have we ever had great linebackers? Since the 70’s til today…?
Was Ken Fantetti good?
Chris Claiborne…?..average at best?
Paul Nuamoff - an old neighbor of mine.
DeAndre Levy – he was decent wasn’t he?
Have we used any 1st round picks on backers? I’m not sure.
Chris Spielman
Stephen Boyd for a short time
Claiborne and Ernie Sims were top 10 picks. 
Jarrad Davis was #21 OA.
Reggie Brown was drafted in 1996 at #17 OA and looked very promising… but he had that neck injury and nearly died on the field.
Was horrifying to watch that happen… one of those moments when you realize it doesn’t matter much if our favorite team wins or not.
Zach Follett had a great game once
When I watch top defenses, like SF, I always see a Mike backer who erases everything that gets to the 2nd level. I really feel the Lions need that to make this defense turn the corner.
Dennis Gibson and Mike Coffer
I guess that means “sometimes”, by luck, we do get some decent LB’s but they are not great at drafting quality LB groups. of course, we historically , aren’t good at putting together solid defenses either. We got DAMN lucky our defense did what they did in 2022…late.
He was a really cool dude though. I used to talk to him on FB all the time when he was with the Lions. He always replied.
Cali cool and a tough guy.
Too bad that neck injury cut him short
How’s he doing nowadays???
Fred Warner, 3rd round. Dre Greenlaw, 5th round. NaVorro Bowman, 3rd round.
They also drafted Willis in the 1st with a previous staff and he was a smash hit, and Rueben Foster in the 1st with the current staff and he was a colossal bust. But most of their success at LB has come from mid-round picks. We need to nail a couple of those.
I actually think we may have nailed a few of them already if they’re given the opportunity . Need that soave LBer still.
I love Rodrigo for sure and I still hold out hope for Barnes, but like you said we need our version of Warner. The coverage savant. Henley makes sense, so did Dennis before he checked in at 218. I think Drake Thomas is really good in coverage too but he’s just so similar to Rodrigo everywhere else. Overshown should be good in coverage but I don’t think he’s shown overly well there (heh).
Henley fits nicely.
Barnes going forward can be good IMO. Moving back not so much. That’s not uncommon with LBers. It does limit their utility in the modern game but there is still a role for those guys IMO
Right I think Barnes’ end game is as a situational player, which is fine. Maybe he could see an absolute ceiling as a Haasan Redick type player, but Houston is kinda that guy as well.
I think he can be our thumper. He needs to guess less but he definitely has the requisite stopping power. Dude can bring it. The arm length is helpful when in pursuit and he can definitely close on ball carriers.
He definitely needs to guess less, but he improved over the last half of the season for sure. I think he’s currently our thumper, I’m hoping he can add more as a pass rusher to his game, though I know we didn’t blitz him as often over the latter part of the season.
But Barnes is why I don’t think we’ll be all that high on Sewell or Campbell types.
He would have to be the thumper. There’s just no other spot I see him playing. Problem becomes, is Rodrigo a better thumper?
Special Teamer isn’t the worst label in the world, even for a guy we traded extra late picks for.
I think Barnes’ upside in that role is significantly higher. Rodrigo’s wrestling background really helps him get guys to the ground but when it’s 4th and 1 and you need to force the runner back on contact I don’t think that’s Rodrigo’s forte.
I think Rodrigo is the glue guy in the room. Jack of all trades master of none type.
Yeah this is what he was kinda like at OSU, except by the end he was much closer to a master of all trades. His year-over-year improvement was astounding, and it was such a creeper you hardly noticed it. All of a sudden it was just like, man, this guy’s awesome.
I think nationally he’s being given too much credit for his rookie season. It was fine, and he showed some things to get excited about, but he still had plenty of struggles. But I’m fine with it, to be honest it was sorta what I expected.
And here’s what he’ll do next year… he’ll be a little bit better at every facet of his game. And then then next year he’ll be a little bit better again and so forth, until we’re telling ourselves if this guy gets any better he’s gonna be an all-pro. That was his path in Stillwater and I’m really confident it’ll be the same here. He wasn’t overwhelmed by the size or the speed of the league, so it’s onward and upward.
Was it Vilma who made the Romanowski comp? That’s the kind of guy I think Rodrigo can be. Not a traditional thumper nor a traditional modern LBer butt a guy that makes defenses better.