O’Brien Schofield’s NFL career continues to be, in a manner of speaking, for the birds.
The soon-to-be 28-year-old from North Chicago started out with the Cardinals, moved on to the Seahawks, and is now a Falcon after signing with Atlanta last week.
Schofield, a 6-foot-3, 240-pounder, started his pro career as a linebacker after being picked in the fourth round of the 2010 draft by the Arizona Cardinals. He had been a defensive end in college at Wisconsin, but was moved to linebacker by Arizona after his draft stock fell due to a knee injury sustained in the Senior Bowl all-star game after his final game at Wisconsin.
Schofield played three years for Arizona, then was released. He was picked up by the Seattle Seahawks and was a backup on the Super Bowl-winning team two years ago. He even had a sack in the Super Bowl win over Denver.
After that 2013 season, Schofield was a free agent and appeared poised to sign a two-year, $8 million contract with the New York Giants, but the deal was nixed when the Giants determined that Schofield had a problem with one of his knees.
Eventually, Schofield was re-signed by Seattle for the 2014 season, which ended with the stunning Super Bowl loss to the New England Patriots.
This past season, Schofield was a pass-rushing specialist as a defensive end for Seattle, but reports out of Atlanta suggest he’ll be back at linebacker for the Falcons.
The reason why Schofield was coveted by Atlanta? The Falcons’ new head coach is Dan Quinn, who was Seattle’s defensive coordinator for the two seasons that Schofield was a Seahawk.
Last year, Schofield played 35 percent of the defensive snaps for Seattle, and had two sacks and seven quarterback hits.
Website profootball.scout.com ranked all the NFL free agents available, with Ndamukong Suh — formerly of Detroit and now with Miami — rated No. 1 overall.
More Top Picks Best Gaming Headsets
Schofield was listed as the 13th-best outside linebacker available. By comparison, earlier this month, the Bears signed Pernell McPhee to be a pass rushing linebacker in their new 3-4 defense, and he was rated the fifth-best defensive end available.
Despite the Giants’ injury concerns, Schofield has been an amazingly durable player in the NFL, witness his two years in Seattle in which he played in all but one regular-season game and also played in the postseason.
Terms of Schofield’s new contract were not announced. Last year, he played on a one-year, $730,000 deal with Seattle. His most active season as a player was in 2012 with Arizona when he earned a starting linebacker spot. That season was ruined when he sustained a season-ending ankle injury during a game against Green Bay.
Last March, Schofield spent part of a day at A.J. Katzenmaier School in North Chicago, visiting with youngsters. That day, he wore his No. 93 Seattle Seahawks jersey to the school. With him was his wife, Angela. They have two young sons and live in Arizona, which is where they met. Schofield’s brother, Admiral Schofield, is a senior at Zion-Benton and will play college basketball at Tennessee. In addition to football, O’Brien Schofield was a basketball player at North Chicago.
The Falcons have not announced what number Schofield will wear next season. He was No. 50 with Arizona and also was No. 50 at Wisconsin. He couldn’t wear No. 50 with Seattle because veteran linebacker K.J. Wright had it. Last year, no Falcon wore No. 50.
Schofield is the second North Chicago native to wind up signing a free-agent contract to play for the Falcons.
Michael Turner was drafted by San Diego after starring in college at NIU, and Turner eventually had a very good NFL career as a starting running back with the Falcons from 2008-2012. The Falcons made the playoffs four times while Turner was there, but never made it to the Super Bowl.