Jake Ryan, 2015 Fourth Round Pick

[3irty1]

Passing on Alec Ogletree in 2013 had to have been a lot harder for Ted than passing on any of the ILB talent in this draft.

Its not the sexy madden move you'd drool over but there's no ILB at pick #30 I like better than Jack Ryan at #129. Part of the collective groan in this thread is that fans can already tell he's going to easily take the job and boringly make the routine stuff look routine. If we're being honest with ourselves we're all annoyed because we can just see him clogging up the next decade being that guy you'd love to upgrade but somehow always finds a way to win his job every year. There's certainly no corner at #129 who I'd trust to not lose games so in that respect I think this turned out rather nicely. I just wish we could have gotten one or two more guys like Jack to injury proof the position so we can keep Clay outside where he has a chance of being worth his paycheck.

And while there is nothing about Jack that's boner worthy there is some stuff to get excited about. He seems to find the ball quicker than Hawk ever did at ILB. You never see running plays go through his gap a la Poppinga. Best of all, the man's tough as shit which we're going to need after losing Hawk. He tore is ACL in the spring and was back playing football in October. That's insane. Also he's old for a rookie at 23 so a decade of reliable mediocrity is probably pushing it.

[vince]

Passing on Alec Ogletree in 2013 had to have been a lot harder for Ted than passing on any of the ILB talent in this draft.

Its not the sexy madden move you'd drool over but there's no ILB at pick #30 I like better than Jack Ryan at #129. Part of the collective groan in this thread is that fans can already tell he's going to easily take the job and boringly make the routine stuff look routine. If we're being honest with ourselves we're all annoyed because we can just see him clogging up the next decade being that guy you'd love to upgrade but somehow always finds a way to win his job every year. There's certainly no corner at #129 who I'd trust to not lose games so in that respect I think this turned out rather nicely. I just wish we could have gotten one or two more guys like Jack to injury proof the position so we can keep Clay outside where he has a chance of being worth his paycheck.

And while there is nothing about Jack that's boner worthy there is some stuff to get excited about. He seems to find the ball quicker than Hawk ever did at ILB. You never see running plays go through his gap a la Poppinga. Best of all, the man's tough as shit which we're going to need after losing Hawk. He tore is ACL in the spring and was back playing football in October. That's insane. Also he's old for a rookie at 23 so a decade of reliable mediocrity is probably pushing it.

Good post as usual 3irty1. He doesn't look like the sideline-to-sideline playmaker many of us were hoping for (and the Packers don't appear to have) but he'll help improve the position and that may well be all they need. I'm coming around quickly on how scheme can mesh with the personnel.

In nickel/dime situations, which we know is a majority of snaps, they'll only have one of the group of ILB's on the field anyway. Hyde, Burnett, Dix, and quite possibly even Richardson, Rollins, et al can play in the box and cover better than any ILB while holding their own against the run, draws, screens, etc.

[pbmax]

On the plus side, same article above rom Demovsky mentions he did his ACL rehab in 6.5 months. So that might argue for his not being fully up to speed in his first year post-surgery.