7 plays that should get you excited about Chargers LB Drue Tranquill

The Chargers were in need of shoring up the linebacker room after being hit hit with three season-ending injuries in 2018. They did that early on this offseason by bringing back Denzel Perryman and adding Thomas Davis through free agency, but the team wasn’t done there.

A month later, Los Angeles kicked off Day 3 of the 2019 NFL draft by landing former Notre Dame product Drue Tranquill with the No. 131 overall selection in the fourth-round.

It was a rough patch early on in his collegiate career, suffering two torn ACLs during his 2014 and 2015 seasons. Tranquill didn’t let that set him back. Instead, he rebounded from both and was one of the best at his position in the country, recording 250 tackles, 21.5 tackles for loss, five sacks, nine passes defensed and four fumble recoveries in a two-year span.

Tranquill, a two-time captain, started out as a safety at for the Fighting Irish, moved to outside linebacker, and then finished at inside linebacker. So far since his transition to the NFL, he’s been easily picking up the pace of the league. He was among the standouts at rookie minicamp and is already be praised by the coaching staff.

Linebacker is a crowded position group for the Bolts, which makes it a challenging road for Tranquill to crack the starting lineup during his rookie season. But knowing how L.A. favors sub-packages and there being a possibility of someone going down, there’s a great chance that we can see him on the field sooner than later aside from special teams.

With that, we illustrated seven plays that Tranquill will bring to the Chargers:

Coverage

Tranquill is adept in turn and run coverage. He uses his hands very well to jam tight ends at the line of scrimmage and quickly flip his hips to carry them up the field vertically.

Tranquill shows the ability to quickly react when routes are in his zone.

Physicality

Tranquill is a physical head up tackler, wrapping up to finish and bring his opponent to the ground.

Football Intelligence

Tranquill is phenomenal at locating the football, trusting what he sees and playing fast and confident to make plays.

Competitive Toughness

Tranquill possesses enough pop in his hands to stack and shed to make plays on the football.

That same competitive toughness was evident even when blitzing. Tranquill showcases plus timing and reaction when shooting gaps and won’t be afraid to try to bully his way to get to quarterbacks or running backs.

Range

Even though he isn’t the best athlete or isn’t the most explosive player, he takes the right angles when he is in pursuit to ball carriers.

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