(04-10-2018, 05:01 PM)JackCity Wrote:

(04-10-2018, 04:51 PM)pirkster Wrote: You also have to consider as far as the LB visits go, most if not all are also good special teamers - meaning they are looking for bubble guys who might make the roster on ST and depth.  The more boxes you check helps you make the team.

We're going to have a very hard time finding a sam from this crop of LBs, that seem to be getting weaker and weaker.  You're not seeing colleges produce the sams the NFL needs any longer.  So, the NFL is having to make due with what's there.

As I've always said about the draft... you can't manufacture players.  You draft the player when available to you, not when it's convenient.  It could be some time before we find a stud sam.  I'd wager our starting sam is already on the roster this season.

It's more so that the skillset and position of sam is becoming redundant in the modern game. Most of the time you only have 2 LBs on the field and they generally go to your best coverage players.  

True 2 down LBs are one of the least valuable positions now. Makes more sense to ensure you have 3 startable LBs who can run + cover even if they aren't the classic Sam size or skillset. If you can find one with all of those traits then great but it's not expected.

It's really a shame what college is doing to the NFL game.  They aren't producing the players the NFL prefers.

NFL is forced to change in response.  It's making players more difficult to evaluate, and also causing them to do remedial coaching and changing their schemes and playbooks to better suit what's coming out.

Sams just fall later in the draft as a result.  Fewer to choose from, lower versatility, lower priority, lower draft cost.

College turned football into a track meet, and that's forced the NFL being to reflect that as well.  They're forced to change to best use what's available.  College is producing less than ideal talent, generally speaking.  They line up the athletes and outscore the opponent.  It's one of the reasons it's felt that OL talent is dropping and many are struggling in the NFL.

Savvy coaches and GMs can use this to their advantage when rebuilding a team.  It's what brought about the popularity of the 3-4.  Instead of having distinct role players sam, will, and mike... you can place less than ideal players into productive roles.  Same for DL.  You only need an NT instead of two DTs.  Your ends can be cast off LEs and/or undersized DTs that aren't valued by 4-3 teams.  Your ILBs can be made of MLBs that don't have sideline to sideline talent.  Your OLBs can be tweeners that find it hard to be productive with their hand down in a 4-3.  You can build it quickly on a relative bargain.

That's not to say you can't put prototypical talent in those positions... you certainly can.  It's just more helpful to a 4-3 to have closer to the prototype than not.  With 3-4, you can get by a lot easier without prototypes with your front seven.

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