Name: Mark Hall
Position: OLB
Hometown: Virginia Beach
School: Green Run
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 210
24/7: 85; three stars
ESPN: 73; two stars; #96 OLB
Rivals: 5.6; three stars; #64 OLB
Scout: three stars; #55 OLB
Other offers: none
It's time to get this party started and get a closer look at the incoming class of 2012. First to commit to UVA was Green Run linebacker Mark Hall, carrying over Mike London's success in Hampton Roads from 2011 into 2012.
It was a decent start to the class, too. When final rankings come out, Hall should be a consensus top-20 player in the state, maybe top-15 depending on his season. As with many (if not most) top football players, Hall plays both ways on the football team (tight end) and basketball as well. And the ranking services are pretty consistent on their evaluations; the outlier is ESPN, the only unenthusiastic outlier among the four. Hall committed practically on the spot after receiving his UVA offer, which was his first and only. He and his family are highly enthusiastic about UVA, which dissuaded any other schools from offering.
Hall follows his former teammate David Dean's footsteps to UVA, but with Dean gone, Hall will be the leader of his Green Run defense this year. Green Run missed out on the playoffs last year by a game; I think that's likely to be their ceiling again this year, as they're breaking in a new QB. Hall made the all-District team as a TE instead of an LB last year; this coming season, I think that'll be reversed. If he doesn't lead his team in tackles it'll be because teams never ran to his side. To combat that, expect Hall to show up on the field all over the place, from defensive end to safety.
That said, once he gets to UVA he's a linebacker, and in for a redshirt year. His first year in the program, there'll be four senior linebackers eating up playing time, two of whom (Laroy Reynolds and Steve Greer) are already starters as rising juniors. Reynolds plays on the weak side, which is where I see Hall ending up. Possibly. When they graduate, there looks to be a young contingent of starters a couple years behind them ready to go, with Daquan Romero and Caleb Taylor the nominal placeholders on the outside. Hall, however, is a recruit along very similar lines as those two and should provide a fair amount of competition. The depth chart seems to show a bit of a logjam in the recruiting class of 2011 at linebacker, but D.J. Hill seems to be a candidate to move to fullback and Kevin Green is a candidate for driving me crazy because nobody has any idea where he might end up. Linebacker is a best-guess. The short answer: Hall will redshirt and then jump right into the fray. The likelihood of him being a starter as soon as he's done with his redshirt year is small; the likelihood of him being on the field, contributing, after that redshirt year, is large.
As an aside, Mark Hall's younger brother is Devon Hall, a rising sophomore the age of a rising junior (he reclassified backwards a year) and a big recruiting target of Tony Bennett and his hoop squad. Devon has potential to be a much, much bigger basketball recruit than Mark is a football recruit, and given how quickly Mark and his family came to the conclusion that UVA was the place for them, expect the Hoos to be serious players for Devon as well, if not the favorites.
**************************************************************
We're going to coincide this with a quickish recruiting board and map update, as follows:
- Removed OT Eric Olson from green (chose Northwestern.)
- Removed WR Deontay McManus from yellow (chose West Virginia.)
- Removed QB Brendan Nosovitch from red (probably will choose South Carolina; at any rate I think the QB ship has sailed and I don't see us taking any more this year.)
- Added RB Alden Hill to yellow.
- Moved OT Sean Karl and ATH Canaan Severin from yellow to green and reclassified Severin as a WR.
Showing posts with label linebackers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label linebackers. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
too-late review, too-early preview: defense
I meant to do this last Thursday, but I was in no mood to bother. It is the follow-up from the same article on the offense. The defense. A mirror image of the offense: bad when it was supposed to be good. So bad that the year wasn't even out before a not-insignificant portion of UVA fans were calling for Jim Reid's head before the season even ended. Any illusions that this might not be the worst defense in the conference were shattered by Duke's 55-point performance in early November.
So...what went down:
DEFENSIVE LINE
This year....
The unit definitely felt the growing pains of the switch to the 4-3. Al Groh's 3-4 generally required the line to simply occupy space while the linebackers made plays. It occasionally utilized a pass-rushing defensive end, but the sackmasters were usually outside linebackers unless the DE was named Chris Long. Under the gun to make some plays of their own, the line fell short of expectations.
