There are certain linebacker evaluations where the first thing that shows up is size. There are others where the first thing that shows up is speed. With Brandon Lockley Jr., the more interesting part of the evaluation is how those things have come together over time.
This is not simply a big high school linebacker who has always lived in the box and overwhelmed smaller players. Lockley’s background matters. He was a strong safety as a freshman, and that is still visible in the way he projects. He has grown into a legitimate linebacker frame, but his game still carries some of the movement patterns, spatial comfort and coverage awareness of a player who did not begin his football life as a traditional downhill-only linebacker.
That is what makes this commitment so intriguing for Oregon.
