Levi Brown just confirmed!

[O]

He is moving to left tackle.
He was on channel 3 pimping his restaurant, Avalon, and said he was excited to be moving to left tackle this year.

 

[seesred]

And so the story comtinues!

GBR
40

 

[SuperSpck]

On the whole, it's a good thing.
He's getting back to his first position.
The upside:
Confidence. In his mind he knows this position and it's probably more natural feeling to him. We should see an immediate improvement in his fluidity and balance. He'll be thinking less about his body and reacting more naturally.

His move fills a need.
In this case either Keith or Herman Johnson will take over on the outside.
My money's on Keith.
From what I saw at RG he was ok, but hardly a stand out.
At RT he gets to build on what makes Keith special. Foot-speed. For a big dude he moves his lower half very well.
In college his first responsibility was that of a pass-blocker (even at RT) because of the style of offense they run.


The downside (back to Levi):
Miscues from the body. He's been trying to erase memorized left-side motion for a few years now. Sometimes his body will cross those wires at the wrong moment and that play will be a bad play.

 

[Buckybird]

Not a shock, but quite expected. Hopefully Levi doesnt have his typical 1 game meltdown & gets Leinart hurt.

 

[Shane]

Was pretty much already confirmed by Urban quite a while ago.

 

[Monty]

It had to happen really he was quite poor at RT and now its gonna be Leinarts blind side we had to move Brown to somewhere he would be more comfortable with and their would be less scrutiny on him. That should give him a lot more confidence.

 

[Early]

The downside? That is that he will be against better passrushers (like he didn't had enough problems on the right side at times) and he will have a QB that is not as good as KW in getting rid of the ball earlier, reading the defense slowly.

The upside is that we will run the ball more often, and he should be an even better runblocker against the passrush minded blindside ends, than against the balanced strong side ends/OLB's

 

[ReddBird]

I'm good with that.

Wouldn't it be great if he played up to his paycheck?

 

[Shzm13]

Dominated at LT in college. Maybe a change of scenery will help him out

 

[vince56]

Huh. I had no idea he was even Catholic.

 

[Stout]

We did kind of know this already, but still, I'm glad it has been confirmed. I like this transition and think it will benefit Brown quite a bit.

 

[Krangodnzr]

What hasn't been stressed enough evaluating line play is that players get so used to stepping off on a certain foot and changing the footwork by moving to the other side is sometimes a huge change for some athletes.

Brown may perform better on the left side since he played left tackle for many years, and obviously has struggled at times on the right side. If Gandy can play the left side fairly well at times, I wouldn't bet against Brown.

 

[TJ]

What hasn't been stressed enough evaluating line play is that players get so used to stepping off on a certain foot and changing the footwork by moving to the other side is sometimes a huge change for some athletes.

Brown may perform better on the left side since he played left tackle for many years, and obviously has struggled at times on the right side. If Gandy can play the left side fairly well at times, I wouldn't bet against Brown.

100% agree

I am one of the biggest Levi detractors here, but I am cautiously optimistic about him improving his overall play by moving to his natural position at LT. In addition, he still wont be the blindside blocker being that the QB will be left handed.

 

[Shogun]

I hope he doesn't get off to such a slow start at his new spot.

 

[SuperSpck]

I hope he doesn't get off to such a slow start at his new spot.

We can safely expect a couple games that fall solidly into w, t, and f, categories. On the whole, I think it's an improvement, but I'm an naive orifice, so what do I know.

The downside? That is that he will be against better passrushers (like he didn't had enough problems on the right side at times) and he will have a QB that is not as good as KW in getting rid of the ball earlier, reading the defense slowly.

The upside is that we will run the ball more often, and he should be an even better runblocker against the passrush minded blindside ends, than against the balanced strong side ends/OLB's

Doubly true.
My hope is that whatever inadequacies he was facing on the right will be marginalized on the left.
Also, as it was pointed out, he's no longer in charge or Matt's backside. This could alleviate emotional stress.
Happy people are productive people.

 

[Gee!]

Was pretty much already confirmed by Urban quite a while ago.

Dweeb.. And I mean that in the most kindest way..

 

[Catfish]

The downside? That is that he will be against better passrushers (like he didn't had enough problems on the right side at times) and he will have a QB that is not as good as KW in getting rid of the ball earlier, reading the defense slowly.

The upside is that we will run the ball more often, and he should be an even better runblocker against the passrush minded blindside ends, than against the balanced strong side ends/OLB's

Early----there may be one more consideration that bodes well for Leinart even though he doesn't read as quickly as Warner. He will be less likely to hold the ball as long as Warner did, and will likely throw it away more readily than Warner did. This might make Levi less of a liability than we had presumed he would be.

 

[Buckybird]

He will be less likely to hold the ball as long as Warner did, and will likely throw it away more readily than Warner did. .

