How Comfortable is Bronco Nation with Spencer Larsen as a Starting ILB?

could be Haggan, could be Larsen. could be a rookie.

I feel he’s earned an opportunity to start. All he’s done in his career here is do whatever the coaching staff has asked. He’s played solid ST been a solid FB. Who knows how he’ll do only having to practice one position a week! Also gives the Broncos a chance to draft elsewhere with the 1st pick and find a ILB later in the draft.

But sometimes he seems like the Peyton Hillis of the defensive side. Sort of an urban legend who hasn’t really done much. If he can do it, I’m all for it. Might be fun to watch. But we need as much run stopping help as possible.

and deservedly so.

He’s not as big of a liability in Coverage and has a nose for the ball. I like this possibility a lot.

if he delivers more hits like that.

If this is the move that is planned … I like it … Larsen is young and has shown improvement each year and that hit against KC totally reminded me of T. Davis!

Plain and simple. We can hope that changes, but until it actually does – until he actually stays healthy for five or six games – how could anybody answer that they feel “comfortable” with him as our starter.

I like Spencer Larsen and hold high hopes for him. But I won’t ignore his injury history and would hope that the team wouldn’t put us in that position either. My guess is that they absolutely will not lean on him and depend on him until his injury history changes.

but I think you have it right that he is injury prone – I mean what else do you call a guy that slips in the training room before a game and sustains what was almost a season-ending injury?
Also, I’m really curious who on the ‘inside’ floated Larsen’s name as the potential starter at ILB. In fact, I recall that in one of Champ’s recent interviews he seemed to suggest that it was quite obviously Mario Haggan that would be sliding over into the ILB slot. Haggan seems to make a lot more sense, especially with Ayers in the mix and the fact that Haggan was a team captain last season. I know Champ’s not the defensive coordinator, but I might lean toward relying on his educated guess on this one.

since he’s the only real blocking FB in the running game for us. And expecting him to start at FB and ILB is asking for his season to be cut short due to injury.

Don’t misunderstand, I believe he could make a fine starting LB. But until we settle the FB position, I am uncomfortable with the idea of using Larsen as our starting ILB next to DJ.

I think this new report is nothing more than an indication that McD is willing to give anyone a fair shot at becoming a starter at any position that they appear suited for. Which is a great thing, and I expect this hole in the defense to be addressed through competition in camp. Much like other positions, such as RDE, NT, nickel CB, OC, LG, RG, QB, and FB.

What little we have have at the LBer position shows that he is capable of doing the job and like you said, we don’t have much of him in coverage and that is very important against those teams we play with great TEs. I don’t really know how Spence will be used if any on defense. I do believe Mario Haggan is fit for the job and may be better than Andra Davis. Remember how we talked about Haggan substituting for WW in Indy after Dallas Clark scored the 3 TDs? He did a pretty good job even though that’s not his regular position. McD/Wink have seen this as well and the head coach said there will be changes to both sides of the ball. We have had the pleasure to get a glimpse of those changes in the last couple of weeks and i am sure there will be other changes as well. we’ll have to wait and see with Spence and the rest. That’s what makes the off season somewhat exciting.

he has some of the same problems as davis….speed and coverage capability. I think it may be one of those issues were a lot of guys are serviceable…Haggan, Larsen, and even Braxton. He is bigger than Woodyard, so he could work ahead of him if he develops some thumper ability. Of course Woodyard is the other guy for coverage, especially.

Spencer will do a great job if given the opportunity! Over a hundred tackles his senior year, All-PAC 10 his senior year, three-way player his rookie year, and a coaches dream. He would beg the question "Why didn’t we have him playing ILB sooner!
Go Broncos!!

To me at least. I really expected closer to 50-50, but as of now we are tracking steadily at about a 3-to-1 ratio. We’ll see what the Morning Crowd thinks, and what the poll looks like closer to a 1000 votes or more…

I will say this, the HAS to be a competition for the spot in training camp. If it is Haggan V. Larsen, I am ok with that, and adding another to the mix certainly won’t hurt. I wonder if the question were “Who has a better shot at the ILB spot, Haggan or Larsen?” what the response would be?

I also agree that the “source” could be meaning a lot of things, but it seems logical that a source would be trying to impart more than the obvious, with the obvious being that there will be a competition amongst the ILBs on the roster. I read it as someone close to the situation felt like Larsen was considered by the staff to be a favorite amongst the incumbents. he’ll still have to compete, but the coaches must have an idea about who might be better suited….

Interestingly, in terms of contracts, Haggan and Larsen are ont eh hook for the same amount of time, but Larsen probably makes about half of what Haggan makes, if that… (just checked (1.04mil to $470,000)

 Larsen isn’t built (fragile )for the every down ILB position. I really don’t see it as an upgrade over Davis. More of a lateral change at best. Haggan would probably be a better fit. Maybe it’s time for a “Tales” of Braxton to appear. Or does Baraka Atkins take Haggan’s spot outside.

Because I hope we draft Rolando McClain.

As I see it, no player or position I ever much given with this coaching staff. As also seen by the release of dre Davis, there is a plan. With so few available players and the draft so far away when Davis was let go, this move would make perfect sense.

