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It’s been several years since Washington has seemed to move this position down on the off-season priority list. At first I thought it was just our staff doing it. Then I hear from other fans who are saying the same thing. Even teams running 3-4 base defenses.
The Commanders gave up on Jamin Davis becoming their MLB as he wasn’t good enough at playing the right gaps. It was at this time when we were desperate to fix that position. They dabbled in Cole Holcomb playing the spot, and he did ok but it seemed very temporary. We also started to see more of Landon Collins playing the run, but we could not refer to him as a linebacker(funny but true). Little did we know that this was to become less of a priority for them to actually fix.
The commanders ran an overwhelming majority of their defensive snaps out of nickel packages last year. So using a DB in place of a linebacker is their base defense. Not a 4-3. The decision is clearly to allow for coverage options and various disguises.
Did someone from the analytics team get in Ron’s ear? Did Ron messing up that pick of Jamin Davis(personal opinion) lead to Ron looking at changing the defensive philosophy?
Especially since he has since heard that other teams are moving in this direction?
Is this a phase? You have to have a second level of large defenders to consistently stop power running games. Lineman are often tied up and can’t consistently stop power running games by themselves. We know that there are special middle linebackers in the league. Devin White comes to mind first. You want someone who has speed and power filling that hole. Goal line or short yardage. Otherwise, teams are going to run on you all game, or long enough to wear out your guys up front.
We will see how this goes. I believe there has to be a correction at some point, and that offensive coordinators will make teams pay that are not able to stop up the middle runners from getting to the secondary. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the pure run stopping linebacker is becoming extinct in the NFL.
The Commanders gave up on Jamin Davis becoming their MLB as he wasn’t good enough at playing the right gaps. It was at this time when we were desperate to fix that position. They dabbled in Cole Holcomb playing the spot, and he did ok but it seemed very temporary. We also started to see more of Landon Collins playing the run, but we could not refer to him as a linebacker(funny but true). Little did we know that this was to become less of a priority for them to actually fix.
The commanders ran an overwhelming majority of their defensive snaps out of nickel packages last year. So using a DB in place of a linebacker is their base defense. Not a 4-3. The decision is clearly to allow for coverage options and various disguises.
Did someone from the analytics team get in Ron’s ear? Did Ron messing up that pick of Jamin Davis(personal opinion) lead to Ron looking at changing the defensive philosophy?
Especially since he has since heard that other teams are moving in this direction?
Is this a phase? You have to have a second level of large defenders to consistently stop power running games. Lineman are often tied up and can’t consistently stop power running games by themselves. We know that there are special middle linebackers in the league. Devin White comes to mind first. You want someone who has speed and power filling that hole. Goal line or short yardage. Otherwise, teams are going to run on you all game, or long enough to wear out your guys up front.
We will see how this goes. I believe there has to be a correction at some point, and that offensive coordinators will make teams pay that are not able to stop up the middle runners from getting to the secondary. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the pure run stopping linebacker is becoming extinct in the NFL.