Cross your fingers it's in the seats Catfish

 

[Timm Rosenbach]

He should never have been moved from his natural position in the first place

 

[kerouac9]

1) Michael Oher moved into the NFL from the left to the right side and performed at nearly a Pro Bowl level. As a rookie. Levi Brown hasn't shown much dominance considering his draft position and his time at the position at this point.

2) I'm not certain that this isn't partially a financial decision. Levi Brown's contract is about to escalate in a pretty big way. Like he's going to be making left tackle money. The Cards aren't going to pay their RT left tackle money and their left tackle LT money; just like they weren't going to pay a RG LT money in Leonard Davis. They're right to try this.

Levi Brown is out of excuses. If he can't succeed this season and be the dominant blocker--better than Joe Thomas, remember?--that the Cards scouted and Russ Grimm trained out of Penn St., then he's going to be cut next offseason and the Cards are going to draft another LT and keep Brandon Keith at the RT position.

 

[WarnerHOF]

1) Michael Oher moved into the NFL from the left to the right side and performed at nearly a Pro Bowl level. As a rookie. Levi Brown hasn't shown much dominance considering his draft position and his time at the position at this point.

To be fair, Chris Williams of the Bears was looking like a bust at RT than shut down Jared Allen when he was moved to LT.

 

[Shane]

1) Michael Oher moved into the NFL from the left to the right side and performed at nearly a Pro Bowl level. As a rookie. Levi Brown hasn't shown much dominance considering his draft position and his time at the position at this point.

2) I'm not certain that this isn't partially a financial decision. Levi Brown's contract is about to escalate in a pretty big way. Like he's going to be making left tackle money. The Cards aren't going to pay their RT left tackle money and their left tackle LT money; just like they weren't going to pay a RG LT money in Leonard Davis. They're right to try this.

Levi Brown is out of excuses. If he can't succeed this season and be the dominant blocker--better than Joe Thomas, remember?--that the Cards scouted and Russ Grimm trained out of Penn St., then he's going to be cut next offseason and the Cards are going to draft another LT and keep Brandon Keith at the RT position.

Just because one player can and has done it doesnt really mean anything. Some people are just better from one side as compared to another and some can do both. We have yet to see if LB will be better or not but Oher has no bearing on him.

Brown has shown already even on the right that he can play really well and at times be dominant. The key is to keep it together 95% of the time and not have the slow starts he is accustomed to having.

 

[TJ]

1) Michael Oher moved into the NFL from the left to the right side and performed at nearly a Pro Bowl level. As a rookie. Levi Brown hasn't shown much dominance considering his draft position and his time at the position at this point.

Graves touted Levi as just as good as Thomas and was comfy with either if they fell to #5.

Oher is a rare breed in that he is flexible on the line. He started 11 games at RT and 5 at LT, did just fine. Levi does not have the same work ethic or flexibility as Oher IMO.

2) I'm not certain that this isn't partially a financial decision. Levi Brown's contract is about to escalate in a pretty big way. Like he's going to be making left tackle money. The Cards aren't going to pay their RT left tackle money and their left tackle LT money; just like they weren't going to pay a RG LT money in Leonard Davis. They're right to try this.

Like Matty, this is a do-or-die season for Levi. But you can look at it this way, or the fact that since the QB is now a lefty, they are keeping him off the blindside while trying to re-acclimate him to his natural position

Levi Brown is out of excuses. If he can't succeed this season and be the dominant blocker--better than Joe Thomas, remember?--that the Cards scouted and Russ Grimm trained out of Penn St., then he's going to be cut next offseason and the Cards are going to draft another LT and keep Brandon Keith at the RT position.

Agree and some of Levi's scouting reports out of Penn St said that he tends to lose focus and had raw technique. If he has had coaching with Grimm this long and has not learned it, ill be honest, I dont think he'll make it

 

[kerouac9]

Just because one player can and has done it doesnt really mean anything. Some people are just better from one side as compared to another and some can do both. We have yet to see if LB will be better or not but Oher has no bearing on him.

Brown has shown already even on the right that he can play really well and at times be dominant. The key is to keep it together 95% of the time and not have the slow starts he is accustomed to having.

Tons of players can and have done it. It's not unusual at all to have a rookie cut his teeth at the RT position and then move to the other side of the line. With good players, they make the transition smoothly. You rarely hear of a good LT "struggling" with the easier RT position.

Except for Levi Brown, for whom many seem to believe that when he's facing teams' top pass rushers will suddenly be the player that we drafted.

 

[HookemCards]

I'm hopeful he can make the switch and be an upgrade, but I'm pretty skeptical actually. He's been in the league 3 years now, and still hasn't been able to claim the starting job at his "natural" position and thats competing aginst Gandy primarily. Don't get me wrong, Gandy played well enough, but really he shouldn't have been able to hold off the number 5 pick in the draft for 3 straight years. Brown appears to lack the quickness and feet to go up against the speed rushers he'll see week in and week out at LT. I really think they should put him at LG and draft a LT fairly early.

The line I'd love to see in training camp/preseason is LT Draft pick (Veldheer, or Fox), Brown, Hadnot, Lutui, Johnson.