Frankie Luvu's versatility is the key to Commanders defense
Commanders linebacker Frankie Luvu provides much-needed physicality to Commanders defense.
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00:00If we look at our defense for the last how many years,
00:04has it been physical?
00:06So if you got a physical guy in that position
00:08that can also get after the quarterback,
00:10you know, he could probably do some different things
00:13other than just rushing the quarterback as well.
00:15He had what, 60 tackles on top of that
00:18early on in his career.
00:20I think the ultimate thing is having people
00:22that know how to play football.
00:25And part of football, no matter what the rules are today,
00:28what we think about it, it's still physical.
00:32And if you're not physical, you got a problem.
00:34So if you got somebody on your team
00:35that you think is gonna fit one of those leadership roles,
00:38they, if they're physical,
00:41what happens to the rest of the people behind them?
00:44I asked Dan Quinn, as Minicamp was wrapping up,
00:48you know, there's so much made about
00:52how he likes to use versatile pieces defensively
00:56and move them around and let people
00:59kind of be more than one thing.
01:00Whereas the last group of guys tended to
01:03just assign a role and never alter out of that.
01:05Like if you look at Forbes as this man corner
01:07getting torched against AJ Brown
01:10and like nobody thinks to change anything, right?
01:14I think Jamin Davis,
01:15they decided it was gonna be a middle linebacker
01:16and he wasn't and it really cost him his rookie season.
01:20He's played better since then.
01:21We're gonna talk about Jamin specifically,
01:23but I think this group tries to identify
01:26and then accentuate what players can do.
01:29Right.
01:30And I-
01:31Can you do more than one thing?
01:33And I thought Quinn's answer on Lou Vu,
01:38where he said, he's a guy that really stood out to me
01:42with a lot of different ability.
01:43And I don't think that surprised them.
01:45I think that's why they went out and targeted him.
01:47But I think Bobby Wagner has
01:52such a level of gravitas.
01:54I mean, this guy's gonna be a hall of famer.
01:55He's got a Superbowl ring.
01:57He was named to the 2010 all decade team.
02:00Like these are big deal things.
02:02Yeah.
02:04People have expectations for Bobby Wagner.
02:06They know the name from sea to shining sea.
02:09I don't think Lou Vu is a name a lot of people really know.
02:14You know, he played on really bad Panthers teams
02:16when he kind of started to emerge.
02:18He was a very small role player for the Jets
02:20as he broke into the league.
02:22I think Lou Vu has a chance to make kind of the biggest move
02:26of any player on the defensive side of the ball.
02:31Bobby Wagner is a guy who's already shown us
02:33what he's capable of and he still can play
02:35and he can lead the team.
02:37Frankie Lou Vu is a guy who is hitting that prime
02:39where you could probably get the best out of him
02:41and the most work.
02:42So I think you have guys, and as I said before,
02:47you can't have all old, all young.
02:49You need to have some young, some in between,
02:51and some old.
02:52Frankie is at that point where he's in between right now
02:54where he can take over this thing and become that leader
02:57when Bobby try to get close to the end of his rope.
03:01You know what I mean?
03:01So when he began to roll out,
03:03maybe the things he learns from Bobby,
03:05he can help now instill in somebody following him.
03:08Now you start to have that little circle
03:10going on with your team and you see things happen
03:13for a long period of time instead of just this year,
03:16couple games or whatever.
03:18You're trying to produce something
03:19that's gonna be lasting for a long time.