The Rams Shoudl Stay the **** Away From OLB Zach Brown

[codeman123]

Instead of explaining why, I'll let him show you why. This is a video breakdown of him against Missouri, in a bowl game.



He misses tackles all over the place, takes horrendous angles, runs himself out of plays, avoids contact, gets blocked easily and can't find the ball. He is not a linebacker. Strong safeties even show more instincts and nose for the ball. He's a big free safety. The only time I would look at him is in the middle of round 3, only because of his athleticism. Linebackers need more then speed.

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For comparisons sake, here is a real linebacker. Someone I hope the Rams take. He has tremendous instincts, makes plays all over the field and is literally in on every play. He isn't as athletic, but he trumps Brown on the field. This is Lavonte David against Michigan (there are even more games breaking him down).



And David against South Carolina



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Nigel Bradham, Sean Spence, and Bobby Wagner are all better linebackers than Brown. I don't care how fast he is. I will be horribly disappointed if he is picked by the Rams in the first 50 picks of the draft.

[DE_Ramfan]

Wow. He really didn't want anything to do with tackling those guys.

David on the other hand shows good discipline and a nose for the ball. Could be interesting.

[RockinRam]

David has been my top rated OLB this season. He's not perfect, but if he was 2 inches taller, he's a Top 20 pick for sure.

[tomahawk247]

Not watched much on the OLBs this year. But I have to agree I didn't like what I saw in that video about Brown

[sb2sb2sb]

On my original mock draft I had us taking Zach Brown. Over the last mnth as I watched a lot of video on him (not just this). I have changed my mind and am on board to NOT draft Zach Brown. He really is all about speed at the LB position. His fundamentals are very lacking.

[Nick_Weasel]

I don't know much about any of the linebackers mentioned other than what I read on mock drafts, but for me all the linebacker positions in a 4-3 I will take an instinctive/football smart player over an athletic one any day. Less true for Will than the other 2, but I still think most of the difference between the great LBs and the not-so-great ones is the ability to diagnose plays and outsmart your opponents.

[RockinRam]

Zach Brown is so bad that it disgusts me. Finally people are realizing that he is very bad. I scoffed when earlier in the year people had him as a Round 1 prospect.

Tackling: Poor
Instincts: Poor
Aggressiveness: Poor
Coverage: Average
Block Shedding: Poor
Motor: Average
Speed: Good


He is not a linebacker people. He is an athlete that faired well at the linebacker position only because he was surrounded by blue chip players in the Tarheel's top ranked defense.

[fliptalianstallion]

It's really unfortunate too because he's a Rams fan. But being a linebacker means you have to be a very competent tackler. I initially wanted this guy but it didn't take long to find out that he is criminally overrated by many others.

[punahou]

David has been my top rated OLB this season. He's not perfect, but if he was 2 inches taller, he's a Top 20 pick for sure.

This years top rated OLB is that Ingram guy from SC-- and he's 6'1" at best.

The L.David is only 225 lbs though-- that's seems way too light IMO.

[RockinRam]

This years top rated OLB is that Ingram guy from SC-- and he's 6'1" at best.

The L.David is only 225 lbs though-- that's seems way too light IMO.

I should have clarified. David is my top rated 4-3 OLB.

Melvin Ingram is more of a 3-4 OLB or 4-3 DE.


As for David's weight, it is a bit light, but a NFL strength program should boost him at least 5-10 lbs. 225lbs is not that big of a deal for a WLB. If we were talking about MLB or SLB, it'd be a different case.

[richtree]

I was waiting for someone else to notice this....the kid is not a big time NFL players....Linebackers have to be able to hit and stop the run....

Brown is super fast, he should just develop into a safety -- then it will seem that he hits harder because he can keep the play in front of him and run into the tackles

[codeman123]

Lavonte David is 5/8ths of an inch shorter than Zach Brown. Who cares.
David also weighs 233 (combine weigh-in), so he probably has to gain 5-8 pounds. Just from an NFL strength program he will probably gain 5 pounds and weigh around 240.

[RockinRam]

Let me just put to rest the Zach Brown argument.


Zach Brown is not a linebacker. He has absolutely no technique. If you are a college linebacker and your technique is that bad, there's basically no hope for you. People talk about coaching him up. If he has played the linebacker position for that long in his life with that same mentality and technique, it is very hard to change him. Some might blame it on muscle memory, and he's just not fit to be a linebacker in the NFL.



He has VERY POOR tackling abilities.
He has BELOW AVERAGE instincts and play recognition.
He has VERY POOR agressiveness and linebacker mentality.
He has GREAT speed.



As you can see from the above, he is an athlete. An athlete only. Being an athlete does not make one turn into a great linebacker. Just look at Aaron Curry.



Let's look at the tapes.Watch closely at his playing style. Let me tell you what his playing style is:
“Use my athleticism to fly to the ball and just try to weakly attempt to tackle the ball carrier any way I can, because even if I don't succeed, someone else will and I will still look like a good player because I'm around the ball.”



He PRETENDS to be good by using piss poor tackling abilities to try to attempt to bring down a ball carrier, and the only reason he looks better than he isis because his defense is filled with blue chip caliber players who cover his weaknesses.



Zach Brown's tackling consists of: Weak shoulder nudges, bad angle arm tackles, and failed attempts of diving at an opponent's legs.
He is NOT a linebacker.

[punahou]

I was waiting for someone else to notice this....the kid is not a big time NFL players....Linebackers have to be able to hit and stop the run....

Brown is super fast, he should just develop into a safety -- then it will seem that he hits harder because he can keep the play in front of him and run into the tackles

lol that would be great to see a 245lb safety back there

[HUbison]

Wow. If I were wanting to downplay Brown, I wouldn't have picked the Mizzou game. He had 14 tackles, 2 for loss, and an interception. He was hitting gaps that other Tarheels weren't hitting. Mizzou's offense was simply dynamic enough (and smart enough) to hit gaps away from Brown.

The Rams need an OLB, and whether that's Brown or David (or Wagner, Spence, Acho, etc.), doesn't matter to me. But cherry picking a few plays (some of which Brown actually looked rather good) isn't convincing a case against the guy.

He is not a linebacker people. He is an athlete that faired well at the linebacker position only because he was surrounded by blue chip players in the Tarheel's top ranked defense.

The Tarheel's Defense was ranked 49th in total defense and 55th in scoring defense.

And surrounded by blue chip players? He and Coples were the only two defenders worth much at all.