Keenan Clayton Scouting Report

It took a couple years for Keenan Clayton to become a major contributor at Oklahoma. That is not too surprising since the Sooners are loaded with talent on both sides of the ball, but the story is a little different with Clayton. He began his career as a safety and spent 2006 and 2007 playing a very limited role in the secondary. After redshirting in 2005, Clayton earned a starting gig at safety as a redshirt freshman, but only spent two games in that role before being relegated to the bench for the next two years. It was not until 2008 when he was moved to linebacker that Clayton's career took off. In his first 27 games with the Sooners, he totaled just 26 tackles, 0.5 tackles-for-loss, no sacks and no interceptions. In 2008 at linebacker he tallied 84 tackles, 11.0 tackles-for-loss, 4.5 sacks, one interception and a record breaking six forced fumbles. Clayton has not been able to keep up those lofty numbers so far during the 2009 campaign, but he is still having a very productive season. Clayton will not be a first round selection, but he could sneak into the second round if he keeps up his production on the field and has a good senior week and NFL Combine leading up to the draft. He has a few things to work on, but Clayton's production cannot be overlooked (even if his measurables are not on the same level as some other linebackers in this class).