FanPost

What ever happened to LBs?

Or maybe a better title should be "Why do we keep ignoring the LB position?"

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To be clear, I’m not talking about OLBs who are basically pass rushers who drop back now and then like Micah Parsons. I’m talking about pure LBs who destroy the run and turn the middle into a minefield.

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Are you not sick of watching TEs catch balls with impunity over the short to intermediate middle? How many here are old enough to remember how SCARED receivers used to be to catch a ball over the middle against us? Well, no more. How many times in any given game does the middle of the field look like a welcoming mother’s womb for opposing receivers? For a franchise that has some incredible LBs in and out of the HOF, it sucks to see that happen with such regularity.

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And it sucks to watch guys like Fred Warner crush us, or guys like Devin White make plays on the ball and turn out the lights on his opponents. Opposing coaches have to think twice about going for it on short 4th down against those guys. Because sneaks and runs between the tackles are just THAT much less likely to succeed. These guys change game plans.

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I mean look, Perryman is a decent LB, but the fact that he has been our BEST LB for the past 2 seasons is really sad. And do we even want to talk about depth?? My God, he goes down and we’re totally f’d. Good lord, we started UDFAs the last part of the season, and NOT because they were astonishingly good, but just because that’s who we had! Masterson? Darien Butler?? Jayon Brown, a 5th round cast-off. And sure, Divine Deablo has been coming along, but he’s a 2nd stringer on teams that value the position.

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And I get it, the position had changed dramatically since the days of Biekert. Biekert weighed 250, Warner weighs 230. They’re basically heavy safeties at this point. Bobby Wagner’s considered heavy at 242. And you’re usually only fielding 2 of them instead of 3. FINE. Doesn’t mean you skimp on that talent. When was the last time we drafted a STUD LB? Don’t tell me Deablo, that kid’s no stud.

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Hey at least Gruden swung for the fences when he signed Littleton. It went over like a fart in church, but everyone liked the signing because we deal with legit TEs constantly and we needed the guy’s talents. Unfortunately we figured out the guy had no real talent, he just keyed off the talent of the Rams’ elite D-line and rode the hell out of those coattails. But Gruden didn’t undervalue the position, he just misfired on it.

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Well, we need to fire again. Hard. So let’s all take a hard look at FAs and the draft and see what we can see. We need that stud who’s going to make the front 4 and the back 5 better.