Buffs Film Room: How does Nate Landman fit into the NFL?

BOULDER — Nate Landman is NFL-bound.

Colorado’s All-American linebacker wrapped up his career in Boulder and has entered his name in the NFL Draft. Landman is likely to here his name called on Saturday, the third day of the draft, when team’s make their fourth- through seventh-round selections.

Landman is Colorado’s all-time third-down stops leader, as well as ranking fifth all-time in tackles, second in solo tackles and sixth in tackles for loss. He is the third Buffalo ever to record 10 or more tackles per game in three consecutive seasons. He was a two-time first-team All-Pac-12 performer and made the second team twice, too.

We took a look back at Colorado’s game against Texas A&M to show what Landman will provide to his NFL team. The Aggies had a handful of NFL prospects on their offense and probably provided the highest level of competition that CU faced all season. The Buffs’ shut down A&M’s rushing attack, allowing likely top-100 pick Isaiah Spiller 20 yards on eight carries in his worst performance of the season. Landman’s 10 solo tackles tied for his most all season and his two tackles for loss were his second-best mark.

Here’s what you need to know about Landman as a draft prospect:

He’s a run-stuffer

If you’re drafting Nate Landman, it’s because you’re looking for somebody who can neutralize an opponents running game between the tackles.

Landman is one of the best pure tacklers in the nation and his instincts and understanding of the game are right up there with anybody. He’s sheds blocks easily and rarely misses tackles. He has pop in his pads, too. Between the tackles, Landman is as clean of a prospect as you’ll find.

Let’s start with a clip from early in the game. Tight end Jaylen Wydermyer, a legitimate pro prospect, throws a lead block for Spiller but Landman puts him on his back and takes down the runner.

What a play.

A couple of minutes later, two linemen get their hands on Landman but he brushes them off and makes another tackle.

Landman’s ability to get off of blocks is one of his major selling points, but his ability to bring down ball-carriers quickly after he sheds those tackles is underrated. We talk a lot about quarterbacks who can make off-platform throws but Landman makes a bunch of off-platform tackles. Landman’s strength and natural feel for tackling—which probably comes from his rugby background—allows him to reach out and pull down runners even when he doesn’t have the time or space for a form tackle.

Here he is disengaging with a blocker by falling backward and to the side, which leaves him in perfect position to take down the ball-carrier.

The big hits in the hole are what come to mind when you think of Landman, but these are the kinds of tackles that helped Landman become the second-leading solo tackler ever at CU. The bottom line is that the ball-carrier almost always wound up on the ground if he was near Landman.

Just for fun, here’s Spiller trying to throw a lead block on Landman. The running back knows he’s overmatched and tries to chop Landman down, but Landman throws a little side step and makes the play.

A&M threw a speed option at the Buffs later in the game with Landman serving as the quarterback’s read. If Landman commits to the quarterback, the quarterback pitches the ball to Spiller. If Landman commits to Spiller, then the quarterback keeps it. It’s an easy way to take the best run defender out of the play… in theory.

But Landman plays it perfectly and bottles the run up.

Just look at how perfect this positioning is. Landman can meet the running back at the line of scrimmage or stay in the hole and hit the quarterback, who knows he’s absolutely screwed because there is no right answer.

Landman is also a high-motor player. Even if he’s on the other side of the formation, he’ll still run in pursuit just in case something goes awry. Here’s an example of Landman chasing a play down from behind.

If you’re looking to poke holes in Landman’s run defense, you’d point to his range. The reason he isn’t a first-round pick is his lack of speed. His 4.86 40-yard dash time is about what we expected, though he says he tweaked his hamstring early in the run, and it ranked 22nd out of 23 linebackers at the combine.

Here’s an example of where that lack of speed catches up to him:

The Aggies hit a speedy back in the backfield on the wide side of the field and Landman didn’t have the speed to intercept him. Very few linebackers can make that play. And matters were made worse by the hold that helped the runner get the edge easily. But the sideline-to-sideline range remains one of Landman’s weaknesses.

