Can linebacker Kyle Van Noy build upon last week’s strong Preseason showing?
Former B.Y.U. linebacker Kyle Van Noy has much to prove entering his 3rd NFL season. After coming into the league with a great deal of hype, Van Noy failed to show the same athleticism and ability during his pro career thus far. The word out of Lions camp early on was that Van Noy has been making significant progress. He even earned praise from the coaching staff, who had taken notice to the work Van Noy has been putting in. The casual fan took that knowledge with a grain of salt and many are taking a wait-and-see approach. It’s not that fans don’t believe it, it is the fact that a 2nd-round pick going into his third season SHOULD be playing well. Finally last week, we got to see Van Noy against actual NFL competition when the Lions defeated the Steelers in the Preseason opener.
The results were positive, as we saw Van Noy lead an undermanned linebacking core. The most noticeable difference was the speed at which he played with. Coming out of college, his strength was lining up on the edge in that hyrbid, defensive end/linebacker role. He flew around the ball with speed and power, often harassing opposing quarterbacks. The Lions run a 4-3 scheme, something that isn’t ideally suited for Van Noy’s 3-4 skill-set. They’re asking him to drop in coverage and do things he wasn’t asked to do in college. This, along with injuries, have held him back early in his career. Finally, sitting behind DeAndre Levy and Tahir Whitehead, it seems Van Noy has learned from the team’s veterans and may finally be putting it all together.
He finished the game with three impressive solo tackles, but it was the confidence he played with that stood out more than anything. We always hear about how much faster the NFL game is and how hard it is to adapt to it. For Van Noy, it was adjusting to the overall speed as well as trying to learn a new scheme. He hadn’t been able to use his size and power because he was thinking too much, seemingly always a step slow in reacting to the play. Against Pittsburgh, we saw him flying around the ball with confidence and diagnosing plays. I don’t want to get ahead of myself since this was just Preseason and the Steelers sat two-time Super Bowl champion Ben Roethlisberger and the league’s top wide receiver in Antonio Brown.
Van Noy is my player to watch this week because the Lions are extremely thin at the linebacker position. They even moved rookie Antwione Williams over to the weak side because of the onslaught of injuries they have sustained at the position in recent weeks. Van Noy was probably already going to get a good amount of playing time with DeAndre Levy likely out until the regular season opener. Now, with injuries to Jonathan Bostic, Josh Bynes and Khaseem Greene in concussion protocol, we may get to see extended playing time for Van Noy. If he can deliver another good showing against the Bengals, it will go along way in determining his role this season. He still needs to improve against the pass but it was no question a step in the right direction for a player that hasn’t lived up to the hype thus far. Keep your on eye on Van Noy tomorrow night.