Is Rolando McClain the new Ray Lewis? An All-22 look.

Through the injuries of Ray Lewis the past few seasons we’ve gotten a bit of a preview of the Ravens defense post-Ray.  There were mixed results with recent fill-ins Dannel Ellerbe and Jameel McClain doing an admirable job while fighting through injuries themselves.

But it appears the Ravens are not convinced Josh Bynes, Jameel McClain, and Courtney Upshaw provide enough skill, health, and/or depth at a position of perennial strength so they’ve decided to address it pre-draft.

The Ravens have taken a flyer on former Round 1 draft pick Rolando McClain in an attempt to extract his football skill and discard his off-the-field transgressions.  So before the draft, where do the Ravens stand with their new middle linebacker?  Because it would be immensely unfair to compare Ray Lewis’ career to Rolando McClain’s, we’ve decided to go forward with the (possibly farfetched) assumption that Rolando will fill-in for Ray and try to look at how McClain stacks up to Ray Lewis’ last couple seasons.

Let’s look at the measurables

Ray Lewis was 6’1 and weighed in around 245 in the last few years of his career.  For a downhill run-stuffer Ray was a bit undersized.  Rolando McClain on the other hand, was not difficult to spot while watching tape.  He is a big 6’3, 255 lbs and compares more closely to Brain Urlacher (6’4, 258) than Ray Lewis.

Versus the run

Oakland struggled on defense last year (31st best defense according to the Gridironrank.com DPS stat), and as we all saw, the Ravens dropped 55 on them last year.  Oakland preferred to play a particularly vanilla Tampa-2-based 4-3.  Within this system Rolando McClain played the run well as the scheme filtered inside runs toward him and the defensive line regularly took up two O-lineman.

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This is a similarity to Ray Lewis that we can agree on; both linebackers excelled with stout defensive lines in front of them.  Unfortunately when this structure breaks down, McClain is exposed.  For a man his size, he doesn’t handle second-level lineman very well and it doesn’t help that his hand usage is poor.  Shedding blocks and making tackles was a strong spot for Lewis and it marks a big difference between him and McClain.

While we’re talking about differences, McClain doesn’t move laterally very well.  He has stiff hips and prefers to thump in the inside rather than run from sideline to sideline.  This is a clear problem when he faces zone-blocking rush plays.  Lewis is known in Baltimore for stretching down the line and pulling down running backs before hitting the edge.

Another huge advantage pointing toward Lewis is his pre-snap recognition.  Lewis was almost clairvoyant in his play diagnosis. Remember this?

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Play recognition didn’t seem to be a strength of McClain.  He was very much of a read/react type of linebacker after the snap.  McClain too often appears to have his feet in cement while everyone else begins to move toward the play-side.  This hampers his lateral movement and hurts him when he takes on blocks.  This passive stance also makes McClain a liability in pass coverage…

Versus the pass

The similarities between 37 year-old Ray Lewis and 23 year-old Rolando McClain begin with pass-coverage capability.  And this is not the aspect of Lewis’ game that you want to be compared to.  Poor hip movement and slow feet make McClain susceptible to underneath pass routes from tight ends and running backs.  Below is an extreme example:

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Because of his limited pass coverage ability, the Raiders often chose to play basic zones (Tampa-2, Cover-3).  Oakland eventually thought better of this and simply took McClain out on most third-down attempts.  Ravens fans can breathe easier knowing that McClain will not likely stay in during pass downs like Lewis did.  Let’s hope this is the case because McClain is not the answer to covering tight ends or running backs with speed.

Pass rush

Because the Raiders leaned heavily on their Tampa-2 scheme, they rarely blitzed in general.  Within this low percentage of blitzes, McClain had his number called less often than most.  His blitz opportunities were almost exclusively via the “green-dog” technique (rush if your man-coverage responsibility stays in to block).  He does this better than I expected:

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Ray Lewis was not much of a blitzing linebacker either but Lewis did do a good job setting up blockers to open up seams for other players to attack.  From what I saw, McClain was never called upon to do this.

Can McClain be the next great Ravens leader?

This possibility is extremely remote.  Game film can tell you very little about the leadership skills of a player but you can gather bits and pieces.  Rolando McClain is not a “blue-collar” or “work-horse” type.  It was very disheartening to see a player of his physical stature jogging on run plays to the outside, lethargically dropping into intermediate zones, and rarely working a counter-move when his first block-shed attempt failed.  It may be a damning assumption but he looks like a player that had so much success in his career before coming into the league that he doesn’t have a second gear to really play to his ability.  But hey, its still possible that his apathy is a product of the Oakland system.  They don’t call it the Black Hole for nothing.

In conclusion

McClain never stood a chance when being compared to Lewis.  We all knew this.  The bottom-line is that McClain is a down-hill run stuffer who still needs to improve on hand usage and play recognition.  He is the epitome of a two-down-linebacker in this league.  All hope isn’t lost with this player though.  The coaching staff in Baltimore has a much better track record than the one in Oakland and McClain undoubtedly has the raw ability of a future contributor.  Worst case scenario? The Ravens miss out on $700,000.  Not too bad for a recent Top-10 draft pick.

Hey everyone–we are Chris Worthington (@BSLChrisW) and Dan Bryden (@BSL_Bryden), two good friends and past college roommates as well as avid Ravens fans. We have been using the new All-22 Coaches film to try to get a closer look at the Ravens this year. We hope you enjoy it, and we STRONGLY encourage you to leave comments or questions in the forum–one of our primary goals when we decided to start writing was to foster conversation.