I looked at some of his tape. What jumps out at me is (1) closing speed and (2) closing from space. There is a repetitive theme there.
I don't see this guy at all at ILB. He looks more like a open field player to me...more a strong safety-type as some have suggested. He looks best on delayed middle blitzes where he makes hay with his burst and in short zone coverages where he reacts from space and closes. I'm not seeing that block-shedding-into-striking-position...more a handsy slide-off move. We see enough of that from Hawk and Jones...as the faster-paced and more athletic NFL leaves them lost in the wash or trailing the play a bit too often. I contend we lack that Bishop-like striking presence.
It's very hard to tell how Shazier would be at SS turning and running with a TE or what his ball skills might be in downfield coverage. Those are the kinds of thing some of those "silly" Combine drills would help assess which I did not happen to see.
When you get down to it, there's Mosley (a terrific football player...more polished now than Bishop was at the time of his injury) and then a sizable gap to everybody else at ILB.
Before expending a #1 pick on Shazier I'd look seriously at at Christian Jones down around the 4th. round for a 3rd. down sub with upside. He has decent ILB speed at 4.7 and a couple of things jumped out at me in watching the Clemson tape. He's fluid dropping in coverage. He's just a good, instinctual, versatile football player...they had him playing down DE, upright edge rusher and ILB in relatively equal doses in that game (don't say "elephant", please). He's deceptive in that he's efficient...he doesn't display flashy athleticism because he doesn't waste much motion getting to the ball. It's kind of funny watching that tape because for some reason, perhaps coincidence if one wishes to believe that, Clemson was playing away from him most of the game in that defense stacked with talent.
Jones would not be the striker we need in the middle of the field, but neither would Shazier, while Jones could put Hawk back on the bench on 3rd. down to start with.
I have not jumped on the Mosley bandwagon only because (1) I doubt we'll get near him at #21, (2) McCarthy has recently reiterated his high expectations for Barrington and (3) we've got a fair amount of cap space allocated to Hawk and Jones who are not bad football players.
I must admit, after going back and looking at Barrington's tape from college, I had no such inspired take as McCarthy. In the unlikely event Mosley fell to #21 I'd take him, and then look for a wideout and cover corner in the second/third rounds, maybe doing some trade-ups using our extra 3rd. and 5th. picks.
Mosely is a really, really good football player and he's the kind of striker we could use in the middle of field. So could a lot of other teams.
Borland...meh.