Overview A more consistent playmaker than Keith Rivers -- selected 10th overall by the Bengals in 2008 -- Maualuga might be the most explosive hitter in the draft. Blessed with a prototypical combination of size and athleticism, Maualuga has the speed to beat the running back wide and the bulk to be a punisher on the inside. Maualuga impressed scouts with his ability to rush the passer during drills at the Senior Bowl and delivered six sacks as a junior (zero as a senior). His penchant for big plays in coverage make him one of the few inside linebackers of this class capable of playing all three downs. A three-time all-conference selection and 2009 All-American, Maualuga is a difference-maker worthy of a top-20 selection in the 2009 draft. Analysis Positives: Good initial quickness off the snap. ... Quickly gets to top speed, flashing rare downhill explosiveness for the position. ... Reads the action quickly. ... Willing to take on blocks and has the strength and hand technique to shed quickly. ... Good lateral quickness to evade blockers and has the speed to beat backs to the flanks. ... Gets good depth on his pass drop and is quick to close on the ball. ... Punishing hitter with four career forced fumbles. ... Productive pass rusher with the speed to close on even mobile quarterbacks. ... Can break down in space to make the secure open-field tackle. Negatives: Has a tendency to overpursue, opening holes in the defense for quick and savvy ballcarriers to exploit. ... Too often relies on his explosive hitting to knock down ballcarriers, rather than wrapping up to make secure tackles.
I agree with your statements, but I think a lot of teams are worried about him injury prone. Rey is definitely explosive and has ridiculous athleticism, but the injuries definitely worry me. I don't think we'll even look at MLB in the first round.
has coverage problems and we already have one young and one semi young MLB for our 3-4 and we are def not getting him for OLB considering we have Pace and Ghoulston(yes he will start we are paying him way too much not to give him a shot to start one season).
Too many times i have seen him go for the big hit instead of wrapping up the ball carrier, if it was a need then i would consider looking at him, but the pick could be used on a need, would rather us go with a WR or even a RB or blocking TE.
I don't think it's a wasted pick if the guy can play. If he ended up being an excellent player, we could go with the best 2 ILBs a couple of years from now and trade one of them. Having great depth at ILB is not a bad thing. If the FO sees Maualuga as BPA at 17, I would have no issues with them taking him.
So on a team that fields 4 LBs, nobody even thinks about drafting the BPA if it is a LB? In a 3-4 you can't have too many LBs. And anyone who thinks Thomas and/or Gholston is the answer at one OLB position is dreaming. I don't understand how having 5 or 6 good LBs is a bad thing when you play 4 at a time, but it's OK to draft Freeman or Sanchez and have 4 QBs when you only play one and we don't even know if the three already on the roster can play or not. It is amazing who people get all excited about skill players (QBs, RBs and WRs) when they bust more often then they pan out, but are put off by adding depth at key front 7 and OL positions when they pan out more than bust and you play more than 1 or 2 at a time. I would be happy with Maualuga
I for one certainly agree with you on the Thomas/Gholston problem. It's not clear to me how drafting this kid will solve it. I would rather go for Cushing frankly, roids or not if we are looking to replace the T/G problem. And, from my observations, there's no way Cushing goes before Maualuga so he should be available.
we have no depth, if scott or harris goes down then what? i wouldnt mind the pick at all considering he'll prolly be BPA at 17.
I'd have to agree with this logic. If they think he's BPA when the time comes it'd be hard to call it a bad pick. LB depth on a Rex Ryan team seems like a reasonable thing.
