Over the course of his career, Reuben Foster has learned to keep his head up and found his voice, allowing him to step into the alpha male role on Alabama’s defense this season. And NFL scouts have taken notice.

According to Lance Zierlein of NFL.com, one NFC scout compared the hard-hitting Crimson Tide linebacker to Carolina Panthers star Luke Kuechly, and he thinks Foster may surprise people in next year’s NFL Draft.

“I think Reuben Foster is going to get drafted way earlier than people expect,” the NFC scout told Zierlein in his Sources Tell Us feature on NFL.com. “Kuechly got drafted early and I think Foster has the same (expletive) to him.”

Foster, who is listed at 6-foot-1, 240 pounds, said he has worked to get his weight down to 225 pounds in order to keep up with the uptempo offenses Alabama will face this season. His size is comparable to Kuechly, who stands at 6-foot-3, 238 pounds. Both linebackers possess game-changing speed, too, as Kuechly ran a 4.58-second 40 yard dash at the 2012 NFL Combine.

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The anonymous NFC scout isn’t the only one that has noticed Foster, however. Pro Football Focus’ Michael Renner listed the senior linebacker as one of his 10 most unstoppable forces in college football right now Wednesday.

“Only two other linebackers in the country have more tackles without a miss than Foster’s 17 solos and six assists,” Renner wrote of the Crimson Tide linebacker. “Those other two, and quite frankly every other linebacker in the country, don’t have the ability to make plays all over the field like Foster does though. The next man up in the Alabama linebacker factory, Foster has a chance to be one of the best when it’s all said and done.”

Through three games, Foster leads the Crimson Tide with 22 tackles, and his speed and ferocity on the field has been apparent to his teammates, especially fellow linebacker Ryan Anderson, who was impressed on one, particular play.

“He calls his new body a Ferrari. He says last year was a Tahoe.” Anderson said. “... I was watching the film, and every play, he’d just fly. Like the play he hit Chad Kelly, I stopped and my jaw dropped like, ‘Dang.’ I was scared. I was scared for him. I don’t know where he came from. I was running and it was ‘Bop!’ Like, what was that? I should have known it was 10.

“... Reuben is a monster. He’s 100 miles per hour every play. He plays at one speed, and that’s scary. That’s scary.”

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