ALBANY — Bryan Kehl insists he is the strongest linebacker on the team and yet he knows he is far from the toughest. In fact, at a position where players regularly offer macho characterizations of their style, Kehl flashes a wide smile and admits he’s not all that physical.
This is the favorite to be the starting weak-side linebacker on opening day?
“I wasn’t a physical force last year. The coaches told me that and I realized that,” Kehl said recently at training camp at the University at Albany. “I knew coming out of college that was one of my weaknesses, that I don’t play physical football. That’s something I’m addressing this year.”
Non-physical linebackers, like non-accurate quarterbacks or meek offensive linemen, are endangered species. The Giants sought outside help when they leaped into free agency by signing Michael Boley from the Falcons, guaranteeing $11 million of his five-year, $25 million deal. He was imported to start at weak-side linebacker, but he will miss all of training camp following hip surgery. And, even if he’s ready, he will not play in the regular-season opener because he has been suspended for one game by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for violating the league’s personal conduct policy, stemming from a domestic-abuse arrest last year in Atlanta.
A position in flux all of last season is again unsettled. Kehl and oft-injured Gerris Wilkinson, entering his fourth season, are battling for the starting job, with utility linebacker Chase Blackburn an option if the other two falter.
“We don’t want to give anybody the impression the job is theirs,” said defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan, who certainly knows the players involved, having coached linebackers last season. “We want to make it very competitive.
“All those guys have strengths but none of them have ever nailed down a starting position.”
After nearly a week of practice Kehl — a fourth-round pick out of BYU who started two games and appeared in all 16 as a rookie last season — appears to be the favorite. On the first day in full pads, he had his best practice, holding up at the line of scrimmage and showing his athleticism by tracking Brandon Jacobs on a pass route down the right sideline and then casually deflecting Eli Manning’s pass harmlessly to the grass.
“Coach Sheridan told me come in and have the mindset I’m going to go in and win the starting spot,” Kehl said. “I just want to fly around and hit people. That’s something I need to improve upon and I think I have.”
Engaging, personable and well-groomed, Kehl has star-in-the-making qualities. At 6-foot-2 and a sculpted 237 pounds, he wouldn’t look out of place on glossy magazine pages modeling clothes. He was an outside linebacker in a 3-4 alignment at BYU and says he bench presses 430 pounds, making him the strongest linebacker on the team — for what that’s worth.
“Antonio Pierce and Danny Clark were probably our most physical linebackers last year and they probably bench the least,” Kehl said. “It’s not about what you bench. If you would have asked any of the coaches, they would have said I was the least physical. It’s not strength, it’s a mindset. In college, I was not a physical, bash-’em, smash-’em linebacker; I was more of a speed, quickness, agility, finesse, shake blockers rather than run through them and it worked for me. I made a lot of plays in college doing that.
“Even my colleges coaches told me I needed to be more physical. I’m just trying to change my mindset this year. This is the NFC East, man. There’s a time when you can skirt a block, there’s a time when you need to put your helmet in his throat and go through him.”