The Case for Will McDonald IV With Packers’ First-Round Pick

This is Part 4 of a series of first-round prospects for the Green Bay Packers. Wisconsin native Will McDonald IV broke Von Miller’s Big 12 sacks record.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Mar 25, 2023 3:38 PM EDT

In this story:

Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – A pass rusher growing up just a few miles from the hometown of NFL brothers J.J. Watt and T.J. Watt? The comparisons must have been pretty cool for Will McDonald IV.

Not really, actually.

“I didn't know J.J. Watt at first when I first started playing football, so I wouldn't say that,” McDonald said at the Scouting Combine.

How is that possible? It’s all part of McDonald’s rise to a first-round NFL Draft prospect for the Green Bay Packers, who recently used one of their 30 predraft visits on the Wisconsin native and record-setting pass rusher.

The story from 247 Sports is absurd.

Two games into McDonald’s varsity career at Waukesha (Wis.) North High School, the home-state Badgers started their recruiting pitch. McDonald and his high school coach, Michael Harris, took an on-campus visit in 2016. There was the legendary Barry Alvarez and the equally legendary Ron Dayne.

Iowa State's Will McDonald (All photos by USA Today Sports Images)

For Harris, it was a who’s-who of Wisconsin football royalty. For McDonald, it was who’s that. Literally.

“Hey, Will,” Harris told him, “there’s Barry Alvarez.”

“Who?” McDonald asked.

One of the Wisconsin recruiters started laying out the plan for Harris to become the team’s next star outside linebacker.

“Do you know who T.J. Watt is? And J.J. Watt?” the recruiter asked.

“No,” McDonald told him, “I don’t know any of them.”

Basketball was McDonald’s first love. Finally, at Harris’ constant urging, he gave football a shot for his junior year.

“I was a big basketball dude. I was always into basketball. I didn't really care too much about football,” McDonald said at the Combine. “My coach back in high school, Matt Harris, he's coming after me every other day to ask me to come play football. I'm like, ‘No, I'm good. I'm good, I'm good.’ And so one day I went out, he asked me if I could catch. I'm like, ‘Yeah, I could catch.’ I go out there and catch some ball.

“Then he asked me, he said, ‘All right, can you get down and try to get around this tackle?’ It was our freshman tackle. I'm like, ‘How am I supposed to do that.’” Harris showed him.

“So, I get down and I don't know what move I do, maybe a rip move to get it around the tackle. He was like, ‘Hold on, do that again’ because I end up winning the rep. And then the second time, he told me to just do whatever, so I tried to mix it up, but I end up doing the same move. I end up winning it again. He was like, ‘Hold up, do that one more time.’ And so I ended up beating him three times and then that's when we figured out, you know, I was a pass rusher. So, I just developed my game from there, tried to master it.”

It didn’t take long for Harris to commit to Iowa State. He’d watch ISU games and Packers games to learn some of the trick of the trade. He tallied 23.5 sacks in two seasons at Waukesha North.

It was just the start.

Led by 10.5 sacks in 2020 and 11.5 sacks (and five forced fumbles) in 2021 and five sacks in 2022, McDonald broke Von Miller’s Big 12 sacks record with 34. He was an All-American in 2021 and a three-time all-Big 12 first-team selection.

“The way that I look at it, I did martial arts, I played basketball, I wrestled, I played soccer,” he said at Iowa State’s pro day earlier this week. “I kind of took all that and made a versatile player. I’m kind of built like Will McDonald. So, I kind of just wanted to build my own character. Then, obviously, watching T.J. Watt, Von Miller, Aaron Donald, all of them, I just kind of put everything together, and everything that they have in common is smooth and fast. So, I kind of just put it all into my own versatile player.”

McDonald weighed just 239 pounds at the Scouting Combine – he dropped a few pounds but went through drills while battling a 103-degree fever – and was up to 245 for pro day. He wants to get to 250.

He’d fill a major need for the Packers, though he wouldn’t quite fit their typical mold of 265-plus-pound bruisers exemplified by the likes of Rashan Gary, Preston Smith and Za’Darius Smith. That the Packers think enough of him to use one of their visits shows they aren’t glued to that big-guy philosophy.

McDonald weighed less than 210 pounds to start his college career. Even at his biggest, he played a bit out of position in Iowa State’s scheme. He could be unleashed pinning his ears back while lined up outside the offensive tackle in the NFL.

“I would say it was definitely big challenges,” he said of gaining and maintaining weight. “My metabolism's really fast and so I had to be seven, eight meals a day. Had about four shakes, maybe five. Had to be consistent with doing that to at least keep up maybe three, five pounds around my weight.”

McDonald is the 25th-ranked player in the draft, according to NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah, and is No. 29 on PFF’s rankings. For all his sacks and big plays at Iowa State, he’s viewed as a player on the rise.

“I didn’t think I was going to be here five or six years ago [when] I was working at McDonald’s and Wendy’s,” he said at pro day. “I wasn’t expecting to be here, at Iowa State, doing my thing. I didn’t even know I was a good football player yet. I went out my junior year and my senior year of high school football. I kind of let God lead the path for me.”

Where will that path lead him? Perhaps a relatively short trip up Interstate 43 to join the Packers?

“I have no idea,” he said. “But, whoever I go to, they’re definitely guaranteed a playmaker.”