Top Players of "length" on defense

[Chopper0080]

There has been a lot made about the term length this offseason and the Cardinals stating they are looking to add it to the defensive roster. What I decided to do is look at which defensive players in this draft have the most "length". Now remember, this is not an end-all, be-all thing. Length doesn't make a player good, but it is something that you have or you don't. Maybe this becomes a tie breaker with the Cardinals or an emphasis on defensive players selected in the later rounds of the draft.

So, what I did was look through all of the officially measured players available in the draft, converted their height to inches and added that to their arm length. This gave me a "length" number to work with. I then tried to take the top 26% of players at each position (26% because it seemed to give me a decent number of prospects to identify before a bunch of players started to group together) and then averaged their projected draft protection from multiple draft sites to get an average draft position for each player (referenced in parentheses). I will also include the overall average for each position to give a bit of reference of the "length" of the draft class at that position as well. Do with this information what you will.

DEFENSIVE LINE - Top 10 of 38 / Top 26%

1 - Dan McCullers - Tennessee - 6'7 - 352 - 115.625 (4)

2 - Brent Urban - Virginia - 6'7 - 295 - 113.25 (3)

3 - Kareem Martin - North Carolina - 6'6 - 272 - 113 (2)

4 - William Clarke - West Virginia - 6'6 - 271 - 112.625 (3)

5 - Ra'shede Hageman - Minnesota - 6'6 - 310 - 112.25 (1)

T7 - Jadeveon Clowney - South Carolina - 6'5 1/4 - 266 - 111.75 (1)

T7 - Stephon Tuitt - Notre Dame - 6'5 - 304 - 111.75 (2)

8 - Deandre Coleman - California - 6'5 - 314 - 111.375 (5)

9 - Josh Mauro - Stanford - 6'6 - 271 - 111 (5)

10 - Taylor Hart - Oregon - 6'6 - 281 - 110.75 (4)

Average - 108.467


LINEBACKERS - Top 14 of 53 / Top 26%

1 - Adrian Hubbard - Alabama - 6'6 - 257 - 112.5 (4)

2 - Larry Webster - Bloomburg - 6'6 - 252 - 111.5 (6)

3 - Aaron Lynch - South Florida - 6'5 - 249 - 111 (6)

4 - Trent Murphy - Stanford - 6'5 - 250 - 110.875 (3)

5 - Zach Moore - Concordia - 6'5 - 269 - 110.75 (5)

6 - Anthony Barr - UCLA - 6'5 - 255 - 110.5 (1)

7 - Kony Ealy - Missouri - 6'4 - 273 - 110.25 (1)

8 - Tevin Mims - South Florida - 6'4 - 260 - 109.75 (7)

9 - Trevor Reilly - Utah - 6'5 - 245 - 109.25 (4)

10 - Marcus Smith - Louisville - 6'3 - 251 - 109 (2)

11 - Jackson Jeffcoat - Texas - 6'3 - 247 - 108.875 (3)

T14 - Demarcus Lawrence - Boise State - 6'3 - 251 - 108.75 (2)

T14 - Cassius Marsh - UCLA - 6'4 - 252 - 108.75 (6)

T14 - Kerry Wynn - Richmond - 6'5 - 266 - 108.75 (7)

Average - 107.318


CORNERBACKS - Top 10 of 38 / Top 26%

1 - Keith McGill - Utah - 6'3 - 211 - 108.25 (3)

2 - Stanley Jean-Batiste - Nebraska - 6'3 - 218 - 107.375 (3)

3 - Pierre Desir - Lindenwood - 6'1 - 191 - 106 (3)

4 - Dontae Johnson - North Carolina State - 6'2 - 200 - 105.5 (6)

5 - Justin Gilbert - Oklahoma State - 6'0 - 202 - 105.125 (1)

6 - Walt Aikens - Liberty - 6'0 5/8 - 205 - 104.975 (6)

7 - Kyle Fuller - Virginia Tech - 6'0 - 190 - 104.875 (1)

T9 - Phillip Gaines - Rice - 6'0 - 193 - 103.875 (3)

T9 - Travis Carrie - Ohio - 6'0 - 206 - 103.875 (7)

10 - Loucheiz Purifoy - Florida - 5'11 - 190 - 103.75 (3)

Average - 102.519


SAFTIES - Top 6 of 22 / Top 26%

1 - Jonathan Dowling - Western Kentucky - 6'3 - 190 - 108.125 (7)

2 - Mo Alexander - Utah State - 6'1 - 220 - 105.625 (UDFA)

T4 - Deone Bucannon - Washington State - 6'1 - 211 - 105.375 (3)

T4 - Ha Ha Clinton-Dix - Alabama - 6'1 - 208 - 105.375 (1)

5 - Ahmad Dixon - Baylor - 6'0 - 212 - 104.25 (4)

6 - Dion Bailey - USC - 6'0 - 201 - 104 (5)

Average - 103.147

 

[BW52]

Brent Urban has been moving up on draft boards.Lindy`s had him rated rd 6 and CBS had him rd 5 in early March.Could he be a option to groom behind Dockett for a season.......might be worth considering.Bucannon is getting a lot of buzz lately as is Will Clarke who has been ranked rd 3-4.I wouldn`t be surprised if a couple of the guys on your list ended up in AZ.

 

[WildBB]

I don't hear much about McCullers. What's his story?

What about Coleman, Mauro and Hart? Any info on them? Flying under the radar?

Thanks.

 

[BW52]

Have heard nothing about any of them.I think McCullers has made a couple of visits but not anything about the others you mentioned.lindy`s had McCullers as RD 3-4 as a runstuffer and said McCullers works in a 3-4 or 4-3 scheme.CBS said rd 3-4 about a month ago.

 

[Cardiac]

Now that's a lot of research and work Chopper. It will be fun to revisit this thread in 2 weeks and see if SK drafted anyone from your lists.

 

[juza76]

Kareem martin and marcus smith are my favourite players in the second round.
Both are very underrated

 

[Krangodnzr]

I don't hear much about McCullers. What's his story?

Very Fat.