Part 7, LB: Save the Linebackers

The position as you, your father and your grandfather knew it is going extinct. Do NFL teams even want ass-kickers in the middle of their defense anymore? Bob McGinn's series continues.

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This is the 40^th year that Bob McGinn has written his NFL Draft Series. Previously, it appeared in the Green Bay Press-Gazette (1985-’91), the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (1992-’17), BobMcGinnFootball.com (2018-’19), The Athletic (2020-’21) and GoLongTD.com (2022-’24). Until 2014, many personnel people were quoted by name. The series reluctantly adopted an all-anonymous format in 2015 at the request of most scouts.

By Bob McGinn

Peering, snarling, gesturing middle linebackers. Watchful, furtive, coiled running backs.

NFL Films popularized professional football decades ago with closeups of the matchups between these malevolent men playing out on Sunday afternoons in a stadium near you.

In mostly living color you saw Les Richter against Hugh McElhenny in the 1950s, Sam Huff against Jim Taylor in the 1960s, Harry Carson against Walter Payton in the 1970s, Jack Lambert against Earl Campbell in the 1980s, Junior Seau against Emmitt Smith in the 1990s, Ray Lewis against LaDainian Tomlinson in the 2000s and Luke Kuechly against Adrian Peterson in the 2010s.

And what do we have today?

Of course there are linebacker-ball carrier duels to enjoy, but the game has moved inexorably from the A gaps to the perimeter. The NFL stands for passing, protection, pass rush and, above all else, points.

Teams have had to adjust or perish. Funny, isn’t it, how the weakest and, partially as a result, least talked-about position groups in this draft are the linebackers and the running backs.

“They are disappearing from the game,” an executive in personnel for an AFC team said. “The linebackers are the mirror position to the running back. There’s none of them, either. It’s a depressed market.”

The last and possibly only time an inside linebacker wasn’t selected in the first round was 2011 when North Carolina’s Bruce Carter was taken by the Cowboys at No. 40 in the second round. It’s likely Round 1 Thursday won’t include a linebacker or a running back, for that matter.

“Everybody has a couple running backs and you just need a couple linebackers to kind of figure it out,” the exec said. “There’s just not that much value to them. Teams think they can find them throughout the draft. They can convert safeties. It’s not a good group.

“The league has gone to all receivers, all offensive pass protectors, quarterbacks, corners and rushers. Then you fill in the blanks with all the rest.”

Look at the last four draft classes. Eight off-the-ball linebackers were selected between slots 12 and 28 but only one, Patrick Queen, has been voted to a Pro Bowl. Some of the better inside linebackers are second- and third-round choices such as Fred Warner, Demario Davis, Ernest Jones, Bobby Wagner, Logan Wilson, Alex Anzalone and Nick Bolton, among others.

“Not a very strong group,” an AFC personnel man of the draft’s linebackers. “A lot of overachievers. To me, they’re all the same guy. I don’t have one until the third round. There’s no one I’d be interested in until the fourth, probably.”

North Carolina State’s Payton Wilson has enough size, speed and smarts to be a first-round pick in most years but his long history of serious injury means he’s more likely to go in the second round. At the combine, he struck a blow for the importance of his position.

“I think the linebacker is the quarterback of the defense,” said Wilson. “We have to be in the pass game, be in the run game. I think it’s literally one of the most important positions on the field. I don’t think it’s going anywhere for a very long time.”

Evaluators agree with Wilson on one point. Having a linebacker capable of receiving the defensive call electronically through wiring in his helmet and communicating it smoothly and accurately to teammates is vital. The designated defensive signal-caller has a green dot affixed to the back of his helmet.

In interviews with several scouts, the consensus was that six of the top 10 linebackers are sharp enough to be “green dots” immediately or fairly early in their NFL careers. The list includes Wilson, Cedric Gray, Jeremiah Trotter, Edefuan Ulofoshio, Tommy Eichenberg and JD Bertrand. Junior Colson was a maybe.

“Wilson’s a double green dot,” said one evaluator. “He’s Luke Kuechly’ish. He’s a heck of a player. But is he going to be able to stay healthy?”

Texas A&M’s Edgerrin Cooper seems to vying with Wilson to be the first linebacker taken. His speed and athleticism rival Wilson’s, and his medical is clean. What worries teams is the 11 that he scored on the 12-minute, 50-question Wonderlic test at his pro day.

“What was Ray Lewis’s test score?” asked another scout (the answer was 13, in 1996). “Cooper has instincts. That’s an instinctive position.”

Texas A&M relied on a freshman linebacker, Taurean York, basically to run its defense in 2023.

“Just speed, being able to react,” Cooper told reporters at the combine when asked how his game would play at the pro level. “Guarding fast tight ends, bring pressure to the quarterbacks. All those things that can be used in all types of ways.”

Sixteen executives agreed to rank their top linebackers on a 1-2-3-4-5 basis, with a first-place vote worth 5 points, a second-place vote worth 4 and so.

Payton Wilson led with nine firsts and 68 ½ points. Following, in order, were Edgerrin Cooper (63, six), Junior Colson (40), Cedric Gray (29 ½, one), Jeremiah Trotter (12), Trevin Wallace (4 ½), Tyrice Knight (four), Edefuan Ulofoshio (four), Jaylan Ford (three), Nathaniel Watson (three), Ty’Ron Hopper (2 ½), Tommy Eichenberg (two), Jordan Magee (two), Steele Chambers (one) and Marist Liufau (one).

“There’s nobody that I’m, like, really fired up about,” an AFC personnel man said. “I don’t see anybody sure-fire. I’m just not fired up about the group.”

Paid subscribers can access Bob McGinn’s nine-part draft series in full, in addition to all player profiles, all team deep dives, everything at Go Long. Scouts across the NFL supply their unfiltered analysis on this year’s group of linebackers in Part 7:

Part 1, WR/TE: Hall of Fame talent at the top, then (many) questions

Part 2, OL: Can this 'long-armed Tyrannosaurus Rex' brawl?

Part 3, QB: Gap between Caleb Williams & Jayden Daniels? Closer than you think...

Part 4, RB: Like father, like son?

Part 5, DL: Tale of two very different Texas big men

Part 6, Edge: Choose your fighter

LINEBACKERS

1. PAYTON WILSON, North Carolina State (6-4, 236, 4.46, 2): Injuries that wrecked his freshman season of 2018 and another in 2021 cloud his immense potential. “He’s got no ACL,” said one scout. “He’s had a bunch of injuries. At one point he was on the verge of walking away from football. Now he’s the Butkus, the Bednarik winner. He can really run. He can fly. But he doesn’t have particularly long arms for somebody with his height.”