First, I really hope they keep Littleton. It's been great to watch him develop. He's one of the best all-around ILBs in the league. Smart and hard working. He's earned it. All that. But if someone offers him $18M a year or whatever, hey, best of luck. You take the 3rd round comp. pick and move on to replacing him. Personally I think they'll be able to keep him for less but who knows.
IF he does leave? I agree that Kiser returning should help upgrade that
other ILB spot where Hager and later Reeder played. Hager was never more than a good ST guy to me. Reeder did yeoman's work and likely will get better but he's probably best suited to being the top ILB backup.
Young? We'll see and if he surprises, great. But pencil him in as another backup. And Patrick? Could emerge they way Littleton started to in 2017 and he played well this past preseason showing he could play inside and outside. But he only played 16 defensive snaps (195 on special teams).
Also TBD is how the new defensive scheme affects the need for Littleton. Of course you always need good players like him but from what I've read a lot of Staley's defense run more like 3-3-5. So who knows.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2020 04:07AM by LMU93.
