Quote Originally Posted by leachisabeast View Post
Te'o may have a bad BCS game, but Kuechly played against lesser competition, while Te' was dominating against some of the top teams in America. Its also funny how you bring up "elite" sideline to sideline speed, because while Kuechly had a very average rookie year, Hightower has been lights out whenever he's been on the field, and a lot of people said that Hightower should drop weight, and said there's no way he could excel in a 4-3 scheme as a ILB, guess he proved everyone wrong this year.
LOL, because Kuechly didn't lead the entire freaking NFL in tackles this year to go along with 2 picks, a sack, 3 fumble recoveries, and 8 PD's. He had an insane year despite playing the first 4 games of the year out of position on the weak side. Kuechly is a stud, he had the best rookie year for a non-pass rushing LB I've seen since Brian Cushing in 09. In fact his game is very reminiscent of Brian Cushing, Kuechly might not be QUITE as good an athlete.

Hightower has been pretty good but the Patriots don't play him at ILB, they play him on the strong-side in their 4-3, where he doesn't have to go sideline to sideline. They also use him pretty much only as a pass rusher in their nickel package, Jerod Mayo and Brandon Spikes play more in coverage. I liked Hightower a lot when he came out but I didn't think he could play 4-3 Mike at all and I still don't. I think he could be a good 3-4 ILB just like Te'o but Kuechly is on another level, he can play any LB spot in the 4-3 as well as 3-4 ILB, and be elite (if he keeps playing at his current level or better.)