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After a year of digging into the college game for the first time, we’re now beginning to unveil our findings. As you’ll have seen we’ve started to bring you some content including player profiles, rankings, and some interesting Signature Stats from each position.

Matt Claassen had a look at the running backs yesterday (run game and pass game), and today Gordon McGuinness has run his eye over the receivers, with one article examining Yards Per Route Run and Drop Rate, and another taking in the Deep Passing game and Slot Performance. Now we switch sides and put the linebackers under the microscope.

It was glaringly apparent, after recording tackles for every single college game last season, that the official scorers in college hand tackles out as freely to linebackers, as the official scorers in the NFL do. To try and solve that problem we now bring our Signature Stats to the NCAA, hopefully providing a better means of comparison.

Note: While we acknowledge that some players had vastly different roles in their defenses, all off-ball linebackers are lumped together in this analysis.

Run Stop Percentage

A quick refresher on how we define a stop. It is essentially any play where the primary tackler prevents an offensive success. The official cutoffs are the following:

1st down: <40% of required yardage
2nd down: <60% of required yardage
3rd down: <100% of required yardage
4th down: <100% of required yardage



Tackling Efficiency





Pass Rushing Productivity



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jeanpierre

Seeing Stephone Anthony, who should be our 3-4 inside linebacker target in the draft listed among those effective in pass rush reinforces my zeal for him to be selected as a Saint...

hagan714

Dawson is a ball player
Jack Ryan Michigan is a LB to keep in mind. day 2 or early day 3

ChrisXVI

I was all about Stephone Anthony... But I've started moving more in the Paul Dawson direction. With Anthony it's all about the measurables and his potential to put them to good use. With Dawson we have a beast who we know what we're getting from.

K Major

Mike Mayock is also very high on this kid. His work out/combine wasn't the best however his game tape tells the tale (at least for me). I went to 3 of his games this past season and the guy makes plays. I like the comment he posted on twitter last month... "I'm an awesome football player. The best/most productive linebacker in this draft. Not a track Star".

I hope he is on the Saints "short list" .

K Major

Mike Mayock's position rankings:

Linebacker
1. Paul Dawson, TCU
2. Eric Kendricks, UCLA
3. Stephone Anthony, Clemson
4. Denzel Perryman, Miami (Fla.)
5. Benardrick McKinney, Mississippi State

Mike Mayock's 2015 NFL Draft position rankings 3.0 - NFL.com

halloween 65

I would still take Perryman and McKinney. Both good thumpers. I still can't buy Anthony. Like Dawson and Kendricks. I guess it's going to go down to scheme. I am excited to see soon.

jeanpierre

Anthony and Kendrick are the only 3 down inside linebackers and Kendrick is limited to the 4-3 because he's small...s-m-all...

ChrisXVI

Isn't Dawson considered one of the best coverage ILB's this year?

hagan714

position rankings to fit the saints system:

Inside Linebacker

1. Benardrick McKinney, Mississippi State
2. Stephone Anthony, Clemson

McKinney - is kinda the forgotten LB in the draft
Anthony - the #1 PT in the draft in my book

play makers in college sure but? solid risks for a 34?
Kendricks
Dawson
Perryman

others projects?
Taiwan Jones
Ramik Wilson
Hayes Pullard