Continuing in their trend of looking for talent at the UFL level, the Oakland Raiders have signed linebacker Darryl Blackstock to a contract. The details of the deal are undisclosed. Blackstock is a former third round draft choice of the Arizona Cardinals, where he spent three seasons before going to the Cincinnati Bengals for one season.
Blackstock has been out of the NFL since 2008, when he made four starts for the Cincinnati Bengals at both defensive end (3) and strong-side linebacker (1). At 6’3” 247 pounds with a 4.66 forty time, Blackstock has decent size and he can haul it. He was ranked the fourth best outside linebacker coming out of 2005 NFL draft.
Blackstock was considered an outstanding 3-4 linebacker in the Virginia Cavaliers defense back in college. He was assigned number 56 as a freshman by head coach Al Groh, who coached Lawrence Taylor at North Carolina and in the NFL with the New York Giants. Blackstock finished his collegiate career second in school history with 27 quarterback sacks and third with 45 tackles for loss. He was also second in ACC history in career sacks by a linebacker, half a sack behind former Georgia Tech star Marco Coleman who had 27.5 sacks. Nearly 20 percent of his career tackles at Virginia occurred behind the line of scrimmage.
In 2009, Blackstock played three games for the Florida Tuskers of the United Football League under current defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan. One of those games was the UFL championship game. In 2010, Blackstock still found very little interest at the NFL level and decided to play with the Virginia Destroyers. During that time, he played for former San Diego Chargers Head Coach Marty Schottenheimer.
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