The evolution at linebacker

[posse87]

I found this article very interesting. Not only does this apply to our LB corp, but even to our secondary. Taylor, Arch, Springs, and Rogers, are big for their positions and have outstanding speed to make plays. In GW's defense the evolution appears to making its way to the way corner and safety are played. This article primarily focuses on the cover two defense, but is applicable to our defense in the sense that GW has expanded his defense with more revolutionary concepts beyond the cover two.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=clayton_john&id=2439793

[budski]

The article might apply to our defense, but at the end they mention the power running game which has always been a Parcells, Gibbs staple. With respect to our offense Saunders brings the shiftiness, but Gibbs is still going to maintain a power running game giving a very balanced attack. The smallish LB's of teams that follow the speed rules will wear down towards the end of the year.

[DWinzit]

They sure were a hot commodity in the draft.

[drowland]

The NFL is a cyclical league. Things go in and out of style all the time. And as the article made reference to, as soon as teams start going with speed over size at LB on the defense, offenses will come back with more power formations and pound them.

Teams are going with those hybrid safeties now to counter the more athletic TEs there are in the NFL these days.

[Bryan81]

Yeah everyone is trying to get those quicker LB's but for different reasons. Some need 'em because they are usinga 3-4 and need the LT type LB. While others are using the zone type defense & cover two. At any rate the LB position is changing & more expected from them & the ability to do different things. Still I think the Patriots & Redskins are at the forefront of this change.

[drowland]

Yeah everyone is trying to get those quicker LB's but for different reasons. Some need 'em because they are usinga 3-4 and need the LT type LB. While others are using the zone type defense & cover two. At any rate the LB position is changing & more expected from them & the ability to do different things. Still I think the Patriots & Redskins are at the forefront of this change.

Patroits & Skins at the forefront? 3-4 teams, like the Patriots, go for the bigger LBs because their OLBs are usually taking on tackles. That's why they value the DE/LB hybrid players like Merriman, Willie McGinnest and Joey Porter. Guys in the 255-270 range.

And Tampa's been using the smaller, quicker LBs for years in their cover 2 scheme. Dungy's done the same with the Colts. Don't now how the Skins are at the forefront of this.

[Darth Tater]

Finding fast outside LBs is an evolution of the nickel and dime packages invented by George Allen. The idea of the nickel package was to provide a solid run defense while taking away as much of the passing game as possible, especially against spread offenses.

You can make your run defense even stronger by replacing the 5th corner with a safety but what if you can use an LB there so you look 4-3 but have the speed to play like a nickel or dime when needed?

[RIDETHEWALRUS]

I wonder what Lavar he is talking about. LA no longer has the strength to take on DTs and he has slowed down quite a bit so that he is no longer the athletic phenom he once was.

One thing I noticed that went unmentioned is the importance of intelligence among LBs. Speed is great, but if a LB can't digest a play quickly that speed is worthless. If you look at the 1st round and second round LBs drafted, virtually all of them either had high wonderlik scores or were known as quick to digest plays, despite a lack of athleticism (DeQwell).

I do believe that despite all these increases in speed a team will be hard pressed to win it all without size in the LB corp. Look at the way the Steelers dominated games last year. It was by outmuscling opponents. The skins went on their run when we started sending CP right at the defense and letting the dirtbags move people out of the way. How is a team with a 275 lb DT and 230 lb LBs gonna stop something like this? If they are attacked and forced to be physical they will wear down and be dominated.