Saturday, April 24, 2010

Another LB in the Fold

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The Eagles traded a 2011 6th round pick to get a pick in the 7th round.  They took ILB Jamar Chaney from Mississippi State.  Real interesting player.  Lots of ability. Could be a MLB or WLB for us.  Isn't ideal at shedding blocks, but has the potential to be good at that.  Just needs to do it on a consistent basis. 

Notes:

3-year starter. Missed almost the entire 2008 season due to a broken leg in the season opener. Played WLB in 2006 before moving to the middle. Had a strong Senior season. Led the Bulldogs in tackles. Added 2 INTs, 2 FFs, and 4.5 TFLs. Moves well laterally. Flows to the ball. Fills well. Does a good job of scraping to the ball. Can shed blocks, but it isn't his strength. Prefers to slip blocks if he can. There are some plays when he'll throw his hands into an OL, shed the block, and get the ball. Looks like a terrific prospect on those plays. Other times you see him dipping and dodging. That's okay for the SEC, but can be deadly in the NFL. Gets through trash well. Good range. Wrap-up tackler. Takes good angles to the ball. Has some athletic ability. Agile. Gets very good depth on his pass drops.

Mid-round target.

Great value pick.  That seems to be the theme for today.
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13 comments:

Unknown said...

"Has some athletic ability." Understatement much? Look at his numbers:

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/draft/player/combine?id=25506&_slug_=jamar-chaney&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnfl%2fdraft%2fplayer%2fcombine%3fid%3d25506%26_slug_%3djamar-chaney

Best 40, vertical, broad jump at the combine.

Mark H. said...

I'm really shocked they didn't take any offensive linemen to this point. After watching them get shredded by Dallas, I didn't think they'd be willing to stand pat there.

Eddie said...

i want ciron black, i hope no one picks him so we can pick him up as a undrafted FA.

Håkan said...

At this moment Brandon Graham is listed as OLB at espn's Eagles draft page.

Comment?

And are we really this 'set' on the O-line? Not even a "practice squad prospect"?

Håkan said...

attempt at posting screenshot of "graham as OLB":

[URL=http://img202.imageshack.us/i/screenshotli.png/][IMG]http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/5161/screenshotli.th.png[/IMG][/URL]

Uploaded with [URL=http://imageshack.us]ImageShack.us[/URL]

directlink to upped pic:
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/5161/screenshotli.png

Noah said...

He's listed as a DE on the Eagles' online roster.

Baloophi said...

@ Hakan

ESPN lists Graham as an OLB because they are stupid.

Someone over there thinks he is 1 5/8 inches too short to play DE so they listed him as a 3-4 OLB.

Prem Prakash said...

Sidenote - Did you catch that the Redskins traded Jason Campbell to the Raiders for a 6th round pick? If that's Campbell's market value, Vick probably wasn't worth anything in the draft. Unless he gets thrown in as a backup qb in a trade, chances are he will be an Eagles this year.

Baloophi said...

@ Prem

I thought Campbell was traded for a 2012 4th?

Håkan said...

@Noah @Baloophi

hope youre right, guys. I found it intriguing since we have, somewhat of, a history of moving DE's to LB.
Or at least attempting it. I dont like it and would prefer to see Graham at the DE position, matching Trent Cole's effort.

Netherman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

The o-line was fine against Dallas, McNabb was the problem.

Baloophi said...

@ Hakan

Yeah, Brandon Graham is a blue chip pass rusher from DE so that's what he'll do here. Most "project" guys who go from DE in college to LB in the NFL are doing it on 3-4 teams or - since I think you're referring to Gocong - are not taken as projects in the first round with a cost of two 3 rounders.

Also, Andy has confirmed in talking to the press that Graham will be an end.

The confusion comes from ESPN and others that take too much liberty with the claim "he'll be an outside linebacker in the 3-4." That - in and of itself - stems from how 3-4 teams must project someone like Graham... a guy who is "too small" to work as an end for their scheme but is such a talent that they'd have to put him somewhere on their team.

I have no idea (I'm sure someone here will) what percentage of teams are running a 3-4, but since it has been growing over the last 5-10 years it's possible smaller DE's automatically get listed as OLB's on draft websites because there are simply more 3-4 teams.

Someone we WILL (ha!) move from DE to OLB is Ricky Sapp, who at 6'4 245 might not be stout enough to consistently handle NLF OT's from the line, so we'll shuffle him around.

As far as a total project, I don't see us moving someone permanently from one position to another as we did Gocong. Again Graham will be a full-time DE who kicks in to tackle in passing situations, and he will be goooood.


@ Netherman

Campbell was traded for Oakland's 2012 4th round pick.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d817c3dae&template=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true


@ Everyone

My word verification is "shemen." Heh.