Why LA Rams LB Ernest Jones is absolutely key to 2021 defense

In the 3-4 defensive scheme the LA Rams play, there are two inside linebackers. One is typically better at stuffing the run, while his inside cohort is better suited to blanket opposing tight ends roaming the middle of the field or the quick passes thrown as check-downs to the running backs flaring out from the backfield.

The traditional image of the classic middle linebacker, the “Mike” in the middle, the field general of the defense doesn’t really exist so much when teams play a 3-4 scheme. Think Mike Singletary, Ray Lewis, Jack Tatum, and, of course, Dick Butkus. Captains of the defense, barking out signals, a-stompin’ and a-snarling out there.   Mike is the nickname of Middle linebackers.

Mean, disagreeable hombres on the gridiron. Maybe missing a tooth or two. Lining out the troops proper-like for the skirmish that’s about to unfold with every down the opposing team still holds that oblong ball. They are the intensity, the fire, the passion smoldering in shoulder pads. A perpetual stream of images of the football field from every angle to stop the offense.

That ball’s ours. I want it. And I’m about to take it away from you. Forget the way the defense is drawn up on a whiteboard. Some players recognize how to command a defense instinctively, by smell alone. Like a farmer who smells rain in the air or an Amish man’s divining rod (yes, they still use those) can find a water source underground. A true linebacker can feel and smell what the offense is up to, and they get a jump on stopping it.

The Rams haven’t really had anybody like that for a very long time, that player who lurks just behind the defensive line, waiting to ruthlessly punish any ball carrier who dares breaks through to daylight. That thumper in the middle who lays the wood and delivers face fulls of Reidell at full bore.