An interesting thought on Curry

[TekeRam]

One of the knocks that people have on Curry is that he's never played MLB, which isn't quite true, as he played in various places during his college career, but I get their point. For the most part he's always played as the Sam position. Well I have an interesting way that we could draft Curry, keep Pisa, and play Spoon at the weakside all in one fell swoop.

In our base 4-3 package, our LB corps would be the aforementioned three, with Pisa manning the Weak side, Spoon in the Middle and Curry on the Strong side. It's also possible to swap Spoon and Curry, or even any of them around to create confusion.

Once we go to the nickle, Pisa drops out(except maybe in a special DE sub package), and we go with Curry and Spoon playing hybrid LB's, where they could really do anything as they both can play coverage and rush. The point is, you have no idea what either of them will do on any given play.

In the Dime, we could go with either Spoon or Curry, probably Spoon to start with as he has experience, but we could also try a 3-2 Dime package where the Line is Long, Carriker, and Little with Curry and Spoon behind them.

The point that I really want to make here is that by drafting Curry, we're not necesarily drafing a Sam backer or a Mike, we're drafting a playmaker at linebacker who already has a rapport with Chris Long and said he'd love to play for us. The key is that we can rotate them all around and do things like New England and Baltimore have done in the past to confuse the hell out of the offense, as Spoon and Curry can do it all. We'd be adding versatility to the defense, not just a player.

Now, I'm not advocating Curry as the end all be all, as I still very much think we need to shore up the offensive line against injury this year and against age and contract status of our starting OT's for the future, and so I very much am interested in Monroe and Smith as first picks as well. I just wanted to point out possible ways we could use Curry, even if he doesn't play the Mike right out of the gate.

[lostsoul]

Very good point.
Curry has unbelievable closing speed and has a knack for hitting guys in the backfield before they can even get to the line of scrimmage. The guy is a playmaker.

Watch how fast he gets to the QB, Don't blink you might miss it.

YouTube - Another big hit by Curry...

[Nick]

One of the knocks that people have on Curry is that he's never played MLB, which isn't quite true, as he played in various places during his college career, but I get their point.

Curry said himself at the combine that he hasn't played 4-3 MLB at all aside from a few times in practice, so I'd say it is quite true.

The point that I really want to make here is that by drafting Curry, we're not necesarily drafing a Sam backer or a Mike, we're drafting a playmaker at linebacker who already has a rapport with Chris Long and said he'd love to play for us. The key is that we can rotate them all around and do things like New England and Baltimore have done in the past to confuse the hell out of the offense, as Spoon and Curry can do it all. We'd be adding versatility to the defense, not just a player.

That's a fair point. Curry has the size and athletic ability to give the Rams some versatility in what they show pre-snap and how they line up.

[TekeRam]

Curry said himself at the combine that he hasn't played 4-3 MLB at all aside from a few times in practice, so I'd say it is quite true.

Thanks Nick... I thought I'd seen something that said he'd played a bit in the middle, if even it was just for a few plays. I must have imagined it!

[Bar-bq]

Spagunolo and Flajole could have a lot of fun with this combination.

[tonyray05]

Looking forward to watching Curry do that to our opposing QB's especially the freaking XXX er's.

[39thebeast]

I think Curry's value decreases signifcantly if you don't think he can play the middle. IMO he can, but right now he is 1b behind Jason Smith in my book