Husky LB, Ben Burr-Kirven, National def. player of the week.

NOTE: This post has been deleted 5/22/20, ------- this comes after multiple unprovoked attacks on me by the asshole acer1240. I will never post here again. This site has officially gone to hell & I'll never return.

Love BBK, but he's pretty small for an NFL linebacker.

Could be a special teams ace if nothing else.

drrew":37d08goa said:

Love BBK, but he's pretty small for an NFL linebacker.

Could be a special teams ace if nothing else.

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I was thinking the same thing, with that speed he could be a great safety. I hate to eliminate someone on size though, people overcome that all the time. 15-20 lbs and he's right there, just depends on whether his body can carry it.

Having said all that, thanks for posting this, he's a great kid who's having a great year!

Sam Mills made himself quite a career in the NFL at less than that height and about the same weight.

BBK is kind of cut of that same mold. A small linebacker who plays a lot bigger. Sure tackler with a great innate sense of how to navigate the wash of the LOS.

His speed is a great asset. But it's not his greatest. He should be fine in the NFL despite the size deficiency. His other traits (extremely quick/decisive diagnosis of plays and ability to cleanly navigate the LOS) more than compensate for it. He is lighter than Bobby Wagner but has a lot of the exact same traits he does (sure tackler and aggressively makes plays at or behind the LOS). His play belies his lack of size.

I predict he'll be a day three pick and make an active 45 on Sundays. Probably make some spot starts his rookie year. I see him as a superior prospect than Shaquem Griffin was coming out last season. Consistently shows better ability to attack the LOS clean at the college level. In that regard, he reminds me of Luke Kuechly coming out of BC. Just has the innate ability to not get blocked amidst the chaos of the LOS.

No need to consider him at safety. His best qualities suggest he stays where he is.

Attyla the Hawk":3mdcamr1 said:

Sam Mills made himself quite a career in the NFL at less than that height and about the same weight.

BBK is kind of cut of that same mold. A small linebacker who plays a lot bigger. Sure tackler with a great innate sense of how to navigate the wash of the LOS.

His speed is a great asset. But it's not his greatest. He should be fine in the NFL despite the size deficiency. His other traits (extremely quick/decisive diagnosis of plays and ability to cleanly navigate the LOS) more than compensate for it. He is lighter than Bobby Wagner but has a lot of the exact same traits he does (sure tackler and aggressively makes plays at or behind the LOS). His play belies his lack of size.

I predict he'll be a day three pick and make an active 45 on Sundays. Probably make some spot starts his rookie year. I see him as a superior prospect than Shaquem Griffin was coming out last season. Consistently shows better ability to attack the LOS clean at the college level. In that regard, he reminds me of Luke Kuechly coming out of BC. Just has the innate ability to not get blocked amidst the chaos of the LOS.

No need to consider him at safety. His best qualities suggest he stays where he is.

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Sam Mills was 5'9" 232 lbs., Ben is 6'0 221 lbs. but yes, they were/are considered too small for their position. At 6-foot Ben shouldn't have any problem putting on 10-15 lbs and retaining his speed. I have seen Ben play many times in person and you are struck by both his speed and hard hitting style. He is a real warrior on the field but plays really smart too, always seeming to know what angle to take. The funny thing about him though, is his 40-times, while good, aren't really that impressive at around an average of 4.8. He has short-burst quickness though, what some would call football speed.

And yes, with those 40-times, it would be highly unlikely that anyone would draft him as a safety.

Burr-Kirven had himself a great combine. His agility scores, which were expected to be good, if not great -- were exceptionally great.

His 4.56 time was unexpectedly good. That's in line with NFL average safety speed.

He's going to get drafted, higher than we thought at the time of this thread.

How do his measurables compare to Lofa Tatupu? He was kinda small (if I remember correctly).

GeekHawk":3iid981a said:

How do his measurables compare to Lofa Tatupu? He was kinda small (if I remember correctly).

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Same height, Lofa weighed 8 lb. more (238 v. 230), Lofa had 2 more reps at 225 lb., BBK is considerably faster in the 40 (4.56 v. 4.85), vertical about the same (within 1/2"), BBK better in broad jump by 8", and BBK more agile in 20 yd. shuttle (4.09 v. 4.16) and the 3-cone (6.85 v. 7.31).

If he has Lofa's football instincts, sounds like he'd be a steal in the upper/mid rounds (for as long as his body held out).

onanygivensunday":2ff8mdx5 said:

GeekHawk":2ff8mdx5 said:

How do his measurables compare to Lofa Tatupu? He was kinda small (if I remember correctly).

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Same height, Lofa weighed 8 lb. more (238 v. 230), Lofa had 2 more reps at 225 lb., BBK is considerably faster in the 40 (4.56 v. 4.85), vertical about the same (within 1/2"), BBK better in broad jump by 8", and BBK more agile in 20 yd. shuttle (4.09 v. 4.16) and the 3-cone (6.85 v. 7.31).

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Ben has improved his measurable's all across the board while gaining almost ten pounds! It is nothing short of incredible!

Dude is the epitome of a football player!

You guys are comparing him to the wrong guy.

He is bigger and faster than Shaq Thompson.

40, vert, 3 cone, 60 yard shuttle, bench, broad jump, all better.

Smellyman":3r6fyq3h said:

You guys are comparing him to the wrong guy.

He is bigger and faster than Shaq Thompson.

40, vert, 3 cone, 60 yard shuttle, bench, broad jump, all better.

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Shaq was a stud 2-way player in college that was drafted in the 1st round but his pro career has been so-so.

Strikes me as a lifetime special teamer. No way he is going to be able to mix it up with NFL interior linemen.

Tical21":2tie3tpz said:

Strikes me as a lifetime special teamer. No way he is going to be able to mix it up with NFL interior linemen.

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Actually, in this regard, I think he's probably well tooled to succeed. He has a very natural ability to navigate clean along the LOS that shows up consistently on tape. He just has a natural gift for both getting lost amongst the trees, evading blockers in confined space or getting to the spot before the lineman arrives.

If anything, I felt like he'd test rather mundanely which would lend me to believe that this ability was largely due to the typical lack of athleticism and talent at the college level. The solid to even elite level testing, to me, confirms a level of quality that I may have underestimated for him. It more or less kind of cements or validates the quality you see in his play and gives good support that there is much more to him as a prospect than maybe we gave him credit for.

Before, he just seemed an instinctive/heady player who overachieved. But quite clearly there is more to him than that. It's more plausible today that there were other -- more substantial and tangible reasons why he performs so well.

Now, I don't like his lack of length. That's generally a big red flag as it pertains to tackling. But quite obviously he's adapted in other ways to be exceptionally productive at that. Not unlike Russell's lack of height being a non factor in rates of passed batted down. He's seemingly adapted around his limitation.

Seattle is a team that needs youth at LB. This class is kind of crappy. Burr-Kirven is likely to be around in R4. It is not out of the realm of reason that we might select him early on day 3 if he's there.

Easy to get caught up in measurable's. Stats aren't predictors but merely "more-likely" but there are plenty of successful's in the "less-likely" column also.

DomeHawk":2omuefuf said:

Easy to get caught up in measurable's. Stats aren't predictors but merely "more-likely" but there are plenty of successful's in the "less-likely" column also.

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Yup, He's a player, I like players. Football speed/ability has as much to do with decision making as it does with physical talent...See that can't miss physical specimen Aaron Curry.