I would be comfortable seeing larsen start inside. With our coaches I can feel confident he earned the spot. And should he turn out to be a bad choice inside, I know it will be corrected quickly. To leave up to chance we wouldn’t have enough depth at ILB to release Davis doesn’t seem like this staff’s MO

~~~FUZZY ROSTER MATH~~~

The ILB position contained 2&1/2 players including Andra Davis but it used 4 roster spots. WHY? Because it was populated by specialists who played primarily situational football. It’s not that Davis was a poor player but his shortcomings in pass coverage left us deficient in pass coverage situations.

WHAT DO WE DO?

An obvious answer would be to draft an ILB.

WHY IS THIS BETTER?

Primarily, it adds another ILB for pass coverage. But we don’t expect a rookie to play immediately so we’re (probably) still going to have to use our current players to cover the 1st & 2nd down situations. That could be Larsen or Haggan or DJ or WW or any of a number of permutations of our current roster. Also, it allows us to put Ayers in the lineup while keeping Dumervil in, too (which we apparently did a lot last season). The real beneficiary could be Haggan, who would stay in for 3rd down situations, and Larsen could absorb most of Davis’ 1st & 2nd down situations.

ANOTHER ANGLE — The real accomplishment could be freeing up snaps for yet another OLB. This may sound odd but we need another pass rushing specialist to create more pressure on the QB, and we need to open a spot on 3rd downs for that pass rushing specialist. There might be 4 LBs in these formations but Woodyard (or DJ) might be the only true ILB. Moss’ roster spot might be used for that OLB but one of the points about ROSTER MATH is that the active squad is the real limitation. We might only have 8 LBs active from week to week so which LB do you think we should make inactive? I think a ILB draftee (whose value is depressed and could be drafted later) could be a good developmental prospect. The current roster contains enough players to absorb Davis’ 2 downs. And an added pass rusher would be much more useful for pass coverage and pass rushing (OF COURSE!). The issue here is the importance of the down.

TO SUM IT UP — Taking Davis out of our roster creates space by subtraction. We can replace him and add more abilities at ILB (measured in usage & downs) or we can another player elsewhere and absorb his duties, thus adding. Larsen may not be better than Davis (yet) but he adds to our capacity at FB & on STs. His abilities not only exceed (at least) Davis’ in terms of situation/down but he adds to areas outside of defense. We also know that he’s going to be active so the number of abilities on the active squad is far higher for him than for Davis. Moreover, putting him in Davis’ spot creates a greater amount of pass coverage besides potentially adding yet another pass rusher (and this is true even if we draft an ILB and make him inactive).

BTW — a pick such as Donald Butler (chosen in the interactive mock) in the 3rd would be an ideal choice. He has the speed, athleticism and size to justify activating him and could help in pass rushing (which doesn’t have to come from the OLBs). Note that he played both ILB and OLB as a senior.

I’m not sold on Larsen, but I think he’s a good enough player that we can have a good competition for the position. He stirkes me as very coachable, has raw talent, and is thus is a candidate for steady improvement.

I won’t bet either way on who starts, but he’ll certainly be in the mix and will (at worst) make the field competitive. He’ll make the team in some capacity.

In the 2nd round? I like that pick

I love his enthusiasm and energy….He should get a chance at it, but I like the role he has currently if another prospect works out better.

He’ll make the team :)

I like Spencer Larsen. I think he will be a very good player (I can watch that ST tackle over and over). But it is too early to judge him, because thus far he’s been a bit of a gimmick.

What I really want to see is him play on a single side of the ball. Two-way players are fine in high school, and maybe even into college. But at the pro level, there is just too much going on for a single player to both understand and excel at both offense and defense. Every rep he takes on offense takes away from his understanding and ability to play ILB.

That said, let’s not forget he was a good player at Arizona, with a couple All-PAC10 selections (1 1st team, 1 2nd team) for what that’s worth. His selection by the Broncos was a bit odd, unless you believe the rumor that Shanahan was thinking of shifting the defense to a 3-4 as well and was probably stocking the pantry with players who could make the shift. I’d like to see Larsen compete for the ILB job, but I’m not so comfortable with him as the anointed starter. Perhaps after he wins the job on his own…

http://cfn.scout.com/2/709892.html

Clearly subjective but Spencer Larsen was ranked third best “player” in Pac-10 football. Look at some of the names he was ranked above. A very talented list.

I recall seeing this and getting excited at getting him as a 6th round prospect.

I certainly understand the difference in the playing levels but S.L strikes me as a good example of a talented football player whose measurables don’t back up the story. Love to see him start. Let’s see what he can do.

I’m a big backer of Larsen. I like what the kid brings to the field in terms of energy and smarts. As someone else alluded to I see raw talent there, too.

During the Atlanta game two years ago he looked stout. And didn’t he also play in the game after that and do well? I can’t remember who they played. But IIRC he had two good looking consecutive games in which he played.

back when he replaced We….. Web….. , back when he subbed at MLB in late 2008

Yeah bro, that’s pretty much how I fell about that “guy”, as well. LOL! Yikes….

getting a shot at the vacant ILB spot. Give the man one postition to focus on and I believe he’ll excell at it. For two years now he’s been a utility player on the roster. To be a utility player in the NFL, or any sport for that matter, you have to have some versatility and be willing to learn multiple positions. Larsen has done that very well when he isn’t hurt. Given the chance to focus on just one postion, well I think you’ll see a very talented ILB in Larsen. Now is that the answer to fill the spot, only time will tell.

          Already to many injuries for Spencer Larson and the Bronco’s can’t afford to have anyone who is undersized at this position. Draft a Middle Linebacker like McCallister from Alabama and let him learn the position.The position is importa nt and they need a guy who is a Middle Linebacker/Lineman. At this position a player must be able to hold their ground.The middle linebacker must take on O- linemen all the time.I don’ think Spencer Larson is big enough and can handle the assignment.Please draft a player for this postion. Thank You

is the typical UofA Wildcat alum. He’s classy, sharp and goes all out every time he laces em up. We’re lucky to have him and he will help make this defense a solid unit.