Yesterday, I looked at player weight in the NFL. Today I want to take a more granular approach and look at weight by position. Of course, in modern times, positions have blended quite a bit. In a 3-4 defense, the edge rusher would be a linebacker, while in a 4-3 defense, that same player would be a defensive end; defensive front sevens are so versatile that Khalil Mack once received All-Pro honors at both OLB and DE… in the same season! And it’s not just the front seven players that are hybrids: Deone Bucannon and Mark Barron converted from safety to linebacker after entering the NFL, while 2017 Eagles rookie Nathan Gerry converted from safety to linebacker when he entered the draft.

So while there’s an element of trying to fit square pegs into round holes, I nevertheless labeled every defensive player from 2017 as either a DL, LB, or DB. In my database for each player, I have their weight and 2017 AV score. I have graphed that data below, with player weight on the X-Axis and AV score on the Y-Axis.  All players in red are defensive backs, while players in black are linebackers, and defensive linemen are showed in blue.

There is some fluidity in player positions, but some broad trends clearly emerge.  Yes, there is overlap between defensive backs and linebackers, and between linebackers and defensive ends, but that overlaps is mostly at the edges. Below is the same data (with player weight on the X-Axis), but showing the range of weights for defensive backs (the top line), linebackers (middle), and defensive linemen (bottom).  This chart is particularly neat, because in one picture it highlights both the rule and the exception: it’s clear what the ranges are for players at DL, LB, and DB, but it is also clear that there’s overlap at the margins:

The Defensive Back/Linebacker Line

The lightest linebackers began at 211 pounds with Deone Bucannon, and Mark Barron, Telvin Smith, Donald Payne, Nathan Gerry, Kamu Grugier-Hill, Zaire Anderson, Dylan Cole, Deon King, and Ray-Ray Armstrong all were 220 pounds or lighter. Meanwhile, there were 13 defensive backs listed at 220 pounds or heavier: Brynden Trawick, George Iloka, Erik Harris, Kam Chancellor, Obi Melifonwu, Johnathan Cyprien, T.J. McDonald, Miles Killebrew, Brandon King, Rayshawn Jenkins, Kavon Frazier, Josh Jones, and Maurice Alexander. ^[1]Note that all of those players were safeties. For those curious All-Pro cornerback Xavier Rhodes was listed at 218 pounds and a couple of other cornerbacks (Sean Smith, Brian Allen) were 215 pounds. … Continue reading

So here’s the 2017 rubric for identifying defensive backs:

1) If a player was 210 pounds or less, he’s a defensive back.

2) If a player was between 211 pounds and 225 pounds, he might be a defensive back and he might be a linebacker.

3) If a player was 226 pounds or heavier, he was not a defensive back.

This makes a 220-pound player a bit of a tweener, potentially lost in no man’s land. Such a defensive player could still be very good — there were 7 players with 8 points of AV last year in the 211-225 pound range, with linebacker Telvin Smith joined by six defensive backs (Kevin Byard, Harrison Smith, Xavier Rhodes, Reshad Jones, Landon Collins, and Keanu Neal) — but it’s going to be tricky. Even more so than the normal ridiculousness required to make it to the NFL, these players need to be an excellent athletes so they can make their larger size work for them; in other words, they need to be fast and agile enough to play safety despite being so heavy — but they probably don’t have much margin for error.

If you are just over 220 pounds, you’re probably better off losing weight or bulking up enough to be say, the next Deion Jones, who at 230 pounds, has become a prototype for the 2018 NFL linebacker. And the Falcons provide an example of life on the extremes: they have a 216 pound safety in Neal and a 230 pound linebacker in Jones. So if you are 224 pounds, you’re probably better off gaining or losing 8 pounds than staying at 224 pounds. ^[2]As an aside, there were two players who were exactly 224 pounds last year, and both were on the Raiders, and you guessed it: they played different positions. Obi Melifonwu was a safety, and UDFA … Continue reading

The Linebacker/Defensive End Line

Every single defensive player in the NFL last year who weighed between 226 and 245 pounds was a linebacker.  Easy enough.   But from 246 to 261 pounds, the line gets pretty blurry pretty quickly, as a few defensive ends begin to creep in. The two lightest defensive linemen in 2017 were stars Yannick Ngakoue (246 pounds, 12 sacks) and Melvin Ingram (247 pounds, 10.5 sacks). This range is really where the 3-4 OLB/4-3 DE tweener begins to emerge: that said, Takkarist McKinley ^[3]Who weighs 250 pounds despite what his PFR bio says., Charles Harris, Noah Spence, Danielle Hunter, superstar Khalil Mack, Jerry Hughes, Brooks Reed, Nate Orchard, Darryl Tapp, Eric Lee, and Dante Fowler all were designated defensive ends in 2017 and weighed no more than 255 pounds.

Linebackers can get pretty heavy — in fact, Chiefs rookie Tanoh Kpassagnon started a game at outside linebacker at 289 pounds! The second-heaviest linebacker was Titans Kevin Dodd at 277 pounds, and he is also a DE/OLB hybrid. Lamarr Houston was listed at 274 pounds last year, and the former defensive tackle was officially a linebacker in 2017. Unlike the DB/LB line, the DL/LB is pretty wide — it can span from 246 pounds to 289 pounds!

But here’s my main takeaway from 2017: If a player was under 260 pounds, he was more likely to be a linebacker than a defensive lineman. At 270 pounds and heavier, that player was more likely to be a defensive lineman than a linebacker. So the 260-270 range is where it gets really tricky. Now, you might think that this is like being 224 pounds; i.e., if you’re 265 pounds, you’re probably better off gaining or losing 5 pounds than staying at that weight.

But that is not quite right, and a look at who was in that 260-270 range last year will help you see why. The list includes Chandler Jones, Demarcus Lawrence, Terrell Suggs, Jadeveon Clowney, Brandon Graham, Trey Flowers, Preston Smith, Anthony Zettel, Benardrick McKinney, Mario Addison, Matt Judon, Derrick Morgan, Frostee Rucker, Cameron Wake, Jabaal Sheard, Bud Dupree, and Olivier Vernon.

So I don’t think being 265 pounds is quite like being 224 pounds, at least not if you are an unfathomable combination of size and speed like Clowney or Suggs or Jones. In fact, it might be the ideal weight for an edge rusher in the front seven: light enough to get around the edge quickly, but heavy enough to overpower players. All else being equal, it seems better to be a tweener at DL/LB than at DB/LB.

Looking at this analysis, it’s clear that most of the time, you can figure out whether a player is a defensive lineman, linebacker, or defensive back just by knowing how much they weigh. On the margins — at around 220 pounds and around 265 pounds — it gets much trickier. But when it comes to tweeners, the ones at 265 pounds appear better suited for long-term success.