Colby Wooden was selected in the fourth round, 116th overall, by the Green Bay Packers in the 2023 NFL draft. A defensive tackle, he played college football for the Auburn Tigers.
Your nickname is the General?
Coach V.O. nicknamed me that. I don’t mind it. It’s cool. Guys be going with it. General started off, that kind of stuff. Nah, it’s good. I don’t mind it. It’s a cool little nickname.
Why that name?
He said because the nose is the general of the defense. The nose, everything starts with the nose, like the run game, the pass, like everything starts with the nose. So for me to be the nose, it’s kind of looked at like the general of the defense, hold it down and yeah.
How have you played?
I feel like I’ve played smooth. I definitely wanna keep improving for sure. It’s a lot of stuff I can work on, lot of stuff I can get better at, but right now, we’re in a good place. We’re winning.
You want to prove yourself after they traded Kenny Clark?
Oh yeah. Yeah. But my mindset wasn’t to prove people wrong. It was to prove the guys upstairs right, like they made the right call, prove myself right that I can do this, it’s my time. God didn’t leave me here — he didn’t leave me here, this is his plan, you feel me? So I just gotta go out, execute and so far I’ve been doing that. We just gotta keep going.
Run defense is good even without Kenny Clark and T.J. Slaton?
Yeah so, Bro, you just do your job. It’s that simple. The coaches do a great job putting together a great game plan. You gotta stop the run, know your technique, know the blocking surfaces you’re gonna get, really just watching film. I be diving into that film, watching film, like if if something don’t make sense, I’ll watch film all night ‘til I get it, and then once I get it, keep watching it, making sure that it’s the right thing that I’m watching. So we just gotta keep playing and keep doing our job.
What’s Micah Parsons like in the film room?
I’ve never watched it with him, but he must be pretty good. He must be pretty good. Nah, but I’m assuming he’s good. I’ve never watched it with him, but I’m assuming he’s pretty good with it.
You said your pops is a truck driver? Who’s grittier? You or him?
Him, he’s been doing this before I was born, so I’mma give it to Pops. Pops has been unloading trucks, doing this for over 30-something years, so I’mma give it to Pops. But we both got a lil’ hard job.
How much of your personality and how you go about your business do you get from him?
I get most of it — I ain’t gonna lie, it’s a good lil’ mixture. All that joking and playing I get from him, but my mom, she be – yeah, yeah. Nah, but both of them be playing, but Pops just, he taught me about going to work. As a man, you should be working like rain, sleet, sick. They don’t care, like you gotta work, you have a job to do. Do your job and to the highest and best of your ability, so that’s what I try to do every day and just get better.
Your growth?
I didn’t believe ‘em when they said the game will slow down, but it actually has. I’m seeing things — like the first two years, my head was just spinning, so now just slowing down, it’s making more sense.
You eased into this role, weren’t thrown into the fire?
Yes. For sure. On top of that, I got to learn from Kenny. Kenny had been a Pro Bowler. He’s a million-dollar man. Clearly he’s done something right. I picked his brain a lot. I asked him a lot. Matter a fact, I called him yesterday. Just to make sure I’m still on point, still asking him things I can still learn and get better. It definitely makes sense.
Interior suits you better than outside?
Yeah. To me, inside is all about mentality. You gotta love physicality. You gotta love just the whole thing. I love being gritty. It’s not a pretty job. We know my name ain’t gonna be in the paper. Yeah, I got run stops cool. You know it’s not gonna be in the paper, but let them run for 200 yards, and I guarantee they come, ‘Uh, where is he at?’ You know you gotta do your job and take pride in that, and I definitely do.
Hafley’s coaching style? Could he be a head coach?
I love Haf. Haf is aggressive. Haf, his Saturday night talks when we watch that film, oh what?
Y’all would be ready to play for him. Nah, Haf is a great DC. Love him. He’s aggressive. He gonna call it. He gonna call it. What we practice, he’s gonna call it in the game. Ain’t no holding it back.
Nah, we running it. That’s always great when your DC trusts you to run what we’ve been practicing all week.
What are those Saturday night talks like?
Hey, gotta be there.
Is this year more the opportunity, or has it just clicked for you?
To me, it’s like opportunity and preparation met. I’ve been practicing, been preparing for this. I didn’t know it would be this soon. None of us know God’s plan. For me, it’d be a shame to just spit on this opportunity that I have and not do my best and not give it my best at this moment in time. I just gotta keep going. I know I’m doing all right, cool. But we got so much more football to play and so much more to keep going.
