Shinywalrus
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The quality of ILB guys in the 2nd round range is questionable. Beckwith, in what I saw of him, was pretty lousy when called upon to cover. He screams 43 MLB to me. The third round and later, though, has a lot of quality guys:
Dannell Ellerbe from Georgia could fit either as a Weak-Side in a 43 or WILB in a 34, although it's unclear how effective he'd be without a two-gap NT. Seems like he could thicken up another 5-10 pretty easily by looking at him and watching him, but I'm not 100% sure on that. He's not the surest tackler at ILB, and he has struggled when he doesn't have a field clean of blockers in front of him, but there might not be a better coverage guy at linebacker in this year's draft, and there's only a couple that seem to have better instincts in general. At the beginning of the season I would have been shocked to see a mock without him in the first round, but people are saying third now. If that's the case, seems like a great opportunity.
Cal's Zack Follett reminds me a lot of Zach Thomas. And it's not just because they're both shortish, stocky, pasty white linebackers named Zachary. Well, it sort of is because of that, but he's still a 240 pound LB who has played just about everywhere in a 4-3 and 3-4 system and would make a nice pass coverage ILB in Dallas' scheme. He's got a nasty (really nasty) mean streak and plays 100 miles per hour rushing the passer, playing the run, blitzing the middle and covering backs and TEs. This is a guy that could probably be had with one of our 3rd round picks this year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsr4YIWgazc
Lee Robinson, a 245 pound small school guy from Alcorn State, probably isn't as rangy as you want from a WILB, but he knows how to shed a block, keep moving and make a play, something that we need from the Mo guy, especially if Rat is staying at NT. Our system really requires us to have two SILB players with above average range, and Robinson is this kind of guy - can break through into the backfield on run blitzes or pressure packages, has adequate speed for a guy of his size and is versatile enough to do what we ask of our inside backers. This is a mid-second day guy, probably.
Probably more of a 43 OLB, Jason Williams from Western Illinois was one of the best I-AA defenders this last season, and is in fact now the record holder for career forced fumbles. He's faster than any of our linebackers (with the possible exception of Demarcus), has good instincts and despite being only about 235, has a bit of room to grow and a knack for shedding blocks to get into the backfield - he wasn't called upon as much to cover, but when he was, he was effective, helping anchor a top 25 pass defense. He's not a perfect fit at WILB, but he's another versatile guy that has the tools to develop into a strong pass coverage guy. Sites have him going late, but I can't imagine he falls past the 5th.
A few others have mentioned McKillop and Worrell Williams. I only watched a couple Pitt games, but he seemed like a poor man's Bradie James to me - instincts seemed fine, but I couldn't shake the idea that he was just a little slow to the ball. Worrell never seemed nearly as disruptive to me as Follett...in a lot of ways, the partnership reminded me of the AJ Hawk/Bobby Carpenter pairing. Hawk creates havoc, draws blockers and Carpenter cleans up.
Another guy that's been an enigma to me is Jason Phillips. In all the games I watched, TCU operates its base defense out of this weird nickel-like set, so the linebacker assignments were a bit askew and tough to read. He seemed to be pretty proficient doing a lot of different things, but I just don't have enough of a sense of their scheme to really say that I understand where he would fit.
Dannell Ellerbe from Georgia could fit either as a Weak-Side in a 43 or WILB in a 34, although it's unclear how effective he'd be without a two-gap NT. Seems like he could thicken up another 5-10 pretty easily by looking at him and watching him, but I'm not 100% sure on that. He's not the surest tackler at ILB, and he has struggled when he doesn't have a field clean of blockers in front of him, but there might not be a better coverage guy at linebacker in this year's draft, and there's only a couple that seem to have better instincts in general. At the beginning of the season I would have been shocked to see a mock without him in the first round, but people are saying third now. If that's the case, seems like a great opportunity.
Cal's Zack Follett reminds me a lot of Zach Thomas. And it's not just because they're both shortish, stocky, pasty white linebackers named Zachary. Well, it sort of is because of that, but he's still a 240 pound LB who has played just about everywhere in a 4-3 and 3-4 system and would make a nice pass coverage ILB in Dallas' scheme. He's got a nasty (really nasty) mean streak and plays 100 miles per hour rushing the passer, playing the run, blitzing the middle and covering backs and TEs. This is a guy that could probably be had with one of our 3rd round picks this year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsr4YIWgazc
Lee Robinson, a 245 pound small school guy from Alcorn State, probably isn't as rangy as you want from a WILB, but he knows how to shed a block, keep moving and make a play, something that we need from the Mo guy, especially if Rat is staying at NT. Our system really requires us to have two SILB players with above average range, and Robinson is this kind of guy - can break through into the backfield on run blitzes or pressure packages, has adequate speed for a guy of his size and is versatile enough to do what we ask of our inside backers. This is a mid-second day guy, probably.
Probably more of a 43 OLB, Jason Williams from Western Illinois was one of the best I-AA defenders this last season, and is in fact now the record holder for career forced fumbles. He's faster than any of our linebackers (with the possible exception of Demarcus), has good instincts and despite being only about 235, has a bit of room to grow and a knack for shedding blocks to get into the backfield - he wasn't called upon as much to cover, but when he was, he was effective, helping anchor a top 25 pass defense. He's not a perfect fit at WILB, but he's another versatile guy that has the tools to develop into a strong pass coverage guy. Sites have him going late, but I can't imagine he falls past the 5th.
A few others have mentioned McKillop and Worrell Williams. I only watched a couple Pitt games, but he seemed like a poor man's Bradie James to me - instincts seemed fine, but I couldn't shake the idea that he was just a little slow to the ball. Worrell never seemed nearly as disruptive to me as Follett...in a lot of ways, the partnership reminded me of the AJ Hawk/Bobby Carpenter pairing. Hawk creates havoc, draws blockers and Carpenter cleans up.
Another guy that's been an enigma to me is Jason Phillips. In all the games I watched, TCU operates its base defense out of this weird nickel-like set, so the linebacker assignments were a bit askew and tough to read. He seemed to be pretty proficient doing a lot of different things, but I just don't have enough of a sense of their scheme to really say that I understand where he would fit.