The three linebackers that Kiper rates between 5 and 20 are Georgia junior Alec Ogletree (10th), UCLA junior Anthony Barr (13th) and Rutgers’ Khaseem Greene (22nd). The Dolphins like their linebackers, but the 6-4 Barr (11.5 sacks) is intriguing – “a rising star and devastating pass rusher,” Kiper said. Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/spor...draft-fins-hurricanes-news.html#storylink=cpy
I have to admit every time I'm supposed to look at Datone Jones my attention is drawn to Barr. But is he a fit in this defense?
I really like Greene and Jones. Haven't looked at Barr. Greene is a former safety and honestly reminds me of Mike Peterson when he was younger. Jones has strong potential as a pass rusher and could maybe play both 3 and 5 techs.
I feel like Barr is more of a 3-4 fit as a stand up rusher on the outside. But he would definitely provide that pass rush we need on the opposite Wake. Listed at 6'4" 235 lbs. Very raw as he was recruited as a tailback and was switched to defense by the new coaching staff. Not really sure, where we would put him. But he is a playmaker and gets to the QB in a hurry and that is something we are lacking
I felt like every time the ucla D made a play it was either made by or due to either Jones or Barr. Either one of these guys would make me very happy so long as we can scheme them in
Barr is a phenomenal talent playing in a 34 front that's essentially a 43, as a standup right DE. His speed off the corner is......well, I loved Aldon Smith.....but he looks quicker. He has a spin move that is nonsense good, it's Dwight Freeney in it's pomp. I don't see him as a 34 LB necessarily. He's Bruce Irvin with better speed. He's raw, but he has a real sense for the football. He can drop in coverage for sure but you'd just want to line him up off the edge and set him free. Strong hands, always keeps his feet moving. I saw him earlier this year against Nebraska. He makes a play where Martinez is in the pistol, there's a guy comes across on a jet sweep. Barr explodes off the edge, nails the jet sweeper whilst Martinez runs inside him with the ball. Worked to perfection. Except whilst he's smashing the jet sweeper, Barr already knows Martinez has the ball, so he spins and tracks Martinez from behind. For a loss. It's ridiculous. I was watching it on film and I almost called my wife into show her because it was so good. He is a very, very good player. But he's as much of a 43 end as he is a 34 LB. Would you start him there and expect him to hold up against the run from week 1? No. But would you unleash him on 3rd downs? Hell yeah. He's 10+ sacks a season whilst he's learning the position, guaranteed.
Yoinks! Wish I'd been following up on this guy sooner. I believe you're talking about the play at 1:01 of the following video. And yeah, that's a mind blowing good play. But the other plays on the video are also impressive. [video=youtube;2O1-XSoe2Nw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O1-XSoe2Nw[/video] He's got dynamite in his ankles.
Woof. Forgive me while I throw down a few ambien-enhanced thoughts. 1. Anthony Barr reminds me so much of Jason Taylor, especially the Jason Taylor that played for Nick Saban in 2005 and 2006. Disturbing how similar. 2. Legit frame. Absolutely legit, lengthy, has that look to him where he's on the field next to a lot of smaller guys, and he can just do what he wants with these shrimps 3. Greasy fast speed. Watch him lope down the field easily keeping up with DBs, RBs and WRs. It's sick. 4. Tailback experience shows. He sure can pick and weave through that offensive line to find the quarterback as a blitzer and stunter, can't he? Might have something to do with his experience at tailback. Also he has a true understanding of his primary weapons as an edge player which are your feet, not your hands. He's comfortable using his feet to get anywhere he want, leverage, position, getting beyond players. As a tailback he found creative ways to use his feet to make tacklers miss him so he could get beyond them for more yardage. As a pass rusher he uses his feet to find creative ways to get beyond blockers. Similarities in the approach. 5. But, as you might also expect given the background, he's a newb when it comes to hand use. Tailbacks don't use their hands for anything technical other than carrying and protecting the ball. Stiff arms are less about technique and more about street brawling. In this role he's got to use his hands and they're the worst part about him out of sheer inexperience. It leads to inconsistency. One play he's into a guy and has him on skates, the next he's in quicksand. He could be getting off blocks quicker with more active hand use. This player could be in the mix for any one of our picks. He's damn good.
That play was incredible. I had to watch it 3 times to believe it. Can't wait to see his 3 cone drill lol As far as the bold, I agree with you. That being said, I think hand use is a lot easier to learn than the feet part of the game. I agree with the JT comparison too.
Your 4th point stood out when UCLA played USC. He destroyed Matt Barkley by exploding through the line at the correct time on stunts.
