Looking at the roster, our depth at ILB is paper thin to say the least, basically we have Channing Crowder, Akin Ayodele and Reggie Torobr. Looking at the OLB's on the roster, we have Charlie Anderson, T George, Q Moses, Erik Walden, JD Folsom, Orion Martin all as a sort of 2nd/3rd tier behind JT, JP and IMHO C Wake. What are the chances that we sift the best ILB prospect out of the Anderson/George/Moses/Walden/Folsom/Martin loser of the OLB competition? Charlie Anderson played a fair amount of time in Houston's 4-3 at OLB (and he had his most productive season as a pro last year), so to me if the premise has any weight he would be leading the pack to fillin at ILB, and of the rest Erik Walden is the most intriguing Athlete followed closely by Orion Martin who the Staff was trying at ILB during mini camp, Folsom looks like Practice Squad material and T George is a unknown, Moses to me would not be a good fit at ILB. And it should be mentioned that several NFL starting ILB's came out of College as OLB's. What say you? Edited to add: Q Moses coming out of GA scouting blurb: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/2007/draft/players/1773.html Erik Walden: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/2008/draft/players/6450.html JD Folsom: http://www.nfldraftscout.com/ratings/dsprofile.php?pyid=81300&draftyear=2009&genpos=OLB not much there, only he was rated as the #999 linebacking prospect. Orion Martin: http://www.nfldraftscout.com/ratings/dsprofile.php?pyid=57121&draftyear=2009&genpos=DE He ran a 4.71
we might be a lil thin at mlb after channing but we still have alot of lb,s. i expect or d-coordinator to get everything out of a strong lb group in porter,channing,taylor,and roth not to mention guys like you suggested in anderson,torbor,we also have wake who i hope steps up this yr. we got to find a way to get all these guys on the field at the same time which shouldn't be extremely hard considering some of these guys can move around. man it excites me to know that opposing offenses are going to have trouble with this group and we should see much better pass rush which equates to a better secondary showing. i'm not as worried if channing goes down this yr as i was last year.the lack of depth really showed in the k.c game when channing was out but i think it's a non issue now. some of these depth guys have a little more expereince in this d and it will help. cant wait for some football!!
I think we are going to see a lot more nickel packages this year. So I'm hoping one of the young guys steps us as a nickel backer. But in terms of a thumper, I don't anyone is moving inside.
I think someone will simply because Torbor was terrible when he filled in for Crowder against KC last season, that leaves us terribly thin inside. Channing normally misses a game or two during the season, we could use a better backup inside, I like Walden's upside "but" the only player they look to make into a conversion ILB has been OMartin. That and our ILB's cannot generate any pressure on blitzes, a couple of those players perhaps could.
JD is probably PS material anlgp, his interview is up at aquavision and he seems overwhelmed with all of the new installs they threw at him.
padre, unless I dreamed it or something I would swear that I had read that Orion Martin was being looked at for inside duty. * oh wait I went and re read your post and I see you already mentioned that... so ..Martin is my option.
If he is a quality special teamer, he could stick on the 53 man roster. Also, the #999 ranking that NFLDS gave him is not a real ranking, they do that just because they don't know anything about him.
I sort of figured Alen, it does show how obscure a pick he was if NFL Draft scout didn't know anything about him. And his interview on aquavision in telling, he sounds in waaaay over his head, but if he is the next Larry Izzo for us, by all means put him on the field.
I also thought Orion Martin played ILB. How many ILBs do other 3-4 linebacking teams have? I can't imagine many have more than 4.
Good idea for a thread, we are so strong at OLB and deep there, that you have to expect we move 1 or 2 of those guys to ILB. I have no expertise at knowing which one should move. I thought about Matt Roth for a minute, but he is so darn good at setting the edge I doubt that's a consideration. Plus he is just now starting to "get it" per Sparano, at OLB. Thread gets 5 stars from me.
Padre, this was touched on before - but i believe you to be right .... with the current options, the FO and coaching staff will be looking to find an inhouse upgrade or at a minimum a backup. i also believe that we will have formations when Taylor, Roth or Wake could all see time at ILB. Roth and Wake could blitz and Taylor could cover the TE.
As I recall, most of that discussion involved moving roth to ILB. Agree with that, Roth is what he is, he has some upside, why fix it if it isn't broken? Same here, to me Walden and Anderson would be the best candidates for a back up ILB role, I've rewatched games from last season and notice Anderson is a good player, he has nice speed and range, not to sure how he would hold up taking on Olineman at ILB though.
True, the thing with a guy like him is hamstrings and groins, they tend to miss time early in their career until their body sort of hardens differently then playing DE. If you look at his last 6 games, say from the Canada game, Anderson really improved, he had his two sacks, blocked kick against the Jets and had a better push as a pass rusher, I was sort of lukewarm on him until I rewatched the last couple of games and just watched Anderson play. We dropped him back into coverage against the Pats the way we used to with JT, his role had grown that much by the second Pats game. Head to head I'd still take Wake, but Anderson is also a proven Special Teams player as well. E Walden has a nice burst, but he is raw, he has a great size/speed combination, but played OLB at a small college, if he could make the switch to ILB he would really increase his value.
The last 5 games last season, Anderson had 2sacks, 2 forced fumbles, a blocked punt, I'd bet he was the beneficiary of blocking schemes focusing on JP those last 5 games. All in all, not Morlon Greenwood type numbers.
Nah, Greenwood has 7 career sacks, and 3 FF in 8 years. http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/5536/career;_ylt=Ana0DpaZmJHYD40i15pr15b.uLYF So Anderson in 5 games had as many impact plays as Greenwood had in 8 seasons.
Anderson is a pass rush specialist. Greenwood is an everydown player. Anderson in 5 games was poor for a pass rush specialist. That would be 6 sacks on the season. Which isn't that great for someone who's job it is to sack the QB
He played ST for most of the season, only later in the year did he have a chance as a nickel pass rusher and even then 2 FF 2 Sacks in part time, 5 game duty is respectable.
For the amount he was payed he was poor. The last 5 games he finally became better than Tony Bua. Still lower than Greenwood or Bowens.
I looked and could not find the number of snaps a game he played in those 5 DDupree, and he was ahead of Greenwood who pretty much was a wrap up tackler and little else statiscally speaking.
Greenwood was not bad in pass coverage and was an everydown player. Something that makes him beyond Anderson. Greenwood's role was not "rush the passer". That was anderson's role last year.
I'm with Aqua regarding Erik Walden. He was pretty good for us on special teams last year, and you have to figure with Porter, Roth, Taylor, Anderson, and Wake, he'd probably not see any time at OLB. I don't see why he shouldn't get a chance to play some ILB. Weren't their several coaches and players (I know Brandon London mentioned him) talking him up back in OTA's?
