INDIANAPOLIS — The same theme echoed from three of the biggest names in football.

ESPN and Scouts Inc.’s Todd McShay, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King and CBS’ Bruce Feldman all agree the landscape of A.J. Klein’s and Jake Knott’s positions — linebacker — is shifting.

All three agreed at the 2013 NFL Combine that scouts are more attracted to a player who is lanky and can bring pressure from the edge.

“Everyone is looking for a guy who’s 6-foot-3, 270 [pounds] and is really explosive and can rush the passer,” Feldman said.

King’s insight was similar to Feldman’s, but he retorted that there will always be a place for run-stuffing inside linebackers made from the mold of Klein and Knott.

There was a stipulation about that breed of linebacker, however.

“If he can run,” King said. “What happened to Ray Lewis at the end of his career is that he really wasn’t able to run as he used to because Ray Lewis was the best sideline-to-sideline linebacker of all time. But in the last three or four years, he just wasn’t able to run as he used to, and he wasn’t as good.”

King cited former Boston College and now Carolina Panthers inside linebacker Luke Kuechly breaking the mold when describing what a linebacker can play like “without having to win the 40-yard dash.”

“I think linebacker is about awareness,” King said. “When I say awareness, I mean the ability to read a play three-tenths of a second before another guy can, before an average player can. So that if you’re not as fast as another guy, you can make up for it, in part, by instincts.”

McShay called it more of a trend.

“I think you’ve got a better shot and there’s more appeal if the strength of your game is athleticism because third down has become second and third down,” McShay said. “So what was a first- and second-down linebacker now is a little bit more like an average of one and a half on drives throughout the game you’re on the field.”

McShay, who has both Knott and Klein as projected day three selections in rounds 4-7 in the draft, said he believes their best shot is making a definite impact on the field that isn’t the defense, an area that became Knott and Klein’s second home the past three years.

“Special teams,” McShay said. “You’ve got to get down the field and you’ve got to cover kicks and you’ve got to be an animal, you’ve got to make that your mentality. And the longer you can do that, the longer you’re around, guys get injured in front of you, things happen, you get opportunities.

“Neither are great cover guys; neither are great athletes. That’s not what they do. But as you referred to, they’re throwbacks and there’s a role for that, too, and I think that starts on special teams.”