Giants Film Room Anaysis: LB Micah McFadden

Nick Falato unravels the film on Giants fifth round pick Micah McFadden.

Round 5 (No. 146/from Jets) — Micah McFadden, LB, Indiana

Slightly undersized at 6’1 ⅛” with a good 240-pound weight and a solid compact frame with arms on the shorter side at 31 ¼”. McFadden was a versatile and productive linebacker for the Hoosiers; he played 1,881 career snaps and was used all over the defense in 2021: had 612 snaps in the box, 75 as an overhang, 51 at EDGE, and he played on punt coverage.

McFadden recorded 77 tackles, 15.5 for a loss, 6.5 sacks, 32 pressures, three passes defended, and a forced fumble in 2021. He ended his career at Indiana with 216 tackles, 36 for a loss, 14 sacks, 96 pressures, four interceptions, four passes defended, and two forced fumbles. He was a two-year captain for the Hoosiers.

McFadden is a solid athlete with excellent linear burst and solid overall speed/COD when redistributing his weight after breaking down and squaring himself to target. His speed and hustle coming downhill are good. He gets low with the ability to sink and bend around contact when penetrating. He has solid fluidity in space, good overall change of direction, and solid pursuit and lateral agility.

• Strengths: Football IQ, Burst/balance/leverage coming forward, Pressure ability, tackling in the box, Stopping power, Quick trigger downhill

• Weaknesses: Undersized, Shallow angles outside, Too patient--tunnel vision-- to stack & shed in box, struggled to consistently leverage run responsibilities against top competition (Ohio State/Michigan)

Run Defense

A solid overall run defender who is good at leveraging his gaps on outside zone/gap runs, and is solid inside the box. Has good key & diagnosing skills--he reads his keys and reacts well. McFadden is smart, often in position, and understands offensive rushing concepts and where he has to be to disrupt opposing rushing paths. 

However, he’s patient with his reads when static and not pressuring on DUO and inside zone blocks; the patience led to tunnel vision and OL over a bubble were able to climb and get into his chest quickly when he was too focused on the backfield. Has to be quicker with his hands.

Showed the ability to stack & shed--lowered center of gravity, sank hips, used his length, and carried good pop in his hands to disregard and replace--but he attempted to use his flexibility, solid lateral agility, and low nature to evade blocks more than taking them on. I had issues with his static ability to overcome climbing OL against Ohio State and Michigan. Tyler Linderbaum of Iowa climbed and drove McFadden into the ground on a Hawkeye touchdown run in 2021.

Very good adjustment ability when going forward and shooting gaps. Has an excellent quick trigger downhill and a great knack for circumventing blocks by maintaining a very low profile--with good bend--and a good ability to recollect his balance and locate ball carriers. He did a great job with his aiming points and timing when attempting to split double-teams.

Against outside zone, he used his good speed--he’s light-footed--and burst to range outside and scrape over the top of trash. Good feel to avoid contact and evade blockers when moving laterally.

Did a good job when on the move of dipping his inside shoulder and reducing the surface area of his cheat to avoid OL which overextended them at the waist

Did a solid job staying square to his target, and was good at positioning himself to box ball carriers inside. Solid overall range from the backside--solid in pursuit-- always hustling. Showed solid cut-back awareness.

Could improve his angle consistency when tracking ball carriers down the LOS; McFadden underestimated RBs who would bounce outside and outpace him, making his tackle attempt more difficult than it had to be.

Against Gap, his decisive nature to key his blocks allowed him to beat blockers to their landmarks; he was disruptive and typically in a good position to execute his assignment. He also would do a good job evading pullers to the play-side with his quick twitch and impede offensive play designs from the backside because of his processing and hustle.

Tackling

McFadden is a solid overall tackler with 50 missed tackles in college--a missed tackle rate of 19.2% Most of his missed tackles were to the outside where he took a shallow angle of pursuit and was eventually out-paced and stretched thin. The more space McFadden has to cover--to the field--the harder it is for him to corral faster backs--that’s why he only has solid overall range.

However, McFadden is still a solid overall tackler who hits low, wraps up, and has good play strength and pop to bring ball carriers down. As previously mentioned, he does well to position himself outside on C/D-Gap runs from a MIKE position - he has the speed and explosiveness to get to the landmark to box the ball-carrier inside; however, he leaves his feet into contact and over-pursues which isn’t the worst thing when containing.

