Kent Somers

azcentral sports

Chances are, Deone Bucannon always will be undersized for the position he plays – inside linebacker – but by the end of last football season, his weight bordered on ridiculous.

Bucannon weighed 209 pounds, which is not ideal when playing what the Cardinals call the $LB, or money linebacker.

“I feel like 209 pounds going against 300 pounders is probably not a good matchup,” he said.

So this offseason, Bucannon set about to gain weight and strength. Bucannon now weighs just under 220 pounds, and he hopes he can keep most of it on throughout the season.

In the process, he has become legendary among teammates for his prowess in the weight room and the size of his chest and arms.

RELATED: Arians: 'Loafing' players can bag groceries

“Deone could bench the world right now,” safety Tony Jefferson said. “He’s a beast.”

Kevin Minter, who plays inside linebacker next to Bucannon, also has remade his body over the last two years, dropping weight and lowering body fat.

But he doesn’t look like Bucannon. Asked how Bucannon does it, Minter smiled and asked, “Push-ups in his sleep?”

Spending an inordinate amount of time in the weight room isn’t new for Bucannon. It started when he was a sophomore at Washington State and realized it was going to be difficult to play safety at 169 pounds.

BICKLEY: Deone Bucannon is an NFL trendsetter

“I thought, ‘If this is what you want, you’ve got to dig down to get it. God blessed me with the ability to be here, so I can’t waste that,’ ” he said. “From then on, I kind of loved the weight room.”

It’s not easy for Bucannon to gain weight. Teammates marvel at Bucannon’s ability to eat whatever he wants without it showing up on the scale.

“He’s that dude you just get mad at because he can eat a hamburger and a Coke before practice and somehow lose weight,” Minter said. “Man, I smell chocolate and I’m 15 pounds heavier. I don’t like him.”

When the Cardinals drafted Bucannon in the first round in 2014, it was as a safety. That plan changed a few months later when inside linebacker Daryl Washington was suspended under the NFL’s substance abuse policy.

Todd Bowles, then the Cardinals' defensive coordinator, put together a package that moved Bucannon to inside linebacker, playing next to Larry Foote.

It didn’t take long for defensive coaches to realize they had hit upon something. A ferocious hitter, Bucannon was tough enough to defend the run, and he had the speed to cover running backs and tight ends in the pass game.

RELATED: David Johnson welcomes big expectations

In 2015, the Cardinals changed his position designation from safety to $LB, an acronym for “money” or “dollar” linebacker, take your pick. Bucannon started all 16 games there and led the team with 127 tackles.

Through Bucannon, Bowles started a trend in the NFL. The Rams use safety Mark Barron in the same way. At the scouting combine last February, team executives openly talked about finding a “Bucannon” in the draft.

“I kind of saw that,” Bucannon said, “but I feel there have been a bunch of other safeties who have led the way.”

Bucannon said former Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson is “the blueprint” for moving a safety close to the line of scrimmage. Bucannon also credited Seattle’s Kam Chancellor and former Steeler Troy Polamalu for leading the trend.

MORE: Cards sign Palmer, Fitzgerald to extensions

Those safeties, however, lined up at safety, too. Bucannon doesn’t. Bucannon can think of himself as a safety, and the Cardinals can list Bucannon as a $LB, it doesn’t change the fact that he’s an inside linebacker.

Not long ago, inside linebackers typically weighed in the 240 to 250-pound range. Today, those players are rare because they can’t match up against spread offenses. Asked if we’ve seen the last of the big, thumper type of inside linebacker, coach Bruce Arians said, “Only if they run a 4.4, and they’re coming, I’m sure.”

Not every big safety, however, can play inside. It takes intelligence and toughness, qualities the Cardinals believe Bucannon has in Costco-sized quantities.

“He hates to admit, but he’s a linebacker at heart,” Minter said. “His tenacity to just go knock something out, it’s a linebacker through and through.”