Nick Jenkins played a very stout defensive tackle, but the other tackle position was manned by John-Kevin Dolce more often than not. This was fine in pass-rush situations: Dolce had the moves to get around slower-moving guards, and was able to get to the quarterback at times. The pinnacle of achievement in this regard was his leaving a Jacory Harris-shaped impression in the Scott Stadium turf and knocking the Miami starter out of the game. Dolce, however, weighs less than 250 pounds. In the single most questionable slotting decision by a UVA coach that I've ever seen, Dolce was frequently placed in the role of run-stopper, which he was totally unequipped to handle. That would have required an extra 35-40 pounds. It was silly to think he'd do anything but end up in the secondary when taking on a run-blocking, 300-pound offensive guard. Dolce was the kind of guy you really want to get on the field, and Groh bounced him around until finding him a niche as a pass-rushing nose tackle, which worked fairly well. As a regular, first-down DT? That's just setting him up to fail. I sound like I'm bashing Dolce, but I'm not: he should never have been playing that position in 2010. As for the third member of the rotation, Matt Conrath moved over from defensive end, and struggled with the transition.
Zane Parr and Cam Johnson had people excited about the potential of the defensive ends, particularly Johnson. Having pass-coverage duties removed by getting him off the linebacking corps was a boon to his pass-rushing, and he was able to get his share of sacks. Parr didn't progress from 2009 to 2010 - his decision to leave for the NFL was a surprise and a half.
Next year....
Parr and Dolce will depart, leaving Jenkins in the middle, Johnson on the end, and Matt Conrath to handle expanded duties as a full-time starter. Jenkins is a quality tackle, and hopes are high for Johnson. Conrath showed enough potential early in his career that there's reason to believe he'll be a decent player too; simply by virtue of being tackle-sized, he'll be an improvement over Dolce on first and second down.
Jake Snyder and Billy Schautz will compete for the nod as the other starter at end; I'd give the edge to Snyder, the younger brother of receiver Matt. Jeremiah Mathis would have been right there in the mix, but he's a permanent member of the offense these days. There will be need for a third tackle - you really need a rotation of three full-time players there - and the battle should be interesting between Will Hill, Chris Brathwaite, and Brent Urban. Hill has the advantage of some field time. Only one will be fully in the mix, barring injury; for most of the time we only saw three tackles in 2010 and that probably won't change. The same is true at end, where the "loser" of the Snyder/Schautz battle will be first in line to be first off the bench. However, the 2011 recruiting class is so crammed full of defensive ends that it wouldn't surprise at all to see one of them get some significant playing time.
LINEBACKERS
This year....
The group started out fast. Literally. Two-thirds of the starters were safeties during the Groh era. Groh wanted size; London demands speed, so there were a lot of players moving closer to the line of scrimmage. The outside linebackers were two of them. Laroy Reynolds, playing the strong side, showed an ability early on to fly to the ball, and energized the defense with some big plays. Problem was, he flew too hard at times and was woefully out of position as offenses played upon his tendency to go with the first thing he saw. On the other side, Ausar Walcott was less of a big play-maker, but also less of a risk to end up in the wrong area code.
There were a lot of position shifts as the season went on, too. The middle started off as a rotation between Aaron Taliaferro and Steve Greer - a surprise, because Greer was the team's leading tackler the year before. Midway through the year, Taliaferro switched places with backup strong-sider Darnell Carter, and Carter took over the job with Greer continuing to platoon in at times. Ultimately, though, the coaches never quite found the right formula at linebacker, and the unit ended up being a liability.
Next year....
A lot of that, uhh, liabilitude, came from playing a new position. Just by having a year to grow up in the position, Reynolds and Walcott should be better. Reynolds in particular is a hard-working type, and both have the athleticism to be successful. Still, it's a roll of the dice. They'll be better, but how much better is probably one of 2011's biggest mysteries after "who's the quarterback?"
Carter graduates, and Taliaferro will probably stay on the outside, meaning the job in the middle ends up back in Greer's hands. This is probably for the best. Greer is a bright player with a ton of football sense, which is why he started as a true freshman for Groh despite being undersized. I'm not optimistic about Jared Detrick's chances of being asked back as a fifth-year senior, so other than Taliaferro the backup positions are fairly wide open. Outside of the four already mentioned, I think Tucker Windle has the best chance of seeing the field next, but ultimately, the linebacking corps - both the personnel and the performance - is the team's biggest question after the quarterbacks.
DEFENSIVE BACKS
This year....
