Ray Lewis gushes over C.J. Mosley, calls former Alabama defender the NFL’s best linebacker
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Ray Lewis is being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend. If the former standout Ravens linebacker is being honest in his assessment of C.J. Mosley, there’s a chance the former Alabama linebacker joins him in Canton one day.
It’s no easy task replacing a future Hall of Famer in the lineup but Mosley has done an incredible job of doing just that so far in Baltimore. Even Lewis has been impressed with the work Mosley has gone replacing his production in the lineup.
Lewis even went so far to suggest Mosley is now the NFL’s best linebacker.
“I would love for you to show me a better middle linebacker in the game than C.J. Mosley,” Lewis said, according to Jamison Hensley of ESPN. “That’s from a pure football instinct level of being a general and always ending up in the right place. Can he get better? Absolutely. Overall, that is what a linebacker looks like, plays like and thinks like. C.J. Mosley, that’s a football player.”
It should be no surprise that Mosley is impressing after being trained by Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa. The No. 17 overall selection in the 2014 NFL Draft, Mosley has made the Pro Bowl in three of his first four NFL seasons — which include three All-Pro selections. In his first four seasons, durability has also proved to be a strength of Mosley’s as he’s only missed two out of 64 NFL games.
Not only does Mosley’s production impress Lewis, but the Raven linebacker certainly passes the eye test for the soon-to-be Hall of Fame linebacker.
“Every time I watch him, I’m like, ‘Wow,'” Lewis said. “I get super excited when I see him playing football because he’s playing it from a linebacker perspective. He isn’t just trying to tackle you. He’s trying to make you feel him. I think a lot of linebackers now are OK with making tackles. No, the game is about punishment. You want to run the ball against me? That’s a problem.”
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
