Keith Butler

On LaMarr Woodley

Linebacker-Michigan

2nd Round — 46th Overall

 

Obviously this is a great day for me. We got two good football players, the outside linebacker, having the ability to play inside or outside. LaMarr Woodley is going to help us out quite a bit. We have two good outside linebackers here already. LaMarr is depth, this particular year, in addition to helping us with the pass rush on third downs. He'll take time with the transition, moving from defensive end to outside linebacker, but he has played outside linebacker before. Early in his career at Michigan he stood up. These last couple years he has played the defensive end position, but we feel good about it. I feel good about both of these guys.

 

Does this change anything with 1^st round pick Lawrence Timmons?

 

One of the main reasons that we took Lawrence, number one, he is a good football player and he has exceptional burst to the ball and he arrives with an angry mood. He will definitely light you up. We think he can play inside or outside. We always thought he was flexible as far as putting him on the line, taking him off the line or walking him out and doing these things that we sometimes ask our outside linebackers to do. He is athletic enough to be either inside or outside. Will it change? We will have to wait and see once we get into training camp. I'm going to try to teach him both the inside and the outside linebacker positions. This is going to be tough for him, but he can handle it mentally. Lawrence can handle it mentally. With LaMarr, we are going to put him at outside and keep him at outside. It is enough transition for him to stand up and recognize formations and do the stuff that we ask our outside linebackers to do in this defense.

 

Will you make Woodley an outside linebacker in the 3-4 or 4-3 defense?

 

We are sticking with the 3-4. We are going to play the 3-4 defense.

 

Will he play special teams?

 

Yes, both of these guys will. Both of them will help us quite a bit on special teams.

 

If you wanted to play a little 4-3, would Woodley play outside?

 

Our guys do that anyways, if you look at the third downs from the last few years, where we have put them in the three-point stance. Both Clark (Haggans) and Joey (Porter) played out of the three-point stance quite a bit last year. Woodley can put his hand on the ground; he has done it at Michigan. Again, at this point, we have no plans of going to the 4-3. I know everybody in here keeps talking about us going to a 4-3, but I haven't seen it yet. Hopefully they will tell the coaches before they tell y'all. We haven't heard about that yet.

 

  

This is more of the classic "tweener" that you have drafted in the past and I am more comfortable with this pick. Timmons is more of a square-peg in a round hole kind of guy. Did the selection of Timmons force you to make this pick?

 

No, it didn't. Actually, it gave us a little more flexibility. To be honest with you, it gave us freedom to go inside or outside with this next pick. We felt like Lawrence could play inside or outside. When you play outside linebacker in our sub-package, which would remain to be seen if he will do that, we felt like on third down, if we had Lawrence in there, we could still have a three-man line and move him around a little bit, much like we did Joey last year.

 

LaMarr won't be your right outside pass rusher, then?

 

We plan on playing LaMarr on the left side right now because he's a bigger guy, with the option of playing both sides because he played both sides in college. The thing I think we need to have is somebody that we can bring in on third down to spell Clark [Haggans] and James Harrison. I'm not going to be disloyal to the guys we've got here because they are both very good football players. They are going to be starters for us this year – Clark and James. These two guys are going to help us quite a bit. If you look at the history of this defense, it has been a rare occasion when a linebacker started as a rookie. Mainly because this defense is a little complex, more than they are used to in college.

 

So it's going to take some transition time for them to learn it and feel comfortable in it. And what I mean by feeling comfortable in it, that they will play fast. If you've got a linebacker thinking too much on the field, then he's not playing fast. And these two guys, probably the best thing they do is they are both very aggressive and they both play fast. The worst thing I could do to them as a coach is to make them slow down. And I don't want to do that.

 

Did you watch any tape of him from his sophomore year when he was a stand-up outside linebacker?

 

Yes I did. I watched some [tape] as a junior also. He had about 15 plays or 16 plays against Minnesota. I watched him there, too.

 

I was convinced that Woodley could play outside linebacker more so by his workout when we went to work him out at Michigan this spring. I wasn't sure about it because I hadn't seen him do it since he was a junior. We went and watched him do it. He stood up and did the linebacker drills, as well as they defensive line drills, and did well at them. He impressed me.

 

When he played at Michigan as a stand-up outside linebacker, did he just go forward?

 

No, he did not. He did a lot of the things that we do. Michigan's defense is very similar to ours. Over the years, the Michigan defensive coaches have come down here and gotten film from us and we've linked on all that stuff. So they have a lot of their – their defensive package is what we do. We're counting on that particular part of it for the transition of LaMarr.

 

You mentioned spelling Clark and James. Is that a philosophical shift? It seems like [Joey] Porter and [Clark] Haggans never really came off the field.

 

Yes, it's something that Coach LeBeau and I and Coach Tomlin think will benefit both those guys, especially late in the game, and probably help us in terms of the number of sacks. I think, and Coach LeBeau has probably talked about this already, if we can put a little bit more pressure on the quarterback with a strict four-man rush, it's going to help our secondary quite a bit.

  

Is part of the reason for doing that the fact that three of these four linebackers plan to play a lot on special teams?

 

Well, you'd have to talk to Mike about that, but I think Mike's philosophy on that is that special teams are the third phase of our team. It carries just as much importance as offense and defense. And that's just not empty words to Mike.

 

James Harrison is a vital contributor on our special teams so we want to keep him in that mold. But obviously, when you're a starter, you can't have him in that mold quite a bit. James will continue to play special teams, as will Clark, as will these two young guys. And they will help our special teams quite a bit as they learn the defense.

 

Do you see [Brett] Keisel doing a little more of that? He's been messing around at linebacker quite a bit.

 

Yeah. Brett has always been kind of our emergency outside linebacker if we lost too many in a game, or somebody got hurt or something like that. He's always had to learn the outside linebacker position. So he has a limited knowledge of our defense in terms of the outside linebacker. How much he'll play on special teams is going to be up to the special teams coach and [to] Mike.

 

Do you see him playing more outside linebacker in a non-emergency?

 

We're going to wait and let you see on that one. We have some thoughts about that. Coach Lebeau has come up with some stuff that is very interesting and we'll see how it does on the field.

 

Did it matter what you got today whether you use these packages?

 

It matters to me what we got today, that's for sure.

 

Concerning Keisel?

 

Concerning Keisel? Keisel will keep the same role in this defense. You probably need to speak to Coach LeBeau. I don't want to step on his toes. Coach LeBeau sees Brett as a guy that we can use in those terms, much like Baltimore has done. They move a lot of guys around and have some different guys rushing [from] different areas. We're going to look at [that]. This is a copycat league. You look at what has been successful in this league. Of course, if it's been successful, and you have the people to do it, then why not do it?

 

I think Keisel has been chomping at the bit at this. He's been more anxious about it than you have.

 

I know it. Brett obviously has been politicking with me and Coach LeBeau. We'll see what happens.