Nebraska Football: NFL Scouts Want Lavonte David at Safety?

Lavonte David is one of the best linebackers in Nebraska football history. So why are some scouts from the NFL talking about moving the star linebacker to safety?

David stands 6'1" and 225 pounds. NFL teams consider that to be too small to be an every-down linebacker in the NFL. David is small when you compare him to some of the NFL top linebackers. Ray Lewis is 6'1", just like David, but Lewis is 250 pounds.

So would the pounding that a NFL schedule takes a player’s body be too much for David to take? I don’t think so.

I know that safeties do not take the abuse that linebackers do in the NFL, but David is not a safety. He is extremely good at covering pass receivers, but playing the position of safety is a lot more than that.

I believe any team who drafted David with the intentions of moving him to the safety position would be making a mistake. David has the best knowledge of the game I have ever seen from a Nebraska linebacker and the Cornhuskers have had many talented linebackers in their history.

Trev Alberts won the Butkus Award for the best linebacker in College Football. He was the No. 5 overall pick in the 1994 NFL draft. In my opinion, Alberts was not as good as David.

David’s draft status will be decided this week at the NFL Combine where he will work out with the other linebackers. If David has a good workout, he could move up the draft boards and convince teams that he should stay a linebacker.

The most important skill a linebacker can possess is his ability to make tackles and David is a tackling machine. He holds the Nebraska single season record for tackles with 152. Any NFL team that overlooks his tackling ability, because of his size, would be making a mistake.

David will be passed over by teams in the NFL Draft, but when the draft class is evaluated three or four years in the future, I am sure David will be considered one of the steals, assuming the team that drafts him plays him at the linebacker position.

Follow me on Twitter @HuskerMagic