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Blue and Gold
Let's just stop all discussion because in McVay and Wade we trust.
And after the Washington game Wade also said,
"Perhaps Washington exposed some things. For instance, Robert Quinn remains a newcomer at outside linebacker. Run defense in a 3-4 system is helped by stout inside linebackers, but Alec Ogletree is a converted 4-3 outside linebacker and Mark Barron is a converted safety.
“The two inside guys have played linebacker, but they haven’t played a 3-4,” Phillips said. “And even the safeties knowing where to fill (in run defense), those kind of things. It just took some live-action time. Unfortunately, we didn’t do as well as we wanted to, but I think we’ll do better.”
Barron's forte is coverage as a LBer in the nickel. In the base...I think it's a question if he can make the kind of plays he needs to as a MO. The film showed he had problems getting off blocks and the Rams 4.7 yards average is a concern,
We can discuss it. I'm pretty sure we'll disagree since we already had this discussion during the season where I opined that Barron was doing better in run support than AO. You sharply disagreed. Said AO was the better player, period!
I agree that Barron occasionally had problems getting off blocks but he does some things well in run support. I just had this discussion two days ago. Here's my post:
http://ramsrule.com/herd/But the other, more likely, possibility IMO is that Wade thinks that Barron is a good LB doing a good job.
Barron was the culprit on several big plays and he did have a tendency to occasionally get washed out of the play. But it wasn't all bad with him in run support.
PFF graded him with the highest Run Stop Percentage for ILBs at around the halfway point of the season. Here's their blurb:
"1. MARK BARRON, LOS ANGELES RAMS
PFF Grade: 83.7
Run Stop Percentage: 11.5 percent
In his first full season at the 3-4 inside linebacker position, the former safety-turned-linebacker is proving to be an integral part of Wade Phillips’ defense in 2017. Through seven games of the season, Barron has played a total of 165 snaps against the run and has produced 27 tackles and 19 stops. Barron moved to linebacker full-time in 2016, and he has produced 52 total run stops since, the fourth-most among off-ball linebackers in that span."
Pro-nfl-week-7-inside-linebacker-spotlight
That, and the high words of praise that Wade had for Barron last year leads me to believe that they like the job Barron is doing.My opinion now is the same as it was during the season. Barron and AO both contributed to the bad run D. Barron mostly by getting caught on blocks and occasionally out of position. AO had some of that but he also nearly leads the league in missed tackles. But overall with the run stops, Barron was the better LB IMO.
I also feel that, after reviewing the season and the cause of the bad run D, the Rams essentially agreed by keeping Barron and trading AO. IMO, they moved out the worst offenders that they felt were the cause of that 4.7 yards average.
