1) What are the pros and cons to Zach Brown’s game?
Pros: Brown is a very fast linebacker who does his best work playing in space.
Cons: When the Titans took him in the second round in 2012 (over Lavonte David, thanks Ruston Webster!), Mike Mayock referred to him as having “pillow hands” for his lack of consistently physical play. It drew a lot of commentary, but Brown had some awful tape at UNC. He hasn’t been quite that bad in the NFL, but the basic principle remains: if Brown could make a play by taking on a defender or running completely around him, he prefers to run completely around him even if doing so borders on the absurd.
2) How do you see him fitting in Rex Ryan’s 3-4 defense?
He’s played the weak inside linebacker role, most often in nickel sub packages, the past two seasons in the Titans’ 3-4. He doesn’t really fit anywhere else.
3) I noticed while looking at some of stats that he seemed to really have a nice rookie year, but tailed off a little afterwards to the point to where he lost his job. Any reason to that?
Weakness in run defense and the inconsistent physical play. He rotated at WILB for the Titans this year with Wesley Woodyard. He’s more athletic than Woodyard, but Woodyard is more consistently physical and probably assignment-sound as well.
4) How is Brown as a blitzer and in coverage? I noticed PFF had him ranked near the top in pass coverage for LBs.
I’m not sure how subtle or sophisticated he is as a pass rusher, but if you can get him going towards the quarterback in a way he can use his size and speed, he can be effective that way. He’s not a perfect mover, but he’s fast enough to play well in coverage. That’s really what he can do and does best.
5) Can he be an NFL starter still?
One thing new Titans GM Jon Robinson has mentioned (about the offensive line in particular, but the analogy works for other positions) is each team doesn’t have five starters, but each team still starts five players. I’m not sure how sophisticated Brown is as a player, and the inconsistently physical play and frustration with him across multiple coaching staffs argue that his best role is as a part-time player who should only be asked to do the things he does well.
6) Anything else worth mentioning that I haven’t asked?
I was very curious to see what kind of money Brown would get in the free agent market. I really didn’t expect anybody to overlook the obvious weaknesses in his game enough to make him a lock starter, but I thought he might get rotational linebacker salary. Instead, the Bills reportedly got him for a decent signing bonus and a salary around the league minimum. I think that really speaks to how the rest of the NFL valued him, and how little faith the other teams had in Hypothetical Zach Brown (the sort I hoped for when I wrote this post about one of his first games as a regular player http://totaltitans.com/2012-articles/ufr-zach-brown-s-play-against-the-bears.html) might finally emerge.
Many thanks for Thomas taking the time to chat. You can catch him on Twitter (@ThomasGower) and on Football Outsiders as well as Total Titans.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
