Feeling the Draft '09: 3-4 Linebackers

Back again with another outside—as in far outside, past the bushes and the security guards—look at the Broncos’ needs in the upcoming 2009 NFL Player Draft.

Sure, other writers might just call it “the Draft,” but we here at the House prefer the veneer of legitimacy conveyed by “2009” “NFL” and “Player.” Consider it the lawyerly approach.

Judge us for our arrogance if you like; but please, do so in the comments section. Instead of, you know, court. Because, given the mindset we’ve established in paragraph one, we’d have to represent ourselves. And that would get ugly fast.

Enough chatter. Down below, a look at 5 linebackers who could potentially fit in Mike Nolan’s 3-4 defense.



1. Larry English, LB/DE, Northern Illinois. 6’2”, 255 lbs

English is a guy who doesn’t have a lot of name recognition outside the NIU campus but stands a real chance of going early in the draft. Possibly as early as the first round. He’ll most definitely be off the board by the end of the second. That’s a measure of the high value that 3-4 teams place on outside linebackers with his body type--although he’s a few inches shy of prototype height for the position--and ability to rush the passer (he’s the school’s career leader in sacks). He’s also, from all accounts, a good dude off the field and is a member of the University’s leadership council. Given the money that teams commit to players at the top of the draft, that plays pretty well these days. Unless you’re the Bengals.

2. Clay Matthews Jr., LB/DE, USC. 6’3, 240 lbs

Now, this is a name that might perk the casual fan’s ear, but more likely because casual fan is remembering Clay Matthews Sr., a linebacker who played seemingly a hundred seasons for the Cleveland Browns. Younger Clay has seen only one year as a starter, but it should be mentioned that he walked on to the team to begin with—if you turn yourself into a starter at USC, even if takes all four years, you deserve a little dap no matter your surname. He’s versatile, hard-working and a football-is-the-most-important-thing-in-the-universe type--although for all of his potential as a rush linebacker in the 3-4, he didn’t exactly produce a ton of sacks (only 4.5) playing at the Trojans’ version of the position, the “Elephant.” (Who came up with that name, anyway?) But the Draft is all about potential, and Matthews has it in spades.

3. Jasper Brinkley, ILB, South Carolina. 6’1”, 252 lbs

No, we haven’t forgotten that the 3-4 requires more than mere pass rushers, that it only works well when staffed by concrete-gnawing brutes in the middle who can fend off pulling guards and stuff the run. While scouts evidently weren’t impressed with Brinkley’s senior season or play at the East-West Shrine Game (we think that anyone who takes part in that contest should motor up to the stadium in a little car, wearing a fez), he made up for it with a better showing at the Combine. Not very fast, kind of Andra Davis-esque, but physically suited for the inside banging that the scheme entails.

4. Clint Sintim, OLB, Virginia. 6’2”, 256 lbs

The most obvious presence on this list, Sintim was drafted to play in Al Groh’s 3-4 alignment at Virginia and did so with elan—he owns UVA’s record for career sacks by a linebacker, with 27. That experience, combined with his ideal body type, pass rush ability, arm length (33 ½ inches) and ability to drop in coverage, will likely make him one of the first rush linebackers off the board, alongside English. Plus, Clint is an appropriately monosyllabic first name for a linebacker.

5. Neefy Moffett, DE/OLB, Florida St. 6’0”, 260 lbs

The knock on Moffett, who played defensive line in college, is that he’s too short. To which we say: don’t short linemen have natural leverage? It’s not like the dude is a wide receiver. He’s a brute, physically, and ProFootballWeekly’s Nolan Nawrocki (read: actual draft analyst) speculates that he could carry 280 pounds on his frame, making for one heck of a rush linebacker. If Jason Gildon could play for the Steelers in the mid-to-late ‘90s at 270 or so, we see no reason Moffett can’t do the same.