Life is never fair. What should have been a great year at cornerback turned into a mess, especially for one Ras-I Dowling. Dowling had a chance to go pro and be drafted high, but he came back to improve his draft stock and was good enough to start the season on Mel Kiper's Big Board Thing. Injuries of various types, all season long, kept him off the field except for a few plays.
That meant the number one corner was Chase Minnifield, who had a terrific season when he wasn't injured his own self. Minnifield was definitely the defense's MVP, reeling in six interceptions. For most of the season he played opposite Devin Wallace, who......was a complete disaster. Wallace's coverage was mediocre and his tackling was unwatchable. On the occasions when Minnifield was out, Mike Parker stepped in, and he was about as bad.
Safety was a problem area too, a major step back from 2009. Corey Mosley managed to irritate half the fanbase by being good at nothing but trash-talking - a few suggested he not be brought back for a fifth year, it was that ugly sometimes. (Unlikely, I think: the secondary is too thin to be not renewing anyone's scholarship back there.) Rodney McLeod had a few injury issues of his own and it looked all season like he never recovered from them 100%.
Next year....
The secondary will still be feeling the effects of London's decision to practically empty it out to fill the linebacking corps. Parker, Dowling, and Trey Womack graduate, and spring practice won't have enough scholarship players for a two-deep unless Javanti Sparrow makes an earlier-than-expected return. (Probably not til fall, though.) You'll probably hear Drequan Hoskey's name in April quite a bit - a lightning-fast walk-on with some flashes of potential at corner. Pablo Alvarez is listed at corner for now, but safety seems likely to be in his future. Like, spring ball future. Rijo Walker will have every opportunity in the world to prove he belongs on the field.
He'd better make the most of it, because the cavalry arrives in the fall. Freshman cornerbacks have disaster potential at times, but two of the country's best will be in Charlottesville. Brandon Phelps and Demetrious Nicholson are likely to get on the field sooner rather than later. With such a small group of players, this is the area most likely to see some true freshmen make an impact.
Minnifield will be terrific assuming he can avoid the Dowling bug, but Devin Wallace must improve - or somebody like Walker or Nicholson must get up to speed quickly - or teams will just never bother throwing to Minnifield's side.
Overall, the best thing that can be said about 2011 is that there's nowhere to go but up. Even a slightly better defense would have resulted in a win over Duke and a 5-7 season, which sounds a lot better than 4-8 and the Coastal cellar. Four starters depart, but that includes Dowling, who didn't start much, and the other three positions - DE, DT, and MLB - have good potential to see upgrades with the insertion of new starters. The system was radically new - it was as if a team that ran a spread offense for a decade had tried to install a pro-style, drop-back system with the same personnel. A realistic expectation would be mediocrity or sub-mediocrity instead of the unwatchable horror that was 2010. In the ACC, that's good enough to get bowl-eligible.
********************************************
Because tomorrow will be the GT game preview, there's no time for a full news post like I wanted, so here's a half news post:
- Jared Green is Audi 5000. 'Tis the season for attrition. It's the kind of thing you hate to see - Green represented UVA well and flashed some potential on the field - but it was more or less totally expected. I had Green as the fourth-most likely of the potential fifth-years to not be back next year. No way of knowing whether the decision is Green's or the coaches, but the result is the same.
For those keeping score at home, that puts us at 65 scholarships, leaving guaranteed room for 20. Anywhere from four to seven more won't make it to the fall.
- Supposedly there's a Dookie out there with a sense of humor. It's on the Internet, so it's a fact. And his brainchild - a flowchart, because flowcharts are really a very underrated humor medium - was passed around the ACC Roundtable, and verily it maketh us laugh. The verdict: funny because true.
- Gobbler Country is less than pleased about VT's recruiting class. I like it. Actually, VT's class doesn't suck. Ours is better, though, and poised to improve in the coming weeks.
So...what went down:
DEFENSIVE LINE
This year....
The unit definitely felt the growing pains of the switch to the 4-3. Al Groh's 3-4 generally required the line to simply occupy space while the linebackers made plays. It occasionally utilized a pass-rushing defensive end, but the sackmasters were usually outside linebackers unless the DE was named Chris Long. Under the gun to make some plays of their own, the line fell short of expectations.
