Two linebackers — LSU’s Devin White No. 5 overall to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Michigan’s Devin Bush No. 10 to the Pittsburgh Steelers — were selected very early in the 2019 NFL Draft, as mock draft consensus projected.
Devin Bush and Devin White are perfect examples of the NFL’s linebacker evolution
College football’s influence on the NFL now includes a significant shift in priorities at linebacker.
They’re in addition to Kentucky defensive end Josh Allen, who played a standup outside linebacker role on a bunch of his college downs and might wind up there in the pros, too.
It stacks up as one of the better linebacker years in draft history. Only 15 LBs have been top-10 picks since 2000, and only four times in that span have two gone in the top 10. Among middle linebackers, White and Bush could be the highest-picked tandem of the century (Patrick Willis went 11th and Lawrence Timmons 15th in 2007).
White and Bush were really high picks not just because they’re good, but because they perfectly fit an NFL linebacker evolution that’s been underway for years, all part of the ongoing chess match between offense and defense filtering up from college football.
As NFL offenses have spread out over the last decade or so, defenses have responded by being more open to small linebackers.
In the early 2000s, it was radical to have a linebacker like Brian Urlacher who covered deep passing lanes in the middle of the field.
That’s now a requirement for anyone at the position, as more NFL offenses demand defenses cover horizontal ground.
“It’s not the days of the 6’4, 250 linebackers as much,” Ben Burr-Kirven, a 6’, 230-pound ILB prospect out of Washington, told me. “You see safeties who are converting to linebacker, that kind of stuff. I definitely think I’m coming to the league at the right time, where there really is a place for me to play and a position that is now being filled with guys that look more like me, rather than the old monsters of the olden days.”
Spread offenses came into vogue in college a few years before they did in the NFL, and college defenses are even more designed to stop them. Average LB prospect size has dipped before, but the spread’s popularity at every level of football suggests this trend will be long-term:
The average weight at the combine for linebackers at the beginning of this decade was 244 pounds. Now it’s 236, the lightest on record.
- In 2000, 11 of 36 linebackers were “old monsters” of 249 pounds or more.
- In 2009, nine of 35 were 248 pounds or more.
- In 2019, two of 37 were 245 pounds or more.
What’s the point of getting smaller? Getting faster.
The average linebacker at the 2019 combine ran a 4.63-second 40-yard dash, the fastest in history. Four of the 16 fastest linebacker 40s ever recorded at the combine were in 2019:
- 4.42 by LSU’s Devin White (237 pounds)
- 4.43 by Michigan’s Devin Bush (234 pounds)
- 4.43 by Texas’ Gary Johnson
- 4.45 by West Virginia’s David Long
Including Minnesota’s Blake Cashman, the 2019 class has five of the 33 linebackers to ever run 4.5 or better at the combine — out of more than 700 linebackers all time.
Those numbers were posted in tights, but that speed shows up in pads, too.
As shown here by White ...
... and here by Bush:
Everything comes with a tradeoff. Linebackers aren’t as strong as they were before.
Combine linebackers are benching fewer reps at 225 pounds than at any time since 2000. Most players can’t be everything at once, and the jump in linebacker speed and drop in weight appear to have come with a general decline in upper-body power.
You can see some of that in even the best 2019 linebackers. For instance, the biggest question about Bush is how he’ll hold up against the run, given the clips of him getting blocked pretty thoroughly while coming downhill:
Modern offenses make it worth it to sacrifice some heft.
NFL offenses have never used more of the width of the field than they do now. They’ve never thrown so much, allowing the ball to get from sideline to sideline at rates that used to be unheard of. And they’ve never been better at throwing, period.
The last eight years rank among the nine pass-happiest years in league history by average attempts per game. In 2018, the average pass went for 7.4 yards, longer than any other season not between 1961 and ‘64, when the league had 14 teams.
The league’s aerial shift required a bunch of defensive changes. Nickel corners are now basically starters for every team in the league. A pass rusher is now often the highest-paid non-quarterback on a given team. The ultra-fast players at the top of the 2019 linebacker class are another stark illustration of the shift toward playing the pass. And there’s never been a better time for these burners to enter the league.
“It plays right into my strengths,” Bush told me. “I’m a twitchy guy. I’m quick, I’m fast, I’m strong, I can go sideline to sideline. So it’s just playing into my favor.”
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