Wisconsin Football Suffers a Devastating Injury on the Defensive Line

With BadgerExtra reporting that Wisconsin Badgers senior defensive lineman James Thompson Jr. is out indefinitely due to an upper-body injury, the team is left with a significant hole to fill on their defensive front.

Thompson, a veteran from Cincinnati, Ohio, and a projected starter for a third straight season was expected to be a foundational piece of the line.

His absence on an already unproven defensive line creates an immediate need for the next man in the pecking order to step up and fill that void, forcing position coach E.J. Whitlow to reshuffle the Badgers rotation heading into the season opener against Western Michigan on August 30.

How Wisconsin Football Might Handle the Loss of Veteran Defensive Lineman James Thompson Jr.

Now, with Thompson sidelined, the Wisconsin Badgers will look to guys like Curt Neal and Ben Barten to step up and lead this room. Both players were already penciled in as fixtures in the defensive line rotation and seen as Whitlow’s starters when the unit plays with three down linemen.

Neal has taken a big step since last season and looks like a much more solid product than the version of him that Wisconsin fans saw record 13 tackles and seven pressures in 263 snaps as a reserve in 2023.

Barten, in particular, is someone this staff likes and will likely see an increased workload for the Badgers. But it's the transfers, Brandon Lane and Elijah Hills, who Whitlow will now have to lean on to take on more prominent roles after making significant strides during training camp.

“When you take a look at Brandon, you see a guy that's big, he's dense, he's powerful, and he's really, really athletic for his size," Whitlow said . From a run-defense standpoint, the 6-foot-3, 312-pound defensive lineman should be capable of handling extra snaps and even had moments of looking explosive in practice against the second-team.

On the other hand, Hills offers a much different build, at 6-foot-3, 282 pounds on the fall camp roster. He was expected to rotate and be a solid depth piece that plays with violent hands and good leverage, but it's possible that he will need a bigger piece of the pie behind the starters.

Cade McDonald, a redshirt senior, has some game experience under his belt and is the next man up in all likelihood. At this point, he should give them competent snaps and play with energy. However, this injury truly opens the door for Dillan Johnson, a four-star prospect in the 2024 class, to jump into the mix after defensive coordinator Mike Tressel stated that he was 'close' to cracking the rotation as is.

“God blessed him with great leverage," Whitlow said of Johnson during fall camp. "He really does a good job of using that, playing square, playing powerful with his hands, and playing with a really, really high motor."

The Wisconsin Badgers defensive line was expected to be one of the program's weakest units entering 2024. Fall camp showed the media that while there wasn't a true star anywhere in the room, there was good depth as a whole, and it wouldn't likely be a vulnerability of the defense. That is, until the team lost Thompson Jr., their lone proven commodity.

This is a position I'm definitely concerned about and something to keep an eye on in the early weeks of the season. That so-called depth is about to get tested, and replacing Thompson is going to have to be a collective effort. There's no clear-cut option to step into the starter role.

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