My man still filling the gap. The Detroit News has an article “get on the M-Rod train” (but it’s behind a paywall). The train has left the station, is gathering steam. Who’s getting on? Love this guy!
From twentyman and Ohara: Making plays: It seems like every day rookie linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez flashes at practice. He filled a hole beautifully in a team period and popped running back Craig Reynolds right at the line of scrimmage. That one got a chest bump from fellow linebacker Alex Anzalone and a high five from linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard. Rodriguez also blew up a short pass to running back Godwin Igwebuike later on. He’s certainly catching the eye of coaches and teammates.
This kid is gonna make the team and I really look forward to seeing how they use him in season. I’m sure it’ll be mostly ST at first but, between Board, Anzalone, Rodriguez and Barnes I’d say that’s a pretty good group to have, with Pittman being a backup to all.
LBs I guess aren’t so important anymore but I still love watching amazing LBs! And they can really change a defense even if they are overall undervalued as a whole
I know they’re under-valued, but i don’t quite get why.
The 2020 Bucs sure valued them in the SB.
Anyway, our LB’ing has been shambles since Boyd, with maybe a year or two exception from Levy and Tulloch. Looking forward to a big step up this year.
Now Campbell is already having conversations with position coach Kelvin Sheppard about promoting Rodriguez up the depth chart. The former Oklahoma State standout has played mostly the WILL in camp, while adding some work at the MIKE in sub-packages. He also contributes on all special teams, which should help his bid to not only make the team, but perhaps make the dress list on gameday.
“I’ll tell you what, his key and diagnose for a young guy right now is pretty good, pretty good,” Campbell said. “Shep’s done a good job with that, and now there’s already conversation, ‘Hey, let’s push him to the next group a little bit and give him some more reps and see where that goes.’ So we’re going to give those guys a fair chance in that room to compete and let the two or three best come out of there, defensively.”
Rodriguez’s emergence is adding some badly-needed competition to the linebacker rotation. Alex Anzalone and Chris Board are penciled in as the starters on the inside, but Anzalone struggled at times as a starter last year, while Board has started just two games in his career. Derrick Barnes has struggled to live up to the hype that built around him this time last year, while Jarrad Davis has struggled to make a difference since rejoining the team in free age
That’s a good question, it’s been pretty quiet on the Derrick Barnes front. I think he’s been repping with the 2s. Other than that blurb in the mlive article I haven’t heard much one way or another on him
Still feels like he is saying they had a long way to go last season and have made it a long way, but maybe still have a long way to go to be impact players.
Hmmmm sounds like Dan said the biggest jump was in their attitude and their approach. Didn’t say much about their actual play. Of course it all starts with attitude so I’m not poo pooing it.
It’s great that the kid is making a positive impact early in camp. It also shows how weak our linebacker position really is when a 6th round pick can come in and already look better than most of these vets we brought in. Sounds like another good pick by B. Holmes so far. At the very least, he should be a good special teamer.
