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I know Murphy get's a lot of the news being the 1st pick, and he deserves it but. Here we have Tyrice Knight.

Coming out of our 2024 draft I was quite surprised we didn't add more talent at the LB position considering our linebacking core is getting a complete overhaul. However, I am very pleased with whom we drafted and and also avoided adding WRs and RBs from which we have done quite too much in past drafts. However, we did get UTEP Miner Tyrice Knight, and after reading a little about him I am quite excited to see him play for us. I feel pretty confident this 4th round pick feels a lot like picking up a Kam Chancellor type of player. Someone who has the physical traits to impose their will on opposing players. Like Kam he didn't come from a top 25 ranked college at UTEP.

Tyrice Knight is built like a Greek god, and has insane athleticism. Was even scouted at times covering the slot receiver, which I know the competition at the college level he was playing isn't near as competitive at the NFL level of slot receivers. It just shows his versatility, and I do believe he will be a day one starter on the inside and is going to excel in this new defensive system.

I didn't expect we would draft more than one LB.

For inside guys,they signed Dodson and Baker in free agency, and also have Patrick O'Connell who they seem to be high on. Now they add Knight to the mix, although they can move him around. They also added Easton Gibbs as an UDFA.

For outside guys, they have Nwosu coming back; Mafe; Taylor; Hall; Onujiogu. They brought in Nelson Ceasar as a UDFA as well.

Keep in mind we don't really know how Macdonald is going to utilize position groupings just yet. He doesn't seem to be as high on the traditional "Mike" and "Will" type guys, but would rather have the ability to flex. I think we are going to see a lot more positional variance in this system. He has talked about designing the defense to best attack the opponent each week, which means we could see a lot of different looks and attack modes. I personally like that, because Clint Hurtt was not creative and every offense knew our tendencies too easily - especially the 49ers and Rams, who ran the same concepts over and over against us and always had success.

Knight was a surprise pick for me, but if Macdonald and his staff wanted him then I am going to trust they have a good role for him. He is a good tackler and has room to improve.

Irish Greg 2.0 wrote:I didn't expect we would draft more than one LB.

For inside guys,they signed Dodson and Baker in free agency, and also have Patrick O'Connell who they seem to be high on. Now they add Knight to the mix, although they can move him around. They also added Easton Gibbs as an UDFA.

For outside guys, they have Nwosu coming back; Mafe; Taylor; Hall; Onujiogu. They brought in Nelson Ceasar as a UDFA as well.

Keep in mind we don't really know how Macdonald is going to utilize position groupings just yet. He doesn't seem to be as high on the traditional "Mike" and "Will" type guys, but would rather have the ability to flex. I think we are going to see a lot more positional variance in this system. He has talked about designing the defense to best attack the opponent each week, which means we could see a lot of different looks and attack modes. I personally like that, because Clint Hurtt was not creative and every offense knew our tendencies too easily - especially the 49ers and Rams, who ran the same concepts over and over against us and always had success.

Knight was a surprise pick for me, but if Macdonald and his staff wanted him then I am going to trust they have a good role for him. He is a good tackler and has room to improve.

That is the exciting part for me is the unknown and how the players are going to be used. As for Mafe;Taylor;Hall and Nwosu they predominantly edge rushers that often line up with a hand in the dirt. None of those LBS are any good at covering so being a one trick pony leaves them to only rushing off the edge.

As for Nwosu, I was never overly "Wow'd!" by him. I know he has been a hawk for a short bit, and a semi breakout year for 2022 with 9.5 sacks, but struggled containing the run or even running down short crossers. Coming back from IR it will be interesting to see effective he is post injury.

KJ Wright was taken in the 4th round, and turned out to be a great cover LB considering his size and build. I know different time and different staff, but again I am going to keep an eye on Tyrice Knight going forward, as he is still very raw and needs a lot of coaching to be an elite defender, but the ceiling appears to be quite high for this young man. I am not expecting him to be the rookie of the year by any means, but a staple for this defense going forward is something I can't wait to see.