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Feeling the Draft '09: Welcome Back, Kids

You smell that? (No--not that. That's just the Miller High Life Lite talkin'.) Smells like...combine.

I've waited to put together the first of what promises to be an exhaustive, repetitive and totally uninformed-by-any-actual-reportage series of posts on the 2009 NFL Draft until now, when the GMs and coaches and agents and potential Kansas City first round busts have all gathered in Indianapolis. It's kind of like waiting until Christmas Morning to open your presents; doing it early cheapens the experience.

Follow past the jump for more...


I haven't really decided how I'm gonna approach these, but I do know that my live bloggin' of the actual event will be condensed into one easy-to-follow post, so we can enjoy your hundreds of pertinent and not-dumb comments in one place. Last year's shotgun approach wore my typing fingers out, and then I got drunk too early. I'm sure there's a connection somewhere.

Anyway. Let's pop onto teh internets for a few items concerning the two teams that we care about here. That's right: the Saints and Vikings.

It's official, kinda. The Broncos are openly admitting that they plan to move to a 3-4 defense. At least some of the time. Other times, who knows? Maybe they'll use a 2-5. Or a 9-11. 10-4, good buddy.

We'll look at players who'd fit in later; my problem with the 3-4 is, and has always been, that it's hard to staff. You have to find a nose tackle who crushes Winchell's donuts, linebackers that are actually light defensive ends who can drop in pass coverage and actual ends that are more like 4-3 tackles, except taller. Preferably.

Jeff Legwold did a piece a while back--I'm too lazy to find the exact link at the moment--comparing the sizes of Denver's D-linemen with those of the two most successful 3-4 squads out there, the Patriots and Steelers. It wasn't pretty. There are basically no players on Denver's team who fit the ideal size profile of *any* front seven position in a 3-4, with the exception of Jarvis Moss as a potential outside 'backer. We simply don't have those 6'5, 300+ dudes you need to hold the edge as ends, nor anyone resembling a true nose tackle.

And with more teams going to a 3-4, those players are going to be harder to find.

Teams like, say, the Kansas City Chiefs?

Also from today's Rocky:
"It makes the Broncos one of several teams making the change - the Green Bay Packers recently made the switch to a 3-4 with Dom Capers as their new defensive coordinator, and the Kansas City Chiefs are expected to change once they choose their defensive coordinator - and puts them on hunt to fill some new roles in the scheme."

Ohh realllly? This is news to me. KC has invested a lot of high draft picks along the defensive line in recent years, and they were pretty much all 4-3 guys. Glenn Dorsey is a 4-3 guy. Tamba Hali is a 4-3 guy. Maybe Tank is a 3-4 nose...maybe. But it seems to me that the team that won't even tell its new coaching staff what their jobs are has more to lose in this switch than we do, since we've basically invested nothing up front over the last decade. And yes, it shows.

Our new head coach has evidently been studying up on the Patriot Guide to Dealing With the News Media. At least he's smiling.

Along with pretty much everyone else, I think the Chefs need to draft a quarterback. I know everyone loves The Tyler Thigpen Story, and it's cute, but of such are the 2-14 seasons made.

Question is, who? This isn't a great draft for quarterbacks-one of the worst in a long time, actually--and there are widely divergent opinions of the early favorites, Matt Stafford and Mark Sanchez. Profootballtalk.com quoted a source--who may not exist, you never know with them--as saying that Stafford "pees his pants" under pressure. Ouch. And there isn't exactly a long list of one-year college starters who have gone on to NFL fame and fortune, as Sanchez attempts to do. So are either of them worth the #3 pick overall?

Or will they end up with someone like this kid, who played down the road a spell? Or this one, who shares an alma mater with Jim Everett and Bob Griese?

Or this one, whose selection would cause Whitlock to immediately engage in a furious session of onanism in the middle of the middle of the Star's newsroom? That's what I'm rooting for. Because if there's one thing our Administrator can't get enough of, it's Big Sexy talkin' up his peeps from Ball State.





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