Analytics love Denver Broncos UDFA LB Joe Dineen

Denver Broncos undrafted free agent linebacker Joe Dineen has a tall task ahead of him if he wants to make the team, but analytics love him.

No one loves a good deep dive into a talented undrafted free agent more than me, but I have to admit that upon first watch, I was underwhelmed with what I saw from Denver Broncos UDFA linebacker Joe Dineen.

There’s a much bigger body of work than what I saw, and there are other factors that contribute to this as well, but Dineen seems like a very similar ‘type’ of player as Josey Jewell, though I feel like Jewell has a much more refined skill set even at similar points in their careers.

Dineen, a tackling machine from Kansas, was not picked despite racking up 382 tackles in college, 42 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks, six pass breakups, and an interception.

He played inside linebacker for the Jayhawks, was a second-team consensus All-American this past season, has been a team captain, led the FBS in tackles and tackles per game in 2017, and set a Kansas record with 25 tackles for loss two years ago.

His coaches love him, and rightly so. He is described as a player who never wants to come off the field, even for special teams.

If he’s going to ‘never’ come off the field in the NFL, Dineen will have to prove he can develop in coverage.

Because of the way NFL teams are trending offensively, it’s not quite as valuable to have guys come in who are strictly what we’ve known as ‘two-down’ linebackers, or guys you want on the field when the trend is to run first, pass second.

A lot of teams are moving away from that philosophy and may see a defensive personnel grouping with a linebacker duo of, let’s say Dineen and Jewell, as an opportunity to fire up a quick-strike passing attack right out of the gates.

If those guys can’t cover well enough, they have to come off the field and ultimately you lose the advantage you wanted from them in the first place.

Despite Dineen’s perceived lack of coverage abilities, analytics absolutely love him. Pro Football Focus has been tweeting about this guy since he was signed.

Obviously with what I saw in some of the videos that are up on YouTube of this guy, I didn’t see enough. These grades, trends, and stats are too good for Dineen to have played poorly — truly poorly — on a consistent basis.

Like Josey Jewell, Dineen relies on instincts rather than pure athleticism to make plays.

Even though fans seem to think Jewell is some kind of hack in coverage, having seen him make a number of good plays in coverage last year and watching him make great plays in zone coverage all throughout his career at Iowa, I’m here to dispell the rumors that he can’t do it.

I don’t have the same kind of intimate knowledge of Dineen’s college career, but he does make plays in the running game at an incredibly high rate and can live behind the line of scrimmage if he needs to.

If Dineen is able to hold up in coverage, not only is he going to make the Broncos but he’s going to push someone out of a job. Obviously, analytics really seem to think his game is translatable and the Broncos paid him a nice bonus to come and compete for a roster spot.

If he’s able to do that, I’m all for it. The Broncos obviously didn’t draft a linebacker this year, but they did pick up Dineen after the draft and had they gotten him with a sixth or seventh round pick, I think people would be really excited about the move.