Really the only negative I could find is his inability to disengage blocks with his hands, but that is most likely, like you said CK, due to his newness to the position. I feel like some good training from Kacy Rogers could fix that right up though.
he's slightly twiggy ATM but seems to have the length and type of weight distribution to where he can handle another 20 pounds and do so w/o losing much of that drooling acceleration. Reminds me of Derrick Thomas's days at Bama..... just much less experienced and a neophyte in the hand usage department. Similar size, too. Man these kids wear a buttload less pads than the 80's. Seems as though he's playing on talent & instinct alone, like he's on a sandlot. Would be a terror on special teams while he learns end. At least he'd add some situational pass rush ability in the process. Appears stronger than his size would indicate and has superior lower body explosion but doesn't have the mass to back it up yet. Definitely doesn't seem lost like Maybin did. Looks like he'd be ready to replace Cam by the time Wake is ready to revert back to situational pass rusher. I thought Bruce Irvin had slightly better COD ability/suddenness and played faster overall because of it, but Barr's actual burst looks faster. Irvin seemed more slippery and was a hair better at improvising routes to the quarterback..... but Barr looks more impressive getting around the corner, and his closing speed could catch tecmo bowl Bo Jackson. To me, Irvin looked more like a hybrid guy who I wanted to develop as a linebacker, where as Barr looks better suited as a downhill player who I'd want to beef up to 260ish and turn into a true weakside end. Hell, anyone who can put Brady on his *** is fine with me. Here's a fun trip to the past: [video=youtube;BWkdeAQQ88U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWkdeAQQ88U[/video]
The 3:00 mark is why I'd want him at WDE.... and then again at 10:56. That's just wow. Would be nice to see him play with his fingers in the dirt a few times. [video=youtube;9Uxim18aZck]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Uxim18aZck[/video]
Saw this about Barr in CBS sports risers/fallers http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/risersandfallers When predicting who would lead the Pac-12 in sacks and tackles for loss this season, few mentioned Barr as a possibility. But with 13.5 sacks and 20.5 tackles for loss, he sits atop the conference leaderboard in both categories after a standout junior year. A former running back, Barr moved to defense this past off-season after two years buried on the offensive depth chart and thrived in his new role at linebacker. He became a starter for the 2012 season opener, recording six tackles and a sack, and hasn't looked back. Barr is a tall, long athlete and while a tad lanky, he is much stronger than he looks and plays with a forceful playing style (just ask Southern Cal QB Matt Barkley). He has a quick first step and is a tough rusher to square up and block with his foot speed and lateral quickness. Barr has excellent natural explosion and change of direction burst, driving on the ball with authority and closing in a hurry. He has good discipline to stack and contain, standing up in a two-point stance rusher in UCLA's hybrid 3-4 scheme. Barr was just another top high school recruit lost on the roster this summer, but he emerged as an impact performer on defense as a junior and legitimate early round prospect for the NFL Draft.
Wow. Great heads up on this guy- the play that you mentioned is something else, and I also like the plays at :27 and :40 quite a bit as well in that 1 minute clip. On the first one he stuffs the TE and quickly gets to the RB for a nice loss- strength, quickness, determination, recognition. At :40 his awareness and quickness are something else in deflecting the pass- what a playmaker, his movement skills are something else. This is the explosive, playmaking kind of guy that I could see for us as a DE/OLB- pass rusher opposite Wake who can cover, play the run and be a disruptive force. It's easy to jump to conclusions after seeing a few clips of a player, but to me Barr looks like just what the doctor ordered for our defense. As a hypothetical, if we got Barr in the 1st and Da'Rick Rogers in the 2nd (hoping of of course that Rogers contuinues his streak of good behavior) that would go a long way to adding impact playmakers to this team. I don't recall seeing a more impressive highlight reel this year than that clip of Barr- that's quite a skill set, very good fit for Miami imo.
I think to a certain extent, guys who are considered more 3-4 linebackers(which isn't a premise I'm sure I agree with in a lot of cases) might be guys the Dolphins are interested in. That kind of player is unlikely to replace Jared Odrick's role in the base defense, but the scope of players available who can do that might be pretty limited. You might be more looking for a Nickel specialist, and Kevin Coyle seems to be pretty fond of stand-up edge rushers, and guys who will actually drop into coverage from that position.
