[sportscurmudgeon]

Brian Orakpo can become an All-Pro defensive player in the NFL - - but anyone who looked at his first pre-season game and used that single performance to make such an extrapolation jumped the gun by more than a little bit.

At Texas, Brian Orakpo played DE; but in the pass-happy Big 12, what he did on 80% of the snaps was to get after the QB. Against quality opponents, he got the QB about once a game.

Against the run, he really did not do all that well. Probably he never really worked on the techniques for run-stopping nearly as hard as he worked on his speed-moves to the QB, so there is every reason to suspect he can be taught how to play both aspects of defensive football. But until he stands up to an NFC East team running the ball at him over and over and over again and shows he can stop that run, he is a question mark for achieving "greatness" as a DE. Great DEs - - e.g. Reggie White, Too Tall Jones, Charles Mann, Michael Strahan - - stop the run AND they sack the QB.

Moving Orakpo to LB will alleviate the problem of taking on behemoth offensive linemen in the run game play after play, but it will create another thing for him to learn - - pass coverage. If he "comes" on every play that he is on the field, offensive coordinators will be dumping the ball into his vacated area a lot. It won't take them long to spot that trend. Remember how things unfolded when Lavar Arrington vacated the linebacker spot with his "freelancing"? The results are not always pretty. Brian Orakpo has to learn to cover pass routes. He is certainly athletic enough to learn; the question is how quickly will he learn.

Add either or both of these ingredients to his demonstrated capabilites - - and avoid injuries of course - - and you may see Brian Orakpo in the Pro Bowl in a couple of years...

Don't add either or both of these ingredients and you have a situational pass rusher and not much else.