Saints Rookie LB's Could See Plenty Of Action In Season Opener

The New Orleans Saints, who selected a total of 3 linebackers recently in the 2015 NFL Draft to address one of their biggest team needs of the off-season, could see all of their drafted rookies at the position get some extensive action in the Season Opener of the 2015 NFL season in the desert in Glendale, Arizona against the Cardinals, depending on certain circumstances.

The biggest possibility that could lead to extensive action for the rookies revolves around the on-going case of starting OLB / “Jack” linebacker Junior Galette.

As it was reported a few hours ago by New Orleans Advocate Saints beat writer Nick Underhill, Galette is still under the thumb of League officials; who have spoken with local prosecutors to determine if the New Orleans Saints pass rusher violated the league’s personal conduct policy in January, when he was accused of “jumping” a woman at his Kenner home.



As Underhill notes, though Galette’s camp remains confident that he will not be suspended or disciplined by the league because the charges were dropped, because of the NFL’s new personal conduct policy, which was put into action Dec. 10, Galette could face a suspension of six games if the league determines he acted inappropriately.

That would then likely leave the Saints with one or two options: the first would be to start recently signed veteran Anthony Spencer, who while listed as a defensive end on the Saints roster, can also play the “Jack” LB position, and did it very successfully for Rob Ryan, with whom he played for in Dallas.

The other option would be to start rookie LB Hau’oli Kikaha,who is versatile enough to play either the strongside / “Sam” LB spot or the “edge” OLB / “Jack” LB spot currently held by Galette.

Either way, regardless of whether Spencer or Kikaha would start, it would virtually guarantee that the rookie LB from the University of Washington who some Saints analysts are already comparing to Ravens LB Terrell Suggs, would in fact see some extensive playing time in Week 1.



Considering that the Saints expectations for Kikaha are already high, the fact that he led the NCAA in sacks last season with 19, would almost seem to make him a lock to find his way into the line-up, even if Galette DOES play.

As I’ve previously reported here at Big Easy Believer, that’s in addition to the two other drafted LB’s, rookie middle / “Mike” LB Stephone Anthony of Clemson; and strongside / “Sam” OLB Davis Tull of the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga likely seeing some extensive playing time when the season kicks off on September 13th.

Anthony is likely to make a very serious challenge for the starting “Mike” linebacker against the incumbent David Hawthorne, who the Saints anointed recently as their starting Mike linebacker and the leader of their defense, after the release a few months ago of former captain Curtis Lofton, who is now with the Raiders.



As I mentioned at that time, I believe because of the outstanding talent possessed by Anthony, I don’t expect Hawthorne to remain in that spot for very long. That’s not intended to be a personal knock on Hawthorne, but rather simply just a stating of the facts.

Anthony is a sideline-to-sideline play-making “beast” and an intelligent defensive signal-caller, all wrapped into one. But most importantly, he is a leader among men — and it’s that qualification out of all others that I believe will put him above Hawthorne before 2015 ends.
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Having played both inside and outside at Clemson, his versatility to do different things that makes him the perfect fit in Ryan’s scheme, and once he quickly acclimates himself to the speed of the NFL game (which I have no doubt that he will), his presence alone will force opponents to at least respect the unit’s ability to stop people once again.

Tull will be in the mix for one of the starting spots at either outside linebacker, and definitely will be used often in a variety of Rob Ryan’s packages, since he has the versatility to play both the strongside / “Sam” spot and the outside edge /“Jack” LB, and even defensive end, his original position.




At this point, I’m projecting him to be the back-up to veteran strongside / “Sam” LB Parys Haralson.

But — as is the case with Anthony and Hawthorne, I fully expect Tull (whom I said last week may be the biggest “steal” of this entire Draft as a FCS Defensive All-American) to take away that spot away from Haralson before the season is over.

All in all, no matter which way you choose to spin it, it would appear at the moment that all of the Saints rookies LB’s will see plenty of playing time, on Opening Day……


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