What LB Frankie Luvu brings to the Washington Commanders

Breaking down what the Commanders are getting in new free agent linebacker Frankie Luvu

Linebacker Frankie Luvu might be the most intriguing signing made by the Washington Commanders this offseason. The 6-foot-3, 236 pound 27-year-old has a terrific backstory going undrafted in 2018 and working his way up the ladder first with the Jets and then most recently with the Panthers. He’s developed into a good starting linebacker with a rounded skill set and fun play style that should suit Dan Quinn’s team perfectly. 

When the Commanders first agreed to a deal with Luvu, it was widely assumed he would be the new middle linebacker to partner Jamin Davis. Now he still might play that role at times, but on Wednesday the Commanders also agreed a deal to sign Bobby Wagner. Wagner isn’t necessarily the player he once was but he’ll likely command the starting Mike linebacker spot. That then makes Luvu’s role even more intriguing. In a base defense, all three of Wagner, Luvu and Davis can easily get on the field but hardly anyone in the NFL plays in a base defense on any sort of a consistent basis. That means that one of the three will need to sit out, unless they can find a different role for Luvu. 

But I’ll get to that later, first I thought I’d start by looking at Luvu’s skill set and what he brings to the Commanders. I said earlier he has a rounded skill set with a fun play style. That play style really stands out. You may have heard the phrase “playing with his hair on fire” and there’s no better embodiment of that than Frankie Luvu. The guy does EVERYTHING at 100 miles an hour and when he’s moving in the correct direction, that leads to stand out plays. 

On this play, the Cowboys are in a wildcat formation with the quarterback split outside and a running back taking the direct snap. Dallas uses a guard-tackle counter play, where both the left guard and left tackle pull to the right side of the line and execute a counter scheme with the guard kicking out the edge and the tackle wrapping around for the linebacker. That linebacker is Luvu. As soon as the ball is snapped, Luvu spots the pulling guard and tackle and immediately triggers on the run. He gets up to the line of scrimmage in a hurry, nearly crossing it before the defensive tackle. This enables him to beat the tight end’s down block attempt on him because he was simply too fast to read the play. 

The tight end does manage to get a hand on him, but that just helps propel him forward even faster and Luvu uses that momentum to slam full speed into pulling left tackle Tyron Smith, who gets completely stood up by the impact. After standing Smith up, Luvu works off the block to reach out and make a tackle on the running back, getting him wrapped up and tackled at the line of scrimmage for no gain. 

That hair on fire play style is a ton of fun to watch and shows up consistently when watching Luvu, but he isn’t completely reckless with it. He’s very much capable of reading and processing plays quickly to enable him to direct that play style in the right direction. 

Here is another run where we see Luvu processing information quickly and playing extremely fast. The Dolphins run a power play from the pistol, with a tight end going in motion from the slot just before the snap to kick out the edge defender while the right guard pulls to the left side of the line to wrap around and block the first linebacker he finds. Luvu reads the tight end motion and is immediately working forward at the snap of the ball. His eyes then go to the pulling guard which confirms his suspicions of a run play. His fellow linebacker dives inside, meaning Luvu has to scrape over the top and replace his teammate outside. He gets there in good time, but the running back cuts his run back inside. Luvu spots the back through all the traffic and moving parts and manages to adjust his own position to go make the tackle and save a touchdown. 

That play style translates to a lot of different areas of the game for Luvu. We’ve seen how effective it can be in the run game, but it also gives him a lot of range to make plays in the passing game and in the screen game.