Difficult position to be in

Gauging linebackers challenges Patriots

STEPHEN COOPER One that got away (File/jack dempsey/Associated Press)

It's been five years, but Rob Ryan still remembers. Ryan, then the Patriots' linebacker coach, was sent to the University of Maine to work out a prospect head coach Bill Belichick had identified as a possible fit for his 3-4 defense, the rare player the team might be able to plug in at the position.

Belichick asked Ryan, who had to put the prospect through his paces on an indoor soccer field because the ground was covered with snow, for his evaluation.

"I was like, 'Nah, forget it. I don't think he's very good,' " recalled Ryan, now the Oakland Raiders' defensive coordinator. "Well, the kid is starting for San Diego now, and every time I see him playing twice a year in Oakland, I think, 'There is a guy I rejected to the man, and I know he still remembers.' "

The player is Wareham native Stephen Cooper, who started against the Patriots at inside linebacker in the AFC Championship game in January. Cooper started all 16 games for San Diego last season and led the team in tackles.

The Patriots weren't the only 3-4 team that passed on him. They all did. San Diego signed Cooper, who was recently suspended for four games by the NFL for testing positive for a banned stimulant, as an undrafted free agent in 2003.

Finding a 3-4 linebacker in the NFL draft is kind of like finding a parking space on Newbury Street. There aren't a lot of them, and until you select one and try it out, you're not sure it's a fit.

The Patriots have been circling the block since 2000, the year Belichick became head coach. Under him, the team hasn't drafted a linebacker higher than the fifth round. They took Ryan Claridge with pick No. 170 in the 2005 draft. He never played a down, injuring his shoulder during training camp in 2005 and being released prior to camp in 2006.

Of the linebackers currently under contract with the Patriots, only 34-year-old Tedy Bruschi (third round, 1996) was drafted by the team. Outside linebacker Pierre Woods and inside linebacker Eric Alexander were both signed as undrafted free agents. All the other linebackers on the roster - including projected starting outside linebackers Adalius Thomas and Mike Vrabel and new addition Victor Hobson - were acquired through free agency.

Ryan said there are some traits a prospect must have to play linebacker for the Patriots. He must be smart, athletic, and tough. He must be able to use his hands well to shed blockers in traffic, something Ryan said many players coming out of college today don't know how to do.

"When I first got hired, all of my experience was with the 4-3, so I remember sitting in those [draft] meetings about the 3-4 and bringing up guys that had no fit," said Ryan. "I must have sounded like a [jerk], but I learned obviously through Bill Belichick what they're looking for.

"It's difficult, and especially shortening the list for them is the way they view a tough guy. He has to be a genuinely tough kid, and he's got to be high-character guy. Once you get all those parameters, that's going to shorten any list at any position."

Also shortening the list is that few college teams play the 3-4; that forces 3-4 NFL teams to project players into positions they've never played. Most of the players who end up as 3-4 outside linebackers were defensive ends in college, a la Vrabel and Willie McGinest.

Inside, it's hard to find linebackers who have both the strength and build to play in the 3-4, where they'll have to stave off offensive linemen, as most colleges have moved to smaller, speedier linebackers. Bruschi, for instance, was a defensive end in college.

Virginia head coach Al Groh, who was linebackers coach with the Giants for Belichick's final two seasons as defensive coordinator, said he has the same problems finding 3-4 players at the college level.

"Absolutely, the pool is smaller," said Groh, who runs the 3-4 at Virginia. "Our two outside linebackers were high school defensive ends. Our strong-side inside linebacker is 254 pounds. The defense is constructed with that type of player; if you don't have that type of player, you either have to change the scheme of the defense or the defense isn't going to work."

Former Patriots defensive coordinator and current Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel pointed out that the Patriots, who have the No. 7 pick this year, have been drafting toward the end of the first round under Belichick, so some of the players with the best chance of making the transition to the 3-4 were already off the board.

"It's tough to find them because you do have to project, and sometimes to spend a first-round draft choice on a guy, your projecting is hard to do," said Crennel. "But they're out there."

In the past, Belichick has mentioned that the team has contemplated whether its standards for the position, particularly inside linebacker, are just too high.

When Belichick was defensive coordinator of the Giants in the mid-1980s and early '90s, he worked with outside linebackers Lawrence Taylor and Carl Banks and inside linebackers Harry Carson, Gary Reasons, and Pepper Johnson. Taylor and Carson are in the Hall of Fame.

When asked in his predraft press conference about altering his standards, Belichick didn't specifically address the question, saying he'll do what is best for the team. He said the pool of 3-4 linebackers in this year's draft was "about the same" as the last couple of years.

However, in recent years, the team has given more consideration to linebackers who wouldn't be considered prototypical 3-4 fits but had the talent and intelligence to succeed inside.

None of the top linebacker prospects in this year's draft - USC's Keith Rivers, Tennessee's Jerod Mayo, Dan Connor of Penn State, and Curtis Lofton of Oklahoma - come from 3-4 backgrounds. All played in the 4-3 (Mayo, Connor, and Lofton inside, and Rivers outside).

With their glaring need inside - the team started Bruschi, who will be 35 in June, and 39-year-old Junior Seau, whom Belichick coaxed out of retirement in 2006 during the playoffs - maybe this will be the year the Patriots take the plunge in the first four rounds.

But Ryan said identifying 3-4 linebackers is almost as tough as the position's job description.

"You've got to be able to do everything," he said. "And you've got to be able to hit through blockers, use your hands, get off them, and as Willie McGinest always told me, violently shed them. You can't see all of that on tape.

"The more film you study, the more you work the kid out, the easier the projection, but still, you got to have that magic potion to hit it exactly right, and it's not that easy."