Nick Jenkins played a very stout defensive tackle, but the other tackle position was manned by John-Kevin Dolce more often than not. This was fine in pass-rush situations: Dolce had the moves to get around slower-moving guards, and was able to get to the quarterback at times. The pinnacle of achievement in this regard was his leaving a Jacory Harris-shaped impression in the Scott Stadium turf and knocking the Miami starter out of the game. Dolce, however, weighs less than 250 pounds. In the single most questionable slotting decision by a UVA coach that I've ever seen, Dolce was frequently placed in the role of run-stopper, which he was totally unequipped to handle. That would have required an extra 35-40 pounds. It was silly to think he'd do anything but end up in the secondary when taking on a run-blocking, 300-pound offensive guard. Dolce was the kind of guy you really want to get on the field, and Groh bounced him around until finding him a niche as a pass-rushing nose tackle, which worked fairly well. As a regular, first-down DT? That's just setting him up to fail. I sound like I'm bashing Dolce, but I'm not: he should never have been playing that position in 2010. As for the third member of the rotation, Matt Conrath moved over from defensive end, and struggled with the transition.
Zane Parr and Cam Johnson had people excited about the potential of the defensive ends, particularly Johnson. Having pass-coverage duties removed by getting him off the linebacking corps was a boon to his pass-rushing, and he was able to get his share of sacks. Parr didn't progress from 2009 to 2010 - his decision to leave for the NFL was a surprise and a half.
Next year....
Parr and Dolce will depart, leaving Jenkins in the middle, Johnson on the end, and Matt Conrath to handle expanded duties as a full-time starter. Jenkins is a quality tackle, and hopes are high for Johnson. Conrath showed enough potential early in his career that there's reason to believe he'll be a decent player too; simply by virtue of being tackle-sized, he'll be an improvement over Dolce on first and second down.
Jake Snyder and Billy Schautz will compete for the nod as the other starter at end; I'd give the edge to Snyder, the younger brother of receiver Matt. Jeremiah Mathis would have been right there in the mix, but he's a permanent member of the offense these days. There will be need for a third tackle - you really need a rotation of three full-time players there - and the battle should be interesting between Will Hill, Chris Brathwaite, and Brent Urban. Hill has the advantage of some field time. Only one will be fully in the mix, barring injury; for most of the time we only saw three tackles in 2010 and that probably won't change. The same is true at end, where the "loser" of the Snyder/Schautz battle will be first in line to be first off the bench. However, the 2011 recruiting class is so crammed full of defensive ends that it wouldn't surprise at all to see one of them get some significant playing time.
LINEBACKERS
This year....
The group started out fast. Literally. Two-thirds of the starters were safeties during the Groh era. Groh wanted size; London demands speed, so there were a lot of players moving closer to the line of scrimmage. The outside linebackers were two of them. Laroy Reynolds, playing the strong side, showed an ability early on to fly to the ball, and energized the defense with some big plays. Problem was, he flew too hard at times and was woefully out of position as offenses played upon his tendency to go with the first thing he saw. On the other side, Ausar Walcott was less of a big play-maker, but also less of a risk to end up in the wrong area code.
There were a lot of position shifts as the season went on, too. The middle started off as a rotation between Aaron Taliaferro and Steve Greer - a surprise, because Greer was the team's leading tackler the year before. Midway through the year, Taliaferro switched places with backup strong-sider Darnell Carter, and Carter took over the job with Greer continuing to platoon in at times. Ultimately, though, the coaches never quite found the right formula at linebacker, and the unit ended up being a liability.
Next year....
A lot of that, uhh, liabilitude, came from playing a new position. Just by having a year to grow up in the position, Reynolds and Walcott should be better. Reynolds in particular is a hard-working type, and both have the athleticism to be successful. Still, it's a roll of the dice. They'll be better, but how much better is probably one of 2011's biggest mysteries after "who's the quarterback?"
Carter graduates, and Taliaferro will probably stay on the outside, meaning the job in the middle ends up back in Greer's hands. This is probably for the best. Greer is a bright player with a ton of football sense, which is why he started as a true freshman for Groh despite being undersized. I'm not optimistic about Jared Detrick's chances of being asked back as a fifth-year senior, so other than Taliaferro the backup positions are fairly wide open. Outside of the four already mentioned, I think Tucker Windle has the best chance of seeing the field next, but ultimately, the linebacking corps - both the personnel and the performance - is the team's biggest question after the quarterbacks.
DEFENSIVE BACKS
This year....
