Now that Reuben Foster’s legal issues have concluded, the sky is the limit for the San Francisco 49ers linebacker. Foster will have to serve out a two-game suspension to start the season, but after that it’s all about building on his 2017 season, which while marred by injuries, established him in the upper echelon of NFL linebackers.
So much that people are calling him elite and Bucky Brooks now calls him the gold standard. He had a segment with NFL Networks’s Daniel Jeremiah where they picked a linebacker under the age of 30 for several situations. The linebacker Brooks would want to have for the next five years? Reuben Foster:
“Reuben Foster plays the game the way that I want my inside linebackers to play. He’s violent, he’s ferocious, he’s instinctive he’s tough, he can be the quarterback on defense when need be. He can make all the playcalls and adjustments. This guy plays the game in an old school fashion but he has a new school mentality. I love what Reuben Foster brings to the field. I think in this defense in year two, you’re going to see him go to a superstar level. Reuben Foster is going to be the gold standard for linebacker play in the next coming years.”
There’s not a doubt Foster is already a game-changer on the field, just look at what happened whenever he went to the medical tent in 2017, the 49ers defense was very different. That’s just the issue though, Foster needs to work on his tackling form to prevent injury and stay out of trouble and he will be one of the most genius picks of the last decade.
The 49ers were spoiled with quarterback play in the 80s, 90s, and possibly the current era. After Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman, it looks like they could be spoiled with inside linebackers as well.