Most Interesting Prospects: UCLA linebacker Kain Medrano

I’ve noticed a tendency about myself as The Power Sweep and Blue 58 have evolved. Sometimes, maybe even often, I’ll find myself arrested by an idea that then dominates my one-man discourse on football until I find the next idea that occupies my brain. For a while, that means most of my coverage gets filtered through that idea, which could be good or bad, depending on the quality of the idea.

Last season, I felt like I was talking about Bill Walsh’s idea of all football being situational every other podcast. I had to institute a soft ban on myself to avoid burning out what I think is a good and valuable idea. All football is situational, but that doesn’t mean that all podcasts need to focus on situational football.

This spring, I find myself stuck on the ideas of positions in football being mostly imaginary. I did a whole show about this recently, and the more I think about it, the more it becomes the only thing I can see when looking at the draft. I find myself fascinated with the edge cases in this year’s draft — guys that aren’t quite linebackers but aren’t quite safeties, cornerbacks with inside/outside versatility, wide receivers that look like tight ends, defensive linemen that might be edge rushers, and quarterbacks that might be punters. That last one is made up, but the rest are big parts of my draft prep this season.

That all leads me to my pick for the linebacker in whom I am most interested this year: UCLA’s Kain Medrano.

I don’t know if I’m particularly interested in Medrano as a player, but as a concept he’s fascinating.

He’s not really built like a linebacker at all. A shade under 6-foot-3 and about 222 pounds, Medrano looks like a rangy safety more than a gap-filling linebacker. He runs like a safety, too, recording a blistering 4.44 time in the 40-yard dash.

He uses that speed to make plays all over the field. His 21.5 ballhawks (3.5 sacks, 3 interceptions, 10 passes defensed, 5 fumbles forced) are sixth most among the linebackers we looked at this year. And lest you think he’s just a coverage guy, note that he has 22 career tackles for loss to his name, including 11 in his final season as a Bruin.

I don’t know what all this adds up to as a prospect, but I’m fascinated by the idea of Medrano as a safety/linebacker hybrid. He’s got the skills to play like a linebacker and the body to run like a safety. That’s a useful skill set!

But is it enough to get him on the field for an NFL defense? That’s the real question, and I don’t know if the answer is going to be a good one. Jacks of all trades still need to be exceptional to make it in the NFL; “versatility” is not a primary attribute. I don’t know if Medrano is exceptional anywhere.

But as I fixate on positionless football, I can’t help but be intrigued by a guy who fits so neatly into that category. He’s already doing it at UCLA. Maybe he can be at the forefront of something new in the NFL.