take on climbing blockers effectively, so a move to Will linebacker should allow him to play more run-and-chase, which suits him. He doesn’t look like an NFL starter on tape, but third down and special teams potential will give him a shot at a backup role.”