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JamesJM
as do you. I'm beginning to have doubts but I haven't given up.
When I see Ebukam rush, what I remember is, if a blocker gets on him he gets locked up and seems to have no way out of it. He doesn't seem to have the skills or the mindset. Whereas with Leonard Little, whether he got there or not, you could immediately tell he had top pass rush skills.
A lot of good Rams linebackers weren't great pass rushers. George Andrews? Mike Jones? Phifer? Tiniosamoa? Ogletree? Tinoisamoa? Brudzinski?
Fletcher and Mel Owens were modest pass rushers at best and both had more sacks in their first 3 years starting than Ebukam.
Sacks in first 3 years starting:
Ebukam, 9.5 (that's just 2 more than Laurinaitis in his first 3 years, and JL wasn't a 3/4 OLB ).
Owens, 16,5
Fletcher, 13
Wilcher was just okay and he had 20 in his first 3 years starting.
As long as I mentioned Little, in his first 3 years starting, he had 39.
BTW Matthews had 29.5 in his first 3 years. Fowler, who took a while, had 16. With Fowler you could see he had some pass rush to him. Not like Little but it was there. 11.5 last year is not a big surprise to me.
Now maybe Ebukam has enough speed and determination so that he gets there more in his 4th year if they set plays up for him (which they can do). But unless he has an untapped reservoir of talent I don;t see, even if he gets there more than he has, to me he will just be a guy rushing and not a pass rusher.
IMO if Ebukam is the starter in 2020, it will be because under Staley, Rams are more determined to play the run first.
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2020 05:49PM by zn.