He’s an excellent tackler in the box with the necessary play strength and competitive toughness to be effective in confined spaces. Had several big stops on the goal line in 2021, and he is excellent as a gap penetrator in run blitzes. He does a great job plugging gaps and getting skinny, driving his feet through contact with ferver. He’s solid in the open field, but there’s room for improvement (see earlier) and he has to take better angles when moving laterally to account for better athletes.

Pressure

One of my favorite parts of McFadden’s game is his ability to blitz and pressure the quarterback. He is lightning fast with excellent immediate acceleration and short-area burst. Flies into the LOS with excellent leverage and uses his purposeful violent hands to shock, left, or pry his way into the pocket.

He gets a bit antsy and tips his hand before the snap--could do a better job timing his blitz--but he is a wrecking ball coming downhill with authority. Is a hassle for RBs in pass protection to account for--can run through blocking attempts. Excellent job finding the correct blitz path and adjusting to the offense post-snap; has a natural feel on how to blitz.

Excellent in the twist game; was often used as a penetrator inside. Did an excellent job occupying multiple linemen and splitting OL while picking guards and knocking them back with excellent lower-leg drive and pop.

As a looper, he has a good bend to flatten--with no contact--and excellent body control to reorient his hips and maintain momentum into his targets. McFadden’s use of hands is solid for a linebacker coming forward. When used on the EDGE, he leverages his hand use by exploding low to high with power moves or incorporating double swipes to keep himself clean; his pass-rush moves on the EDGE are often starter with a stutter step to set OTs up.

Coverage

McFadden showed good spatial awareness in coverage and used good timing to pounce on quick game concepts in middle hook zones. He’s very smart in coverage and his football intelligence is excellent.

Wasn’t asked to drop much into the deep TAMPA-2 zone, but he did a marginal job carrying #2 WR Jaxson Smith-Njigba up the Seam--gained good depth in the zone initially and matched the route at the throw point. He was in position to make a play, but he misjudged the football and flipped his hips too early--but he was in a good location.

He could have better overall ball skills in the intermediate parts of the field, but his ability to quickly process concepts in zone and then react in a prompt manner allowed him to disrupt through lanes; he also played physically through the catch point, forcing incomplete passes.

Moves well going backward in zone drops with solid hip mobility for a LB. He’s sufficient with his movement skills, but shouldn’t be consistently relied on to carry more athletic tight ends vertically.

His recognition skills, combined with his short-area bounce, allow him to be an effective coverage linebacker in the short to intermediate parts of the field. A linebacker that can handle man coverage assignments out of the backfield and quick game concepts. McFadden could have an issue in man when moved into space on the boundary--something we see more often in today’s NFL.

Final thoughts

Micah McFadden possesses a very high football IQ and can align all over the second-level, and at EDGE in passing situations. 

He was a passionate leader of the Indiana Hoosiers. He’s an excellent tackler with great vision in-between the tackles; his patience works against him in the box and he wasn’t consistent with his effective stack & shed--it appeared he had tunnel vision reading into the backfield and was a tick slow to prepare for climbing contact at the second level.  If he can’t correct this, he may be better off stacked behind big DL (Dexter Lawrence, Justin Ellis, etc.) to help keep himself clean.

Several linebackers I studied through this process--some were unanimous Day 2 players--had no business taking on contact in the tackle box. They would always evade; McFadden can evade, but he doesn’t always have to. He has the physicality and the tape to suggest he can stack, shed, and replace. McFadden just has to be more consistent with engaging blockers and using that technique while reacting just a bit quicker once the linemen climb.

Has solid range to get outside and works well through trash to mitigate an impediment, but his angles of pursuit can improve; he takes shallow angles that make his tackling attempts more difficult. He’s a solid tackler overall with pop and good technique, just needs to close width more consistently.

Excellent penetrator who is a good athlete coming downhill with a low profile to bend and avoid blockers while packing a heavy punch and stopping power. Dangerous blitzing downhill, on twists (penetrator/looper), and plays with elite competitive toughness and solid hands to shed --relentlessness.

McFadden can drop into short-intermediate zones and his processing helps him diagnose quick game route concepts in a hasty manner. Plays through the catch point with good disruptiveness, and showed the ability to flip his hips when dropping into coverage.

Overall, McFadden may find his way onto the football field for a solid chunk of snaps early on in year one. Blake Martinez can be an excellent mentor for McFadden and they can both coexist and play interchangeably on the field. Tae Crowder struggled the last two years with positioning, reading his keys, and knowing when/how to leverage his gap. 

McFadden was good at that in college, despite some issues with late engagement on climbing linebackers--hopefully, he can maintain his processing while fixing some of the issues with engaging linemen a bit late. I like the player and the selection.

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