Kansas City Chiefs

Prospect Leon Jacobs: The Lost OLB No One is Talking About

LadnerMorse April 7, 2018 No Comments

 

 

 

 

Being athletic is a real gift for football players. It can also be your curse. Especially if you’re willing to be moved around the field and be assigned different positions from one year to the next. That’s exactly the kind of double-whammy that… outside linebacker/fullback/inside linebacker/outside linebacker… Leon Jacobs has been enduring the past five years on the Wisconsin football team. 

 

When 6-foot-3 inch, 246 pound, chiseled outside linebacker Leon Jacobs first arrived in Madison, Wisconsin, he wasn’t 6-foot-3 or 246. Although Jacobs started out listed as an OLB, his athleticism and jack-of-all-trades ability allowed him to play inside linebacker for a couple of years, fullback for one season, but his coverage skills kept him on the field on passing downs, which also kept him on head coach Phil Chryst’s good list.

 

 

 

With T.J. Watt holding court at OLB from 2015-to-2016, Chryst was able to move Jacobs to ILB for a couple of seasons which also meant he could keep his best players on the field. After Watt took off for the NFL in 2017 (along with OLB Vince Beigel), Jacobs could once again return to his most natural position: outside linebacker.

 

 A foot injury kept Jacobs out of the last four games of 2015 but he played 5 seasons for the Badgers as a result. After taking a medical red shirt he moved to FB in 2016.

 

In 2017, “OLB” Leon Jacobs made 60 tackles with 10.0 tackles for a loss, 3.5 sacks, 3 passes defensed, 2 INTs, 1 forced fumble and 2 fumbles recovered. I can understand if you may be thinking, “He doesn’t sound that great.” However, take a look at his combine results and you’ll see an athlete who is exceptional in some drills and “perhaps” only average in a drill, like the 3-cone drill.

 

 

 

 

So, let’s talk about the 3-cone drill before proceeding. Here’s what Stack.com says about the combine and the drills,

 

 

 

“… if you had to pick an event that might “matter most” when it comes to hinting at a player’s future NFL production, you’d be hard pressed to find a stronger correlation than that between the 3-Cone Drill and elite sack artists.”

 

What the 3-cone drill provides is a look at how an OLB can angle his body while rounding the corner on his way to the quarterback and do that while maintaining or increasing his speed. An NFL Scout described the importance of the 3-cone drill this way:

 

 

“I want to know how the player performs in space and this helps show change of direction, explosiveness and overall athleticism. There is a validity to this test translating to the football field.”

 

Here’s a list of NFL players and their 3-cone drill times when they came out of college as offered by Savant.com:

 

  • Chandler Jones, 7.07 seconds
  • Khalil Mack, 7.08 seconds
  • Von Miller, 6.70 seconds
  • Ryan Kerrigan, 7.18 seconds
  • Cameron Jordan, 7.07 seconds
  • Melvin Ingram, 6.83 seconds
  • Cameron Wake, 7.12 seconds
  • Ezekiel Ansah, 7.11 seconds
  • Calais Campbell, 7.45 seconds
  • Demarcus Lawrence, 7.46 seconds
  • Joey Bosa, 6.89 seconds
  • Olivier Vernon, 7.39 seconds
  • Gerald McCoy, 7.32 seconds
  • Nick Perry, 7.25 seconds
  • Justin Houston, 6.95 seconds
  • Derrick Morgan, 7.12 seconds

 

 

So, what’s to be learned from a list of the 3-cone times of the best rushers in the league? Von Miller, Joey Bosa, Melvin Ingram, and Justin Houston are in a class all their own. Most of the rest of these Edge Rushers have times north of the 7-second mark but many of them are also a bit bigger. While I don’t want to turn this in a forum on the 3-cone drill, it’s significant to me that Leon Jacobs falls right in line with some of the best in the league although he’s ranked so low.

 

 

 

 

When I tell you that Savant.com has posted the average 3-cone drill time for a Outside Linebacker at 7.1 seconds, it should not surprise you that I was impressed by Jacobs average 3-cone time after finding out all of his other numbers were quite good. Knowing that he’s an exceptional athlete only helps to explain why all his other scores are so good.

 

 

 

I went through all the other OLBs in this draft and no one has broken the 4.5 barrier in the 40 yard dash like Leon Jacobs. Von Miller posted a 4.53 which is exceptional by any standards. But a 4.48? Come on, that’s incredible. In fact, Leon Jacobs 4.48 seconds is the Combine Position Record holder for Edge Rushers (Shaquem Griffin ran a 4.38 but he’s listed as an ILB).

 

So, you look further and find out that Jacobs had 26 reps of 225 lbs and only 3 of this year’s edge rushers had better rep results than that. 

 

Sure, this may make him a developmental prospect, but one that could pay dividends by selecting him in a later round. Right? Well, you have to ask, why then does DrafTek rank him as the 322nd best prospect and CBS Sports ranks him at the 266? What they’re saying is, that he’d be an undrafted free agent (UDFA) right out of the gate.

 

Take a look at Leon Jacobs in action and tell me what you think: WARNING- MUTE THE SOUND

 

 

In that video Jacobs appears to be able to convert speed-to-power and consequently overpower a much bigger offensive lineman. In the next video, Jacobs appears in he picture just before the ball carrier hits the goal line and when he tackles him, he not only stops him short of the goal line but, gets his hand on the ball… knocking it loose for a turnover.

 

 

 

 

I can’t help but compare Leon Jacobs to the Chiefs current R-OLB Dee Ford. Ford has great speed for an OLB too but he often gets caught going the wrong direction. Here, Jacobs is not fooled on a reverse.

 

 

 

 

NFL.com criticizes Jacobs for not having that “bend” which the 3-cone drill requires. Here, he shows bend, pursuit and speed to bring down the QB. Because the QB ends up just beyond the line of scrimmage, Jacobs gets no credit for the sack and the box score only shows a tackle. However, it’s clear that Jacobs applies the pressure here and is responsible for chasing the QB out of the pocket.

 

 

 

 

Another criticism of Jacobs is his lack of instincts. While that may be true more for an ILB — which he played for two seasons — an OLB plays more on a 3-way switch: GO (to the QB) or STOP (the run) or COVER (the RB out of the backfield). Here’s an example of Leon Jacobs failing to set the edge on his side.

 

 

 

 

While the tape shows an athletic, flexible, speedy OLB… his understanding of the game appears more in it’s infancy. Jacobs was ejected from a game last year for a hard hit in the chest on a QB (I thought it was a good and legal hit). However, once it was announced that he would be thrown out of the game, he simply took off his helmet and ran off the field. No problem. Great attitude. Here’s the video of that if you want to see it. Yes, I’d like to see the Chiefs take a chance on Leon Jacobs late in the draft, he does come with some hiccups but I think most of that comes from a lack of experience in not being able to play one position for an extended number of years. Plus, those hiccups are not off-field issues but instead, issues that it appears the Chiefs coaching staff can work with. Jacobs fits more into the mold of a gifted guy like Tanoh Kpassagnon who was a developmental prospect coming out of college. I don’t think the Chiefs need to be drafting those guys early, but later in the draft would be perfect. Especially with some one like Leon Jacobs.

 

 

 

 

 

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