With their last pick of the 2019 NFL Draft, the Tennessee Titans selected inside linebacker David Long Jr. in the sixth round.
While Long Jr. is certainly a developmental prospect, he could make an instant impact on special teams and could potentially become an important player on defense later on.
“The guy is an instinctive football player. He loves football. He has proved to be a good special teams player,” head coach Mike Vrabel said.
One thing that is most notable about Long Jr. is his 5-foot-11, 227 pound frame, which Vrabel compared to that of Jayon Brown.
“The size of linebackers has really diminished over the past 10 years. Most recently it is what is playing in college football,” he said. “The more that offenses become spread out, the more that college defenses recruit athletic, quick, smaller backs. We are very comfortable with where we are with Jayon Brown and his development as a linebacker. I would say that David would probably fit similar to Jayon’s size. As long as you give the guy, the player, enough tools in his tool box to play with his skill-set and then try to develop some other things around it, I think that is always something that we are trying to do.”
CBS Sports analyst Pete Prisco gave the Titans an overall grade of ‘B’ after the selection at No. 188.
“Long plays out of control, and while that hair-on-fire styles leads to missed tackles, it also places him near the football frequently,” he wrote. “He’s a little undersized and better against the run than in coverage. Should stand out on special teams immediately.”
On his college career with the Mountaineers, Long racked up 246 tackles, 39.5 for loss, 12.5 sacks, ten pass breakups and two forced fumbles.
