Second-year linebacker Arthur Brown has gone missing in action.
Earlier this offseason I had a chance to ask Ravens assistant general manger Eric DeCosta if drafting C.J. Mosley would result in Brown seeing even less playing time than he did in the 2013 season.
His response?
“Arthur Brown is going to make a huge jump and be a difference maker. A lot of people get frustrated by this but a lot of times guys don’t come out and play a lot as rookies. Arthur is explosive, aggressive, a little bit undersized,” DeCosta stated.
“He is going to fit into a lot of different packages this year. As good of a player as Daryl Smith is, he’s getting up there in age and that isn’t a knock on Daryl but we want depth at the position. If you look at the best defenses in football they share one quality, really good linebackers.”
But why exactly hasn’t Arthur Brown taken a defensive snap for the Ravens thus far this season, head coach John Harbaugh provided a bit of insight on Monday on that very question.
“I don’t want to get into all that. Arthur Brown is doing a great job, and he’s working hard. He’s just not active right now. If he were … If we could activate one more guy, two more guys, he’d be active.
“The league had a proposal on that, didn’t they? [The league] talked about going to 48 [active players], and that would be nice. I really don’t understand why we have so many guys who are on the roster in sweat suits on Sunday. I just don’t get it. But that’s the deal, so it becomes a situation [where you have to choose] this guy or that guy? And right now, it’s that guy in Arthur’s case.
“But he’s going to be fine. He’s playing well. All you have to do is turn on the preseason tape and watch him play. But then you turn on the preseason tape of the other guys and watch them play. In Arthur’s case, it comes down to a couple little phases that we think the other guys are a little better at right now, and Arthur knows that.”
Just exactly what exactly are the little phases that Brown is having trouble grasping?
Throughout the summer, Brown was sharing reps on the second/third string defense while Mosley saw most of the action on the first team defense and didn’t appear to perform too terribly bad.
Browns strong point of being stellar in pass protection was thought to be an upgrade this season over veteran Daryl Smith, yet it hasn’t translated to the field so perhaps that’s that is the issue. Or could it be that the second-year player is struggling with Dean Pees’ playbook.
The mystery remains for sure and after drafting Brown in the second round of the 2013 draft, the Ravens surely expected him to be further along.
In fact the former Kansas State linebacker has regressed and for someone who was thought by many to be worthy of a first round grade, he has yet to prove it on the practice field to the men who matter most.
The coaches!
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