The Front Row

Great comment...and something that bothers me about our recruiting...and I think Sherman was attempting to make this point when he mentioned Fickell's signing day comments...both Tressel and now Meyer are chasing these 'elite' athletes for linebacker....which isn't exactly a bad idea...but in the process they have ended up passing on bad ass football players...and that really is what your Mike needs to be...just a bad ass football player...hell you can look at the NFL and find examples all the time of guys that were not the best athlete but just had a 'nose for the ball' and passion to knock the face mask off of somebody...

An interesting case study will be Mitchell and Johnson and who has the 'better' career...Johnson cannot compete with Mitchell in any test of athletic ability...but turn on the film and watch each kids first 3 plays and you tell me which kid looks like he is playing linebacker...

How many games last year did we even play with 3 'backers. 2, 3?????? I am way more worried about who starts at corner opposite Roby.

Thanks DVo

Think Brian Urlacher.....a safety.... in New Mexico.

My bigger issue is that we have a TON OF SPEED... why not scheme to use it.

the 4-3 is not a speed heavy scheme... I Love it since I think it requires fewer raw athletes to play it. But you have to have a MLB and we don't so it's time to move on.

The MLB position, IMO, is almost as cerebral as it is instinctively physical...that is why moving Shazier there, if there is no seperation of the others, might make the most sense..and this is also why I give Mitchell as good a chance as anyone presently on the roster

quick history lesson (at least the way I learned it) about the 43...

Jimmy Johnson and his boys had to stop Switzer and the triple option...

they decided to do something CRAZY at the time...take linebackers and put them on the defensive line...and take safeties and make them linebackers...your best athletes play DB...

That being said every defense is about how fast can you PLAY IT...not just a bunch of dudes that can run a fast 40 time...the Mike position killed us for 1/2 season last year because we didn't have a dude that could PLAY fast...Grant because he (in my opinion) can't see it...and Klein who had a back out of whack...

I thought he had a good read react on film as a high schooler and was a solid tackler. If he is listed correctly on the roster than Id say after a year of the weight program he is around 235Lbs. Roberts film is a bit shaky so it was hard to tell but it looks as if Roberts ran better.