Is linebacker the new defensive back?

Are linebackers being phased out of the first round, or just moved? Seaside Joe 1951

We talk a lot about “positionless football” now, but it’s probably been said before - by people who know a lot more about the history of the game than me - that players have always been more successful when they’ve been more versatile and adaptable. Especially when they’re adaptable, as the guidelines for positions that you learned as a kid (height, weight, speed, responsibilities) may not longer apply by the time you get to the NFL.

The Seahawks will not be accused of “upgrading the linebacker position” going into the season, but maybe Seattle’s not done building their secondary. Yes, their secondary.

“Positionless” now? In 2024 only? But 100 years ago, players regularly played two ways. And many of the quarterbacks were also the kickers because it wasn’t a specialized position yet. Hall of Fame quarterback George Blanda, the all-time NFL leader in extra points and fourth all-time in field goal attempts, could have just as easily made Canton as a kicker.

So yeah, positionless is going to come up a lot this season with Mike Macdonald as the head coach and the defensive coordinator — deservedly so, defensive players must be versatile to have success—but adaptable is the word that I’m probably more interested in because it’s not just that players need to adapt from snap to snap, game to game, or year to year…

If you aren’t able to adapt from what you did in high school to what you might need to do to make the NFL, you won’t make the NFL at all—because the position you played in high school might have already evolved into something different five years later. This is one reason why we’ve rarely seen traditional off-ball and middle linebackers drafted in the first round recently because maybe as a kid you admired Brian Urlacher but now teams would rather have Roquan Smith: Two All-Pro “linebackers” separated by eras, and at least 20 lbs and one-tenth of a second in the 40-yard dash.

The Seahawks are said to have a weakness at the linebacker position after parting with both Bobby Wagner (242 lbs) and Jordyn Brooks (240 lbs) in free agency and then bringing in players without as much cache like Jerome Baker (229) and Tyrel Dodson (237), but perhaps Seattle saw an opportunity to do what they do best.

Which is to find out which players are being undervalued by the rest of the league (like for example, Richard Sherman being “too big and slow to play cornerback”) and then getting them at a discount.

If that’s not great news for Baker, Dodson, and Tyrice Knight, it could certainly pay off for somebody else. Maybe even a college safety?

The Roquan Smith role

This All_22_Films breakdown of Ravens All-Pro linebacker Roquan Smith and what he changed about Baltimore’s defense when acquired in 2022 and into 2023 is a complete illustration of what a modern day superstar looks like at a position that has become very, very, VERY hard to star in. With “tackles” becoming an even more hated stat than “rushing yards” and in competition with “QB Wins”, linebackers have to do it all to get recognition.

But even Smith only had one interception, one forced fumble, and 1.5 sacks in 2023, so breakdowns like this one are great explainers for what the Seahawks must be looking at in terms of coverage from their inside linebackers…but especially in terms of play recognition and reaction speed. It’s up to you to watch it or not, it’s not intended to be a Fourth of July homework assignment, it’s just for those of you out there who are really interested in linebackers and maybe what Macdonald’s going to want to find for Seattle:

For me, the most important takeaway from the video is just how gifted Roquan Smith is at being able to know what the quarterback is going to do before he does it, and then to be able to close in on the play in a very short amount of time. Luckily, Seahawks fans have recent experience watching an even better off-ball linebacker for 11 of the last 12 years.

But a lot has changed since Bobby Wagner was drafted in the second round of the 2012 draft.

The linebackers in the draft

In 2000, the Washington Moons (before their name was changed to the Moons…by me) drafted LaVar Arrington with the second overall pick in the draft and that seemed like a very normal thing to do at the time. It wasn’t the disaster that it would be labeled as if Arrington was even a top-15 pick in the modern era.

The 6’3, 257 lbs linebacker from Penn State (combine measurements had him at 250 and he ran a 4.53) was off to a good start and had 11 sacks in his third season, but injuries cut his career short and we’ll never know what might have been. However, we did still get to see a Hall of Fame linebacker in the 2000 draft, as the Chicago Bears took Brian Urlacher ninth overall and he best represented the ideal version of his position in that era.

Born in Pasco, Washington, Urlacher was exceptionally fast for a player who weighed 258 at the combine, running a 4.59 and dominating the other drills too.

Athleticism has always been a necessary attribute for the league—you’re being drafted into a league with the world’s best athletes already, so if you can’t keep up you better have some other tricks up your sleeve—but Urlacher could have survived just as a thumper in the run game if that’s what he had to be. In today’s game though, where would you even play someone like Brian Urlacher?

Edge rusher?

In 2002, Julius Peppers was the second overall pick as a 295 lbs edge rusher.

20 years later, Travon Walker was the number one overall pick as a 272 lbs edge rusher.

And in 2024, the best all-around linebacker in the NFL who is rarely asked to rush the passer is Fred Warner, a player usually listed around 230 lbs.

Which players even weigh 260 anymore? I mean, the first one who comes to mind is Aaron Donald. Seriously. Arguably the greatest defensive tackle of all-time, Donald said his regular playing weight was around 255. If he was three inches taller, Donald might be the modern day Brian Urlacher.