Life is never fair. What should have been a great year at cornerback turned into a mess, especially for one Ras-I Dowling. Dowling had a chance to go pro and be drafted high, but he came back to improve his draft stock and was good enough to start the season on Mel Kiper's Big Board Thing. Injuries of various types, all season long, kept him off the field except for a few plays.
That meant the number one corner was Chase Minnifield, who had a terrific season when he wasn't injured his own self. Minnifield was definitely the defense's MVP, reeling in six interceptions. For most of the season he played opposite Devin Wallace, who......was a complete disaster. Wallace's coverage was mediocre and his tackling was unwatchable. On the occasions when Minnifield was out, Mike Parker stepped in, and he was about as bad.
Safety was a problem area too, a major step back from 2009. Corey Mosley managed to irritate half the fanbase by being good at nothing but trash-talking - a few suggested he not be brought back for a fifth year, it was that ugly sometimes. (Unlikely, I think: the secondary is too thin to be not renewing anyone's scholarship back there.) Rodney McLeod had a few injury issues of his own and it looked all season like he never recovered from them 100%.
Next year....
The secondary will still be feeling the effects of London's decision to practically empty it out to fill the linebacking corps. Parker, Dowling, and Trey Womack graduate, and spring practice won't have enough scholarship players for a two-deep unless Javanti Sparrow makes an earlier-than-expected return. (Probably not til fall, though.) You'll probably hear Drequan Hoskey's name in April quite a bit - a lightning-fast walk-on with some flashes of potential at corner. Pablo Alvarez is listed at corner for now, but safety seems likely to be in his future. Like, spring ball future. Rijo Walker will have every opportunity in the world to prove he belongs on the field.
He'd better make the most of it, because the cavalry arrives in the fall. Freshman cornerbacks have disaster potential at times, but two of the country's best will be in Charlottesville. Brandon Phelps and Demetrious Nicholson are likely to get on the field sooner rather than later. With such a small group of players, this is the area most likely to see some true freshmen make an impact.
Minnifield will be terrific assuming he can avoid the Dowling bug, but Devin Wallace must improve - or somebody like Walker or Nicholson must get up to speed quickly - or teams will just never bother throwing to Minnifield's side.
Overall, the best thing that can be said about 2011 is that there's nowhere to go but up. Even a slightly better defense would have resulted in a win over Duke and a 5-7 season, which sounds a lot better than 4-8 and the Coastal cellar. Four starters depart, but that includes Dowling, who didn't start much, and the other three positions - DE, DT, and MLB - have good potential to see upgrades with the insertion of new starters. The system was radically new - it was as if a team that ran a spread offense for a decade had tried to install a pro-style, drop-back system with the same personnel. A realistic expectation would be mediocrity or sub-mediocrity instead of the unwatchable horror that was 2010. In the ACC, that's good enough to get bowl-eligible.
********************************************
Because tomorrow will be the GT game preview, there's no time for a full news post like I wanted, so here's a half news post:
- Jared Green is Audi 5000. 'Tis the season for attrition. It's the kind of thing you hate to see - Green represented UVA well and flashed some potential on the field - but it was more or less totally expected. I had Green as the fourth-most likely of the potential fifth-years to not be back next year. No way of knowing whether the decision is Green's or the coaches, but the result is the same.
For those keeping score at home, that puts us at 65 scholarships, leaving guaranteed room for 20. Anywhere from four to seven more won't make it to the fall.
- Supposedly there's a Dookie out there with a sense of humor. It's on the Internet, so it's a fact. And his brainchild - a flowchart, because flowcharts are really a very underrated humor medium - was passed around the ACC Roundtable, and verily it maketh us laugh. The verdict: funny because true.
- Gobbler Country is less than pleased about VT's recruiting class. I like it. Actually, VT's class doesn't suck. Ours is better, though, and poised to improve in the coming weeks.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
the drama is dead; long live the drama
With Tristan Spurlock and Jontel Evans back in the fold pretty much officially, the last shred of drama from the '08-'09 season is finally at a close. That's now officially last season, and the lack of a schedule does not deter me from calling the '09-'10 campaign "this season."
