13 years of Marvin Drafting LBs

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(10-27-2015, 07:26 PM)GreenCornBengal Wrote: Marvin is a great LB coach, but I think he overestimates his ability to train up any scrub that comes in here. We are certainly seeing the effects of settling for UDFA LB's for the last few years.

How many teams in college even run the 4-3 anymore? It seems like every year, all of the highly graded LB prospects are edge rushers from 3-4 schemes. For what is available that fits our defensive  scheme, Burfict and Dawson could be great picks.... but only time will tell. I just don't know how easy it is to find NFL level 4-3 linebackers anymore. Maybe I'm off on this, the only great 4-3 backer (who wasn't mainly an edge rusher) I can think of lately that got drafted was Luke Keuckly.

There's still plenty of potential 4-3 LB talent available each year. These guys would be upgrades over everyone on the Bengals roster (other than a healthy Burfict). Too early to judge 2015 picks, but chosen between Luke Kuechley (your cutoff point) at 9th overall in 2012 and right before the 2015 draft, you have...

2014:
Anthony Barr
CJ Mosley
Christian Kirksey
Preston Brown
Chris Borland (though he retired... but who would WANT to play on the 2015 49ers?)
Telvin Smith

2013:
Kiko Alonso
Jamie Collins
Jelani Jenkins
Paul Worrilow

2012: (After Kuechley)
Dont'a Hightower
Mychal Kendricks
Bobby Wagner
Zach Brown
Lavonte David
Demario Davis
Brandon Marshall
Danny Trevathan
(Burfict right here.)


There's still plenty of LB talent that could help the Bengals' 4-3 defense each draft, they're just not getting it.