Chiefs onto something in drafting undersized ILBs?
 

I thought it was curious that Dorsey would draft 2 undersized LBs. If there's anything we've learned about Dorsey, it's that he's always trying to exploit new tendencies in the NFL. He doesn't always pick the right guy to exploit the tendency, but it's interesting to hear his thought process. He might be modeling off of Chip Kelly, who knows a thing or 2 about spread offenses.

A few examples:

• Dee Ford was drafted because Dorsey believes in the new NFL, QBs get rid of the ball so quick that you need to get to the QB faster. Dee Ford has the first step to do that
• Fisher was drafted because Dorsey believed you need Tackles with arm length to more quickly bump off first step pass rushers
• Vance Walker was signed and Tyson Jackson was cut because Sutton evolved his thinking... the Ryan defense usually relies on a lot of 2-gap, but Dorsey began to realize it should start evolving into having 1-gappers at DE

So out of curiosity, I started looking into why a team might draft more undersized ILBs. Came across a really interesting article:
http://www.footballstudyhall.com/201...spread-offense
Talks about how Chip Kelly is countering the spread. Basically, your typical thumpers might be liabilities against the spread. So now teams are looking for fast, rangy ILBs and to do that, they're looking for speed over size. An interesting observation that as RBs become more and more devalued, many of them are being converted to LBs to help counter the spread. Ryan Shazier is a terrific example. Let's think about Dorsey's reaction to this offseason:

• Cut Joe Mays, a thumper
• When scouts were asked to compare Nico Johnson to Ramik Wilson, the comment was that Johnson was too much of a thumper while Wilson is not

I would bet Dorsey hit the tendency on the mark. But historically, he hasn't always gotten the right player the first time, so these guys could still end up busting. What do people think?

Saying these guys will bust is having too much of an expectation for late rounders in the first place.

We should have just traded up for Kendrick's in the 2nd round and been done with it.

He's onto aomething, the same thing the rest of the nfl has been onto for about 5 years

Very interesting. We've certainly seen an emphasis placed on speed, so this seems plausible.

Smaller=Faster=Better at covering the pass.

Seattle

If that's the case Ramik Wilson definitely wasn't the way to go. He's neither abnormaly fast nor great in coverage. Just a big bundle of meh.

Yes, but different from what we usually think. It's not just covering TEs and occasionally WRs, as it was in the past. Plenty of 245+ LB ILBs can do that if they have fluid hips. This seems to be more about playing in space and exploding to anywhere sideline to sideline.

Speed kills. To combat the spread/WCO you need to minimize YAC.

Again, Seattle

Almost like having multiple safeties on the field, specifically on passing downs.

I assume we'll play a lot of heavy nickel as well this year, with Branch on the field at the same time as Abdullah and Parker.

Pretty much. We are built the exact same way.

Bobby Wagner is the prototype MLB/ILB for today's NFL.

Don't know much about Seattle. I'm guessing you're right. It seems pretty new to Kansas City, though. Akeem Jordan, Joe Mays, Nico Johnson, even Josh Mauga fit more of the traditional bigger, slower ILB mold. This seems like new territory for the Chiefs. I don't think everyone has necessarily caught up to it. You still hear plenty of people criticize a player for being undersized and not having the size to play 3 downs.