Linebackers

[Judaxi]

Hey guys, I'm watching the Ravens game and thinking about linebackers. I live in Maryland so I constantly hear about the unbeatable Ravens defense. The thing that sticks out to me the most about that defense is the linebackers. Last year with Ray Lewis, Bart Scott (before he left), and Terrell Suggs, that linebacking corp was probably the best I can think of. My question to everyone here is what do you think our linebacking corp will look like in the upcoming years? I know that Spags doesn't run the same defense as the Ravens, he is more known for his Defensive line, but I personally would love to see a player similar to Bart Scott or Terrel Suggs play in our defense.

[shower beers]

Re: Linebackers

We may be looking to upgrade the strong side in the near future, but other than that, Laurinaitis and Witherspoon seem to be locks for the next few years.

[39thebeast]

Re: Linebackers

You can also pencil in Chris Draft for now on the strong side, but Larry Grant has been verry impressive in camp and had a good game against the Falcons 4 tackles and a sack I believe.

[Mooselini]

Re: Linebackers

I think it'll be

Draft - Laurinaitis - Witherspoon

We might be looking to upgrade where Draft is playing. I heard Grant is doing pretty good! But we have to see him play some more. He had a great play against Atlanta last week. Hope he can use that as his baby steps.

[Ram Dragoon]

Re: Linebackers

What the Rams need is a R. Lewis...a motivating leader to fire up the defense. It just takes one match to start a forest fire. Its true also with a motivating personality to fire up a defense

[molar_pistol]

Re: Linebackers

the rams need energy guys somewhere on d, i'm not sure where from. i like what butler is doing so far establishing that. as far as our linebackers, i really like witherspoon and laurinaitis, and larry grant has stood out to me in what little i've watched of him. i'd like to see him get a chance as the first backup, i think he could take over at the strong side and allow spoon to move back to the weak side. i think what's more important is our d-line, we're running a 4-3 here which requires a d-line that can bring pressure to be elite. right now we've got little and hall, who are both old and dinged up, and chris long who probably doesn't have it to be an elite pass rusher. i'd like to see him spend more time at left end, where he'd help more in the run game then little has been able to in his old age. i think a pure pass rusher needs to be a top priority next year, and it's pretty obvious. as far as the tackles, we need to get bigger one way or another. ryan is a solid dt with solid size, but he'd play better next to another guy with similar size or bigger. carriker is a great "ut" prospect but needs to play next to a true nt to reach his potential. scott could be the answer, but i haven't heard enough good things about his work ethic.

[Richbert88]

Re: Linebackers

I think JL will provide some Ray Lewis spark to this Defense, "some". Let him finish getting wet first though. I am keeping an eye on Scott and Ian Cambell. I'd like to see some DeMarco Farr from these two as far as sense of humor and work ethic. Farr always seems to have a bit of the enforcer in him out there. Then I would like to see OJ start laying some wood down on the guys that make it into the secondary, and right now there is plenty of opportunity for that.

[MauiRam]

Re: Linebackers

It would be interesting to see Ray Lewis and the Ravens' linebackers play behind our defensive line and see how wonderful they looked in that scenario. Conversely it would also be interesting to see our linebacking corps playing behind the Ravens' D- line. Hopefully after Laurinaitis gains more NFL level experience we'll be stronger against the run. One thing that still galls me is trading down to the 15th spot in the 2006 draft and selecting Tye Hill deliberately passing over Haloti Ngata or even Broderick Bunkley. To be honest though, that same year I actually wanted the Rams to draft the Klopper. Yep .. I really did ...

If we're to be successful stopping the run with any consistency, we'll need to get stronger up front. Whether we can do so with our existing personnel, or not remains to be seen. IMO we are one or two drafts (and off season acquisitions) away from acheiving this. Hopefully I'm wrong, and by midseason we'll be kicking some butt on defense ..