The caveat here is that the hashmarks are narrower in the NFL and that 100-foot sprint from one hashmark to the far sideline will be a little under 90 feet, which will cover up this weakness slightly.

Here’s another example of the lack of range. Landman is either spying the quarterback or playing the hole in Cover 1, and he tries to mirror the quarterback as he rolls out of the pocket. Landman just about brings the quarterback down before he reaches the sticks, but doesn’t drag him down quite quickly enough.

The problem on this play wasn’t the lack of speed; the tackle just wasn’t quite clean enough. Still, if Landman was a step faster, he would’ve given himself for margin for error on the tackle.

Landman might be the best run stuffer between the tackles in this class, but his lack of sideline-to-sideline range makes him just a good run defender on the perimeter. Overall, it would be tough to find more than a handful of guys you’d like better defending the run in this class.

He found a role on third downs

The lack of elite speed limits Landman in coverage, as well. He’s not the type of athlete you line up one-on-one with NFL running backs and wide receivers.

But while Landman has his limitations in pass defense, Colorado was able to carve out a role for him.

Instead of asking him to play man-to-man or cover large areas in a zone system, the Buffs ran a Cover 1 system that used Landman to his strengths. The Buffs played man across the board but left a safety deep in the middle of the field and Landman in the middle underneath to help out. The corners funneled everything to the inside. Landman didn’t have to turn and run with freaky athletes, he just had to defend the middle of the field sort of like a soccer goalie.

Watch how Landman reads the quarterback’s eyes and helps to defend the pass.

That’s a catch if the receiver wasn’t so concerned about getting crushed by Landman across the middle of the field.

Here’s another example of the same thing. Landman quickly recognizes the slant pattern that A&M is running and jumps into the right spot. He knows there’s a second slant coming from his left and sees the slot slant coming from his right and puts himself in position to defend both.

Those same smarts also show up when he’s playing man-to-man, which is rare.

In this next clip, the Buffs run the same coverage concept but tweak the roles to try to get a jump on the Aggies. Landman covers the running back one-on-one and knows that Carson Wells is playing a zone in the middle of the field. That means Landman just can’t get beat outside. Landman gets wide to prevent anything to the sideline and funnels the play in toward Wells, forcing the quarterback to look downfield.

Here he is playing a more true zone role than the Cover 1 hole role we covered above. The Buffs drop eight in coverage with three defenders deep and five across just short of the sticks. Landman reads the quarterbacks eyes and just about makes a game-changing play.

Is Nate Landman coverage good in coverage? No.

Can you build a role for him that he will succeed in? Absolutely.

But teams don’t want players they have to cover for, they want players who help cover up other problems.

He’s been banged up

The other red flag on Landman’s resume is his injury history.

Landman’s 2020 campaign ended in the second-to-last game of the season with a torn Achilles, which he rehabbed over the offseason before returning to the starting lineup in Week 1 of the 2021 season.

Then, Landman sustained a shoulder injury that knocked him out of the last five games of his final season. He put up 20 reps of 225 on the bench press at this Pro Day, though, which should quell concerns about that recovery.

Draft prospects undergo physicals at the NFL combine but the results aren’t published, although they sometimes leak. While Landman seems to have recovered, the NFL may have found some lingering issue that will hurt his stock on draft day.

Where does that leave us?

Nate Landman projects as a solid two-down thumper in the trenches but the big question is whether he has the athletic ability to play all three downs in the league. Regardless, his intangible traits—like his instincts, knowledge of the game and general smarts—will help him maximize whatever opportunity comes his way.

Middle linebackers in the NFL hold extra responsibilities that can be downplayed during draft season. The middle linebacker is the quarterback of the defense. While pure football traits like strength and speed are important, so is the ability to think the game and read what an opponent is going to do before the play happens.

The middle linebacker is typically the defender who has the capability to communicate with the sideline via a radio signal in his helmet. He’s typically in charge of relaying plays to the defense. That’s important in this case, because you don’t want to take that guy off the field often (e.g., on third downs).

If Landman can prove he’s a high-end run-stuffer on first and second downs, his smarts will show and he’ll be in the running for the middle linebacker responsibilities.