I personally think they're becoming aware of the mistakes they've been making with Jared Odrick. That's assuming they weren't aware of that from the beginning and just felt handcuffed by the state of the roster. I notice that out of 81 snaps in the NE game Jared Odrick only played 46 of them. Derrick Shelby's snap count nearly doubled his season average to that point (23 vs. 13.8). At some point they have to realize the job they're asking him to do at End isn't all that difficult for someone else to do, yet is tiring him out when he has to reduce inside and try and be a pass rusher. I think they're focusing on rotating him more actively to try and keep him fresh. That puts him only about a half-step away from switching inside full time, and that may very well be why they've not even approached Randy Starks with a single offer to try and keep him in town. That will create a hole at Jared's position and even though Derrick Shelby has played admirably I don't necessarily think they will peg him for that role. Nor Olivier Vernon. I don't know if they'll target a bigger defensive end high or not. But I think they'll target one. Someone big that has the potential to be good in all phases. I'm thinking Bjoern Werner, Tank Carridine, Ezekial Ansah, Margus Hunt, Datone Jones or Devin Taylor...someone like that. Someone like Margus Hunt is up Jeff Ireland's alley because Jeff remains a size/weight/speed guy.
I did a lot of digging on his background today - came away very impressed. Will try and post later. Alas, I think he goes before we pick
The only pass rusher I know I would take over Anthony Barr is Bjoern Werner. The question is would Barr come out? I don't know if there's been any indication but the program is looking good and he's only been playing defense a year. That seems a recipe for a guy staying in school especially with a former NFL defensive coach heading the program.
I would take Barr over Werner, but I agree.......he may well stay. The thing that makes me think he won't is he's had a number of niggling injuries - broken ankle, (not niggling), broken knuckle, back strain, calf strain, knee meniscus, etc. Makes me wonder if he doesn't run for the hills. He has a long family pedigree in the NFL and his mother is a school principle so she may try and see out his education. Who knows
Don't shoot the messenger on that one. I'm all on board with re-signing Starks as well. But right now the Dolphins are playing the "if the phone doesn't ring, it's me" game with he and his agent.
Randy Starks has not had a particularly distinguished second half to the season. If he's going to play himself out of a big contract, it's in the Dolphins best interest to let him do so even if they want to retain him.
Great point about Odrick. It makes sense from the fact he has the body to play the DT position, he would do well along side Big Paul in my opinion. It also makes sense from a $$$ and draft pick investment situation.
We can only speculate whether Randy is wearing down or not. However I will say he's got 646 snaps through 12 games this year whereas a year ago he had 677 snaps the entire year. He's had about a 30% increase in snaps per game. I talked about this in another thread. Prior to the NE game, Jared Odrick had a 65% increase in snaps as well and was on pace for an absolutely ludicrous 980 to 1000 snaps for the year. I say ludicrous because he's a 300+ lbs defensive tackle playing out at defensive end where he's got to run a wider track and exhibit more range on a play to play basis...so he should actually have fewer snaps than normal, not more snaps than normal. He was pacing for 983 snaps which no defensive tackle in the NFL put in in 2011. Vince Wilfork came the closest at 977 followed by Ahtyba Rubin, and after that the next closest were in the 850 to 870 range. Odrick saw his time reduced against NE, so now he's pacing for "only" a 61% increase in snap count, and "only" 963 snaps for the year. Paul Soliai has also seen a sharp 40% increase in snap counts year-over-year.
He's getting more snaps but I'm not sure he's getting too many. His snap count probably isn't going to put him in the top 10 of his weight class. I think there's a better argument Odrick is getting too many snaps, but then again, there are guys who are of similar builds getting more snaps and I'm not sure him playing on the edge really puts more stress on him than the inside.
I would go with Barr, although Werner is excellent. Look at Denver- they have Dumerville and Wolfe at DE, but they also have a pass rushing threat in Von Miller. Granted he's a rare talent, but that pass rushing threat offsets Derek Wolfe having only 3 sacks and Wolfe is a large DE and good run defender- like Odrick. The bottom line is that we need a pass rusher opposite Cameron Wake to generate more pressure. I'd like to draft Barr and Sean Porter, move Misi to MLB and get rid of Dansby and his bloated contract. Then you have two pass rushing OLBs and capable coverage LBs to offset Odrick's lack of pressure but excellent run defense- a la Derek Wolfe and the Broncos. If we let Starks walk I'd be fine with drafting Werner and moving Odrick to DT, it's just not my preference. BTW look at what the Pats did running the ball on that 4th qtr drive when Odrick was benched. I'd rather maintain the strong run defense and add a pass rush. Maybe: 1. Anthony Barr 2. Da'Rick Rogers 2. Terry Hawthorne 3. Sean Porter 3. Tank Carridine
That's exactly what I was thinking. He anchors better against the run than JT did when he first got into the league though. His hand technique is nothing special and he doesn't use leverage as well or naturally as JT did, but it appears to me that Barr is just stronger than JT was. I think he fits just fine in our D and currently he's my top choice for whom I want the Dolphins to take in the #10 - #13 range (of those I expect to be available).
I think he's a better athlete as well...what I like about him most is that he tracks to the ball/QB while covering the least amount of ground, and his finishing skills on the athletic Qb are really good.