As players start to shrink at certain positions, favoring speed over power, and as the league continues to evolve into even more of a passing league*, it’s so important for the linebacker to be able to catch a 170 lb DeVonta Smith just as much as they must be able to bring a 250 lb Derrick Henry to the ground, and also here comes Travis Kelce, a 250 lb receiver, followed by Austin Ekeler, a 199 lb receiver. And now here comes Lamar Jackson too, a quarterback who is faster than most running backs and receivers.

*I don’t want to say “passing league” in the way that many people say it, which would be to imply that running the ball doesn’t matter anymore. Instead, I say it as in, teams pass the ball a lot more than they run so if you can’t defend the middle of the field what do you think teams are going to do? Throw and throw and throw into the middle of the field. For an example of what this deficiency might look like, I recommend re-watching every game the Seahawks have played in the last few years.

Being a linebacker is perhaps only something to envy if you cherish having an extraordinary level of difficulty, or if you’re a running back—although it might soon be easier to get drafted in the first round and paid in free agency if you’re a running back than if you’re a linebacker.

2024’s top linebacker in the draft, Texas A&M’s Edgerrin Cooper, was the 45th overall pick (same as Wagner) to the Green Bay Packers. He is 6’2, 230 lbs, and ran a 4.51 at the combine.

Kyle Hamilton, arguably the most valuable safety in the NFL going into next season, is 6’4, 220 lbs, and ran a 4.59…which is probably the only reason he went 14th in the 2022 draft instead of 4th. Yet Macdonald was able to put Hamilton in a position to thrive.

Just one other linebacker was drafted in the second round (Chris Braswell, 251 lbs) and five were picked in round three, including Macdonald’s former Michigan protege Junior Colson, who is 6’2, 238 lbs, and didn’t run the 40.

When I think of a first round linebacker, I still picture someone like Urlacher and Ray Lewis (6’1, 240), but the reality might be that the modern first round linebacker looks more like Kam Chancellor (6’3, 225) than he does resemble someone like Arrington or even Wagner.

This interesting post at HowardSchatz.com from last July highlighted the visual differences of modern players and how they stack up against each other, including this post of Julian Love standing amongst a group of safeties.

I have no idea who Howard Schatz is, but he made some interesting art that day.

We can see that players like Hamilton and Jeremy Chinn (now playing for Dan Quinn in Washington) are closer to the linebackers group than the cornerbacks.

For the Seahawks, they drafted Tyrice Knight in the fourth round, 118th overall, and they probably felt like they were getting at least a day two prospect because it’s not like Macdonald doesn’t know what he needs out of that position and I would not be surprised if those needs are not as highly valued elsewhere as they could be to Seattle. This is evidenced in part by the fact that the Seahawks cleaned house at linebacker even though Jordyn Brooks was a player of some high priority a year or two ago.

Now I look back at Brooks and say, “Wow, a 240 lbs linebacker went in the first round only four years ago!”

And who knows how much Brooks was impacted by recovering from a torn ACL and what that did to his speed, but it just does not seem like we’re going to see a Jordyn Brooks playing linebacker—or whatever you want to call it—in Seattle any time soon.

The front-6?

When I watched that video about Roquan Smith, as well as some additional commentary on fellow Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen (6’, 230 lbs, 4.50, also not retained by the team that drafted him in the first round), I couldn’t help but think that their pass coverage assigments and play recognition were far more important stopping the run or rushing the passer. Which isn’t to say that you can be a good linebacker if you can’t stop the run, because that’s never going to be true, but it is also true that cornerbacks and safeties have to stop the run while being preoccupied from a necessity to cover receivers and tackle them.

Our brains have a need to simplify football as much as possible, so “front-7” and “secondary” have been a way to sort of compartmentalize all the action, the roster, the depth chart, etc.

And yet if Fred Warner’s greatest attribute, or Roquan Smith’s greatest attribute, is that they can frustrate the hell out of a quarterback by being in passing lanes and disrupting their options play after play, then it is almost as if inside/off-ball linebackers could just as easily be called “closer safeties” than “further away defensive linemen”. And if you want a refresher, here’s a quick linebacker explainer from Throw Deep Publishing in 2022.

While the NFL value on the “off-ball” inside linebacker has declined, the influx of talent at the position has had a major impact on defenses. Having a player at the second level of your defense who can rush the passer, cover man to man and drop into zone coverages can create mismatches for an offense. Linebackers with range and versatility are still a hot commodity within the NFL even though teams won’t necessarily invest high first round picks into players at those positions. 

I wrote about linebacker being a potential first round target for the Seahawks in 2025, which could still be true: If the Seahawks could draft a player like Roquan Smith or Fred Warner, wouldn’t we expect and want them to do that? The problem being that those players are probably even harder to find than a good starting quarterback and nothing that happens at the combine can really make anyone feel comfortable with drafting that position in the first round anymore. Even the most athletic and “versatile” linebackers in history—like Isaiah Simmons, the eighth pick in 2020—have proven that it’s just a really difficult position to project today.

Maybe because it can’t stay in one place.

We don’t know if the Seahawks will be acquiring a linebacker of note in the next 12 months, or if one or two of Baker, Dodson, and Knight become stars, as it’s hard to even grasp what “the right” kind of linebacker will look like in a few years. It seems to be changing that quickly. And yes, it will change again. Offenses will see the immediate future as an opportunity to run the football against these smaller defensive players. Then the defensive players will need to get bigger again. And so it goes.

But I know one thing…It’s the Fourth of July and I’m finally going to stop writing this and go eat.