Lombardi on hybrid players from today's Diner morning news

[BPF]

Lombardi's comments in Italics:
The National Football Post | Diner Morning News: Browns & Edwards

FROM BOB MCGINN OF THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL… “I think there’s 12 teams that are running the 3-4 now,” said Phil Savage who scouted for the 3-4 as personnel director in Baltimore for several years and then as general manager of the Cleveland Browns from 2005-’08. “In my mind, they’re all barking up the wrong tree in the next couple years. You can always project these guys and all that, but the reality of it is there aren’t enough of them to go around. When only four or five teams were running the 3-4, you could still get a guy in the third or fourth round. Now, everybody is trying to get them for that scheme, so ultimately they will go earlier than they probably should. The Steelers in the mid-1990s, they could say, ‘Hey, we might be able to get a couple of these guys.’ Now you’re lucky to get one of them.”

This draft will be successful for teams that do the best job sorting through all these hybrid players. When taking a projection early in the draft, you have to ask yourself one fundamental question: What if the guy cannot do what we think he can do? Where will he play then? And if the answer is, we’re not sure, then the risk far outweighs the reward. In simple terms, you want a “back door,” an escape route for any of these projections. You want to be able to say, if the player can’t play outside linebacker, he can play down in a four-man line and be effective as a nickel rusher. You must define the one thing the player can do before you make the projection, or else you’re stuck with a guy who doesn’t have a system that fits his skills.

Everette Brown of Florida State is an example. He’s too short to be a full-time defensive end in many schemes (yes, I know Indy could use him), and if he can’t play outside backer, where does he play? He’s too stiff to be in space, and I’m bad at evaluating Florida State defensive ends playing in a wide alignment. From Andre Wadsworth to Reinard Wilson to Jamal Reynolds to Tony Bryant, they all look great in the Florida State scheme, but they do not translate well to the NFL.

These guys are hard to figure, and it requires a great feel for the scheme and an understanding of what talents are vital in the scheme. And it takes trial and error, which is why the Steelers are so good at drafting these players. They have the experience to do what they’re doing. Moving to the 3-4 is one thing, having the experience to know what to look for is another.

We’re getting closer to draft day. It can’t come soon enough. …

 

[mayoclinic]

Very good points.

I've been saying that about Everette Brown for a while now. He seems to stiff to me to play in space, and not stout enough against the run. He looks like a Dwight Freeney 4-3 rush DE, without Freeney's top end speed. Indy or TB could probably make good use of him, but if you draft him as a 3-4 DE and he doesn't make the transition then I think he's a total loss. Same think for Aaron Maybin.

One of the things I like with Connor Barwin is his versatility at TE and ST. I think that he is the best positioned to make the transition because of his TE and basketball background playing in space, but he also has an escape path if it doesn't work out.

 

[mayoclinic]

I should add the the Steelers, Pats, Ravens and Chargers are miles ahead of everyone else when it comes to evaluating 3-4 talent. Bill Parcells and Scott Pioli obviously have a lot of experience too, from their previous history. But a lot of these new teams switching to the 3-4 like GB and Denver may struggle to identify personnel who are able to make the transition. BB has been on record as saying that identifying the 3-4 OLB candidates is probably the hardest judgment call he has had to make, because what they will be required to do is so different from what they have done. That's why I don't put too much stock in "experience" and college productivity for someone like Everette Brown or Larry English. That's not to say that they can't make the transition, but I don't think their experience or success means much about whether they can or not.

 

[everlong]

Barwin to TE and Sintim to SILB is part of the reason I took them in the Patriots picks draft game. A lot of the others you might be looking at using a top pick for a guy who's basically TBC.

 

[mayoclinic]

Barwin to TE and Sintim to SILB is part of the reason I took them in the Patriots picks draft game. A lot of the others you might be looking at using a top pick for a guy who's basically TBC.

Sintim, English, Ayers or possibly even Matthews at SILB are other good backup strategies if they don't work out at OLB. Orapko, Maybin, Brown and Michael Johnson don't appear to me to have very good backup options if they don't work out. Their only alternative is as a pure 4-3 DE, which wouldn't help us much.