NFL Draft Update: Arkansas’ Deatrich Wise Jr Picked By New England Patriots in 4th Round

Deatrich Wise is heading to New England as the 131st pick in the NFL Draft. He’ll join former Hog Trey Flowers, who had a breakout season on the defensive line for the Super Bowl champions.

There’s no doubt about Wise’s potential. He showed flashes of brilliance throughout his career, which seemed to peak his junior season when he led the SEC in sacks vs conference opponents - in a conference that also featured this year’s #1 overall draft pick at defensive end.

His best performance came against LSU that year. Wise was credited with 2.5 sacks that night in Baton Rouge, but he wasn’t able to live up to the hype as a senior. He injured his hand in the first game of the season and battled other injuries throughout the year, ending up with just 3.5 sacks last season.

When healthy, Wise could be a force. It seemed he was hyped each preseason as a potential superstar. Bret Bielema even pulled him out of some preseason practices because, according to Bielema, he was disrupting the offense too much.

Wise finished his career at Arkansas with 112 tackles, 23 tackles for loss and 16.5 sacks (he’s 10th on the Razorbacks’ career sacks list). He collected 49 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks as a senior in 2016.

Wise’s full college stats and bio are here and his scouting report from the NFL Combine is here.