Pick #252: LB Austin Spitler, Ohio State
My Reaction: ?This is going to be another linebacker, you know it. It would be too fitting. Seriously? You?re not joking, Spitler is the pick? AWESOME. I hope we grab three more linebacker UDFAs so that we can install some more 1-8 alignments.?
Positives: Very big and well-built athlete, he really looks like a linebacker. His footwork is very close to ideal for me, as is his balance between upper and lower body especially when moving laterally and switching from backward to forward. He hits, and is a very reliable tackler. He was a team leader despite playing such a minor role on the field for such a long time.
He has position flexibility, as he was James Laurinaitis? backup on the inside for years and then played a lot at SOLB in the team?s 3-4 fronts in his senior season. He is a maven on special teams, capable of making the play on coverage teams over and over again in the same game (the special teams equivalent of ?taking over? a game). He looks comfortable dropping back and I see no awkwardness or hitch. He showed consistent ability to set the edge of the defense from the outside position he played as a senior. Looking at him on the football field, I saw a player that was very nearly as solid as A.J. Edds, just without the same strength in coverage or the popularity.
Negatives: No matter how you slice it, it is hard to believe that a dominant NFL player comes from having to sit the bench for nearly his entire career. It happens, but rarely, and when I have heard about it, it has generally been at positions like QB or RB where the presence of one guy that the coaches like can shuffle you to the bench. The presence of James Laurinaitis undoubtedly factored in keeping Spitler on the bench, but what Marcus Freeman and Larry Grant have not been anything to write home about in the NFL. Ross Homan and Brian Rolle kept him out of the more natural inside positions, which also forced Spitler to sit for entire games during his senior year while the team favored a more 4-3 look, but just how good will Rolle and Homan be at the next level?
The biggest field criticism I can see is that he is more of a solid linebacker than a playmaker. He doesn?t have the same feel for pass coverage that A.J. Edds has, and so he won?t make big plays that way. Meanwhile, they had him rush the passer frequently from SOLB in the team?s 3-4, and he was not particularly good at that, leading you to believe he won?t make plays as a blitzer. He lacks suddenness, and so I don?t expect him to make big hits or big plays that way, either.
The Fit: When I heard about the Dolphins? interest in Austin Spitler, I took a look at three games of his in order to see what they might be onto. I had to hand it to the Dolphins for finding an obscure guy who hardly played, but who displayed consistent and legitimate NFL skills and ability. I called him a less famous A.J. Edds, and coincidentally, he was drafted right along with Edds. Spitler immediately becomes a core special teams guy, which is a job he performed very well at Ohio State.
I find it interesting that at Ohio State, he played a role that is very similar to a strong side linebacker role in a 3-4 defense. He played opposite Thaddeus Gibson while Ross Homan and Brian Rolle manned the interior. With the Dolphins, he will move back to the interior and play on the strong side. The bottom line is, the presence of guys like Spitler and Edds provides the team with flexibility and backup plans. The best laid plans fall apart quickly when the real bullets start firing, and the Dolphins lacked options when this happened in previous years, either due to injury or a player being a lot worse in a role than you imagined.
Spitler can play as a strong side linebacker in a straight up 4-3 alignment, he could play the strong side linebacker position in a Nick Saban style defense (think Donnie Spragan), or he could play inside linebacker in a more traditional 3-4 alignment. The biggest difference between he and Edds is that where Edds would be immediately attractive for third down nickel packages because of his highly sophisticated coverage skills, Austin Spitler is much less attractive in that role due to his inexperience.
He could play it, and I doubt he would be as bad as Akin Ayodele in that role, but you wouldn?t feel an urgent need to see him out there because nobody is going to salivate while imagining what kinds of plays he could make in that role
