The hope: He plays well enough to give them confidence in relegating Niemann to the 11th circle of Hell.

The reality: Even if Bolton plays well, Niemann still gets snaps at his/Gay's expense.

Watching this guy again and he’s really starting to grow. He had another TFL as well as a “no gain” stop yesterday. That was after having 2 TFL’s last week. So he’s got 5 TFL’s in 6 games.

He’s our best tackler IMO. The guy knows how to wrap up and simply doesn’t miss often. And he is very smart. Watching him pre-snap he can tell the formation and what angles he’s gonna need.

No he’s no super athletic but playing in the middle doesn’t require that.

I think this guy was definitely a hit and will be a rock solid productive player for a long time. And again this is from someone who didn’t like the pick when it was made

It's a relatively low bar, but I feel like Bolton is our best linebacker right now.

Yep, I thought to myself that it looked like he was learning & reading plays faster than he was earlier this season.

I hope he continues and grows into a stud later this season or after next year's offseason.

He is, and it's not particularly close, primarily because Willie Gay isn't 100% yet.

He is a sure tackler, which is a breath of fresh air. Probably our surest tackler since.. idk, maybe Eric Berry back in 2016? Been a long time.

I just wish he was faster/more athletic.

Amazing how our defense looked 100x better with our our last three second round picks in starting roles.

Simply amazing.

I am amazed.

Wasn’t there some dumbass in here saying he was a shoestring tackler, not athletic and wouldn’t be very good?

Bolton looks like a quality starter for us. We need him badly.

Can we get 2 more LB's just like Bolton, please?

Who’s said that lol. Didn’t the dude lead the SEC in tackles one year?


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I believe that was Tribal Warfare.

He really is. It's clear that he's a football player and not an athlete trying to play football.

Bolton has never been a "shoestring tackler."

After reading back through the thread, this is the correct answer. To his credit at one point he said Bolton would be solid. Then went on to say up and down role player was his expectation and people were stupid for expecting All Pro. Didn’t see anyone saying All Pro was their expectations

But using pick 58 on him leads to those expectations. Because off ball LBs aren't high positional value you need a high level of production to make the pick worth it.