Wisconsin football DL James Thompson Jr. suffers injury, out indefinitely
Wisconsin's defensive line suffered a massive blow to its depth.
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 Might Handle the Loss of 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.