Now that NFL rosters are pretty much finalized (besides numerous upcoming cuts of course), it's time to start giving you guys an idea of how your team is shaping up for next season. What better way to do that than to start power ranking the starters at every position on each roster? It only makes sense.
Up next? The outside linebackers currently playing in a 3-4 defense (aka a star-studded list)......
Ultimate Football Blog's
2015-16 Pre-Season Position Rankings
3-4 Outside Linebackers
KEY NOTE: This is a POWER RANKINGS. That means it's a "what have you done for me lately?" list. This is not an ALL-TIME greatest list. If the NFL commissioner came up to me tomorrow and said:
"Hey, you can have any starting outside linebackers currently playing in a 3-4 defense....who do you want?"
It would (most likely) go in this order.......
(PS: PFF grade means "Pro Football Focus Grade". For those of you who don't know, ProFootballFocus.com is an football analytics website that grades players based on a certain criteria and it's a criteria that I've come to love. It's a pretty simple grading formula to figure out as well. The more negative score the player has, the least effective he was on-the-field last season. For example a "-24.8" grade would be absolutely awful, but a "24.8" grade means the player was outstanding. See, I told you it was easy to figure out)
*Please note that I'm also ranking guys as if I was building a franchise for the future. Therefore, I tend to favor age a lot in these rankings. It's why the Indianapolis Colts traded Peyton Manning when they drafted Andrew Luck. In the NFL, age is KING!
36. Alex Okafor (Arizona Cardinals)
Age: 24
Career Tackles: 31
Career Interceptions: 1
Career Forced Fumbles: 0
Career Sacks: 8
2014-15 PFF Grade: -12.1