Will Lavalais eat himself out of a job?

By Darrell Laurant  |   Monday, June 19, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

Atlanta Falcons
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Darrell Shropshire is the kind of guy who just keeps coming at you.

Largely ignored out of high school in Kershaw, SC, he went out to Kansas and became a force on the defensive line at Coffeyville Junior College. The University of South Carolina, initially unimpressed, changed its mind and offered him a scholarship.

For two years as a Gamecock, Shropshire toiled mainly in the forced obscurity of all run-stuffers, finishing his career with 63 tackles, two sacks and 8 1/2 tackles for loss.

This so impressed the Atlanta Falcons that they waited until the seventh round to draft him. Last season, as a rookie, Shropshire played in 10 games and had eight tackles, two of them sacks.

But he keeps coming. In spring conditioning drills this season, the 6-2, 301-pound Shropshire showed up in better shape than the man he hopes to beat out for a starting job, Chad Lavalais, and was rewarded with some work on the first team.

Of course, Lavalais will never be confused with Lance Armstrong as a body type. As a rookie in 2004, he earned this amused description from veteran DL Ed Jasper: "When he first came in he was about 320 and his belly was so big it looked like it was smiling at you. So we named him jelly belly."

Lavalais, perhaps best-known for working two years as a Louisiana prison guard while trying to become eligible to play for LSU, took the weight off that season and became a key reserve behind Rod Coleman on the Falcons' defensive line. He wound up the year with 42 tackles and five starts.

Last year, however, the deceptive quickness he showed at LSU (10 sacks as a senior) seemed to be eroding. The big guy made only four tackles in his last three games, finishing the season with 25, and Atlanta Falcons head coach Jim Mora was publicly critical of his late-season production.

Last month, Lavalais showed up overweight again, and not only Shropshire but fourth-year man Antwan Lake (6-4, 308, 3 1/2 sacks in 2005) labored on the first unit some days.

It will be an interesting competition in August, one that will take place largely in the crush and sweat and obscurity of the interior line.

Perhaps Chad Lavalais is, even now, sitting down to a salad. For as he knows all too well, the more weight he gains, the more Darrell Shropshire and Antwan Lake will be gaining on him.

And that's no belly laugh.

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