Or is it the end? DeShawn Painter, as you might have read, is no longer bound to Florida and is looking elsewhere. According to ESPN, we're the front-runner for his services. Yay? I dunno. First off where does that even come from? I really don't think that's based on any, like, actual insider knowledge. I think that's just a guy having to fill in the blanks in an editor-directed article and figuring one school's as good as any other. That's #1. #2, where does the scholarship come from? There were 14 players on the roster last year, and only one was paying his own way. The scholarship limit is, of course, 13 - Diane and Soroye depart, replaced by Spurlock and Evans, and there you are at 13 again. Where the scholarship for Painter would come from, I have no idea. So I think it's safe to say, Painter isn't going to be an option, and any future drama is '09-'10 drama, not '08-'09 drama.
OK, what else on this very, very offseasonish Wednesday? The Tewaaraton Trophy nominations are out - 21 in all, four of which are 'Hoos. The obvious two are Danny Glading and Garrett Billings; Shamel Bratton also picks up a nomination, and the fourth is for Mike Timms. When the five finalists are selected, Bratton and Timms are very unlikely to be on the list is my guess. Bratton because there's no way he beats out Glading and Billings, and Timms because long-stick guys don't win the Tewaaraton same way defensive players don't win the Heisman. Not to disparage what Timms has done, though, which is basically to make a mess of opposing offenses.
Also, the local newspapers tag-team on some QB fluff. Jeff White brings you Vic Hall and Jay Jenkins has Jameel Sewell. Both are pretty similar themes of "likable guy finally getting a shot at running the show." Much of the quarterback publicity coming out of spring camp has focused on these two gentlemen, and it really would seem that Marc Verica is the odd man out for now.
Finally, the official website has been doing some running Q&A's with various players - today, Nate Collins is on the hook. Most of it's the usual fluff, but Collins gives some pretty strong hints at what the linebacker depth chart looks like. Based on that, plus yesterday's with Denzel Burrell as well as the rest of the precious rare morsels of info that sneak out of camp, here's a guess at the way that's shaping up: Outside, the first-teamers are Cam Johnson and Burrell, with Billy Schautz and Aaron Clark backing up. Schautz has been getting good reviews out of practice, but outside is where all the established players with experience are. Inside, Darren Childs and Steve Greer are the ones with the first group according to Collins, and Aaron Taliaferro and Darnell Carter are with the second team.
Or is it the end? DeShawn Painter, as you might have read, is no longer bound to Florida and is looking elsewhere. According to ESPN, we're the front-runner for his services. Yay? I dunno. First off where does that even come from? I really don't think that's based on any, like, actual insider knowledge. I think that's just a guy having to fill in the blanks in an editor-directed article and figuring one school's as good as any other. That's #1. #2, where does the scholarship come from? There were 14 players on the roster last year, and only one was paying his own way. The scholarship limit is, of course, 13 - Diane and Soroye depart, replaced by Spurlock and Evans, and there you are at 13 again. Where the scholarship for Painter would come from, I have no idea. So I think it's safe to say, Painter isn't going to be an option, and any future drama is '09-'10 drama, not '08-'09 drama.
OK, what else on this very, very offseasonish Wednesday? The Tewaaraton Trophy nominations are out - 21 in all, four of which are 'Hoos. The obvious two are Danny Glading and Garrett Billings; Shamel Bratton also picks up a nomination, and the fourth is for Mike Timms. When the five finalists are selected, Bratton and Timms are very unlikely to be on the list is my guess. Bratton because there's no way he beats out Glading and Billings, and Timms because long-stick guys don't win the Tewaaraton same way defensive players don't win the Heisman. Not to disparage what Timms has done, though, which is basically to make a mess of opposing offenses.
Also, the local newspapers tag-team on some QB fluff. Jeff White brings you Vic Hall and Jay Jenkins has Jameel Sewell. Both are pretty similar themes of "likable guy finally getting a shot at running the show." Much of the quarterback publicity coming out of spring camp has focused on these two gentlemen, and it really would seem that Marc Verica is the odd man out for now.
Finally, the official website has been doing some running Q&A's with various players - today, Nate Collins is on the hook. Most of it's the usual fluff, but Collins gives some pretty strong hints at what the linebacker depth chart looks like. Based on that, plus yesterday's with Denzel Burrell as well as the rest of the precious rare morsels of info that sneak out of camp, here's a guess at the way that's shaping up: Outside, the first-teamers are Cam Johnson and Burrell, with Billy Schautz and Aaron Clark backing up. Schautz has been getting good reviews out of practice, but outside is where all the established players with experience are. Inside, Darren Childs and Steve Greer are the ones with the first group according to Collins, and Aaron Taliaferro and Darnell Carter are with the second team.
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