OLB Sebastian Cheeks Poised to Take On His Biggest Role Yet

Just two days into fall camp, we're already getting a clear picture of which positions are a position and strength, and which players are taking a big step into a leadership role.

Linebacker Sebastian Cheeks is one of those players.

The graduate senior is entering his third season with the Badgers after transferring to Wisconsin from North Carolina in 2024. Since his arrival in Madison, he has slowly improved each season, from 12 tackles and two sacks in 2024, to 25 tackles and three sacks last season.

Now, the expectation is he will take that next step in his final with the Badgers, not just statistically, but as a leader in the locker room.

Outside Linebackers Coach Matt Mitchell on Cheeks' Leadership

Wisconsin coach Matt Mitchell — Wisconsin football OLB coach Matt Mitchell during fall camp. | Christian Borman

After practice on Friday, outside linebackers coach Matt Mitchell met with the media and talked about Cheeks' position not only on the field, but in the locker room.

"Well, the first thing Sebastian does a good job is really accepting a leadership position in the room and try to accept a leadership position in there," Mitchell said. "I do commend him for that. He's really trying to take on more than himself. He's trying to have influence in other people."

One player that Mitchell has in mind when talking about Cheeks in 2026 is Darryl Peterson.

"My goal, okay, my mission, my responsibility is the jump that Darryl Peterson took from his junior to senior year. We need Sebastian Cheeks to take that similar type of jump."

One of the things Cheeks has done is take part in the Sack Summit in Las Vegas, learning from many of the NFL's best pass rushers.

"He went out to the sack summit, got one of the guys that got invited out to Las Vegas to be a part of that sack summit," Mitchell said. "He's been working with some people and doing some things on his own and I've seen much better hand hand usage in the top end of his pass rush."

And what is Cheeks doing with that newfound information? Passing it on to his teammates.

When he's not on the field making plays, he's coaching up his teammates. I saw multiple instances where he was working with Nicolas Clayton, Jaylen Williams, and other edge rushers on technique and giving advice.

Cheeks' Path to a Big Season

Wisconsin football linebacker Sebastian Cheeks warms up before practice. | Christian Borman

Aside from the leadership role with the team, there's an expectation that Cheeks will be a leader in production as well. Last season, Cheeks played a lot better than he got credit for. When you are an edge rusher, sacks are the biggest and often the only stat people look at for a marker of production.

While Cheeks didn't rack up the sacks, he was solid in the run game and had some opportunities for sacks, but didn't finish.

"It's really the pass rush, and I think the other biggest thing too is he's got to finish. You know, it's that finish on the quarterback," Mitchell told reporters. "So that's something that we've talked about, and that's the hard part about fall camp. We are, you know, we're staying away from the quarterback."

"So, how do I try to create opportunities in practice where we can work on finishing on the quarterback? Because if you look at his tape last year, there's probably five, maybe six sacks that he missed because he didn't finish, you know what I mean? And if he had made those five or six sacks, everybody would be talking about him."

It's important to keep in mind that Cheeks switched over to edge just last season after coming to the team as an inside linebacker. So with a full season under his belt and more opportunities in 2026, Cheeks could be in for a big season both on and off the field.

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