D-line and DB's have had their share of top echelon homegrown performers over the years. But LB?.....not so much. The great ones we had.....they let get away (K. Green and Hacksaw Reynolds). What made it worse was they got away at time when players RARELY left one team for another.
But think about the top 10 homegrown linebackers for this team. How many exist in this roster in the last 20 years?:
Laurinaitis? Perhaps he cracks the top 10.....but he faded quickly and often got run over
Ogletree? Another one that got pushed around a bit.
Fletcher? Another one they shouldn't have let get away.
There is nobody left I can even think off.
There were plenty of busts: Tommey Polley, Pisa.....although neither were horrible....they just didn't live up to their draft status.
You have to go all the way back to the 70's and 80's to get to a solid list of homegrown LB's who might be in the top 10...Reynolds, Green, Eckern, Phfifer, Isiah Thomas, Jim Youngblood, Mel Owens.
Over the years, the fix has been to sign free agent LB's that have filled gaps...most recentely Mark Barron.
So....based on the above....can we really expect Obo to just walk out there and be a stud? Or is it really that that Rams are getting almost nothing right now from their currently OLB's.....so ANYTHING would be an improvement.
