Cato June

Starting linebacker, mostly on the strong side, but occasionally weak side when Derrick Brooks is being rested. 48 solo tackles, 21 assists in 2007.

June led the World Champion Colts with a career-high 142 tackles in 2006, along with one sack, two forced fumbles and three interceptions. He recorded seven tackles in Super Bowl XLI. June will start on the strong side for the Bucs in 2007, but may eventually replace Derrick Brooks on the weak side.

For a while there midseason, June was leading the entire league in interceptions. Indeed, there are a number of reasons to like June, but also a few aspects of which to be wary. To start with, June is Tony Dungy’s guy on the weak side, and that puts him in the fraternity of Derrick Brooks from the Tampa years, Mike Peterson in Indy and David Thornton when he was on the weak side for the Colts: every one of them soared as Tony’s man–every year. What’s not to like is how much he depends on picks for points. He had more than five solo tackles in only four of 13 games last year. Points already come in clumps when dealing with interceptions, but not having tackles to rely on when he isn’t making a pick can leave owners feeling abandoned at the fantasy altar. There’s a good reason to rely on June to get those picks, however: he’s a converted safety. At 227, he’d better be. At that size and lacking experience at linebacker, he won’t ever lead the league in tackles. But that experience helps with the picks. Not that the tackling stats are bad: in both his years as a starter he’s been on pace for more than 80 solos over 16 games. That gets him a look. It’s his ability to sustain fickle pick numbers that gets him drafted.

June started for the first time in his brief career last year and, more importantly, was the weak-side linebacker for Tony Dungy. Every year, Dungy’s weak-side man is a stud. Witness Derrick Brooks’ best years in Tampa Bay followed by Mike Peterson in Indy in 2002 and David Thornton in 2003, all of them finishing in the top 10 under Dungy with 100-plus solos. June was, in fact, the first Dungy weak-sider in years not to finish in the linebacker top 10 or log 100 solo tackles. In his defense (not that ranking 20th is anything to sneeze at) June played through a sprained ankle in December, and while he never dipped below four solo tackles in any game that month, he didn’t blow the roof off in any game like he had consistently done earlier in the season. Since Indy didn’t tax its important players in Week 17, we can also toss out his goose egg that week and consider what he did last year to have been done in 15 games. Not too shabby, and we can expect some growth and a better ability to sustain his production late into the year in his third season as a pro.

The 2005 6th-round pick is the favorite to be the starter at weak-side linebacker.

Played safety in college, but will be moved to weakside linebacker with the Colts.