Darron Lee

[Verge]

 

If we are picking at 30, and Lee happens to fall to us, think DG would want to take him? He would a fantastic fit in our scheme and a replacement for TD. For sure would have the fastest linebacker core in the league.

[Lemory]

If we take a LB in the 1st i will be pissed. DE, CB, or T in the first. 

[Bozarden]

I'd be pissed if we drafted ANOTHER LB in the 1st round. Shaq hardly played this year. 

Gettleman has stated multiple times that he wants his early picks to contribute early on. Why would he go against that philosophy and draft a guy in the 1st who would hardly see the field the first many years of his career...

[Bartin]

We play a 4-3. For all intents and purposes, we really play a 4-2 due to the prevalence of 3 WR sets. We are in nickel 60-70% of the time. We have Luke and we just drafted Shaq. Shaq barely played last year because Luke and TD never leave the field. Even when TD retires, it will be Shaq and Luke. Why the hell would we draft another LB in the 1st round to just sit on the bench?

[Riverboat Ron]

All your linebackers are belong to us!

[The NFL Shield At Midfield]

i hope we draft another linebacker solely to see how this place reacts

[The Lobo]

If they feel he is BPA, sure why not.

[TalonNC]

So yeah... i guess i'll have to be the second to say .. TD replacement is already on the Roster.. "Oh Hey there, Shaq Thompson"

Now if the kid can play SS.. then it becomes interesting.

[Bj-Monster23]

56 minutes ago, Bartin said:

We play a 4-3. For all intents and purposes, we really play a 4-2 due to the prevalence of 3 WR sets. We are in nickel 60-70% of the time. We have Luke and we just drafted Shaq. Shaq barely played last year because Luke and TD never leave the field. Even when TD retires, it will be Shaq and Luke. Why the hell would we draft another LB in the 1st round to just sit on the bench?

As the season progressed we ran a lot more base 4-3 packages with Shaq covering the slot. You can expect to see a lot more of this next season.

[Bartin]

13 minutes ago, Bj-Monster23 said:

As the season progressed we ran a lot more base 4-3 packages with Shaq covering the slot. You can expect to see a lot more of this next season.

He did not. He played 4 defensive snaps against Seattle in the playoffs. 22 defensive snaps in the Super Bowl which is the exact same number Denver's #2 TE played. He played alot against Arizona due to TD's injury. He got put in the slot a few times due to motion from TEs splitting out or RBs motioning out of the backfield, but we were not playing Shaq in base 4-3 against 11 personnel with any regularity at all and I would say that pretty much every time it happened was because we screwed up a substitution. I don't have snap by snap personnel data but you can look at pro football reference's snap counts in the box scores or at snap counts in football outsiders and Shaq's snap counts line up pretty much exactly with the amount that a FB or #2 TE played on the opposing offense which meshes with what I saw on the field.

[SOJA]

1 hour ago, Lemory said:

If we take a LB in the 1st i will be pissed. DE, CB, or T in the first. 

unless the prospect is a true can't miss I can almost promise we won't draft CB in the 1st

[CarolinaNCSU]

First ever 0-11-0 defense, taking the league by storm

[Bj-Monster23]

1 hour ago, Bartin said:

He did not. He played 4 defensive snaps against Seattle in the playoffs. 22 defensive snaps in the Super Bowl which is the exact same number Denver's #2 TE played. He played alot against Arizona due to TD's injury. He got put in the slot a few times due to motion from TEs splitting out or RBs motioning out of the backfield, but we were not playing Shaq in base 4-3 against 11 personnel with any regularity at all and I would say that pretty much every time it happened was because we screwed up a substitution. I don't have snap by snap personnel data but you can look at pro football reference's snap counts in the box scores or at snap counts in football outsiders and Shaq's snap counts line up pretty much exactly with the amount that a FB or #2 TE played on the opposing offense which meshes with what I saw on the field.

It doesn't matter what personnel they were in when he was on the field we were in base 4-3 package. You can clearly see the coaching staff truly didn't want to put too much on Shaq's plate too soon. The reasoning for drafting him was to continue to keep 3 Linebackers on the field without going to sub packges and it gives you the flexability to continue to stop the run. Next season you will see a lot more base 4-3 packages especially with a year and more experience under Shaq's belt. This was still his first season playing OLB permanently.

[Bartin]

9 minutes ago, Bj-Monster23 said:

It doesn't matter what personnel they were in when he was on the field we were in base 4-3 package. You can clearly see the coaching staff truly didn't want to put too much on Shaq's plate too soon. The reasoning for drafting him was to continue to keep 3 Linebackers on the field without going to sub packges and it gives you the flexability to continue to stop the run. Next season you will see a lot more base 4-3 packages especially with a year and more experience under Shaq's belt. This was still his first season playing OLB permanently.

Personnel absolutely matters. We play base against 12 and 21 personnel and sub packages against 11, 10 or empty sets which is the standard. We are in sub 60-70% of the time which is dictated by the opposing offenses personnel and there was zero evidence that we were using Shaq as a LB against 11 personnel rather than subbing in a nickel which you claim.

Also, that this is his first year playing LB is a myth. He was a full time LB in college. He played one game as a safety due to injury and he played a kind of hybrid role when he was a freshman. His sophomore and junior years he was a WLB save a game or two at RB and S due to injuries.