Middle linebacker Patrick Willis of the San Francisco 49ers was the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2007.
If you trust his statistics, he should have been the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year as well. Maybe even the NFL Defensive Player of the Decade.
Willis was credited with 226 tackles by the 49ers a staggering 42 more than the league's next most prolific tackler, Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens.
Willis collected 117 more tackles than the starting NFC middle linebacker in the Pro Bowl (Lofa Tatupu, Seattle Seahawks) and 99 more than the AFC starter (Demeco Ryans, Houston Texans). Was Willis that much more active, that much more proficient than any other defensive player in the NFL?
But I don't trust the statistics not tackle stats, anyway.
Each NFL team employs a stat crew for its home games. That crew's final statistics are deemed official by the league office: yardage for rushing, passing, receiving and various kick returns plus field goal and punting distances, sacks, interceptions, touchdowns ...
But 28 of the 32 NFL teams do not acknowledge the press box tackle stats as official. On the Monday following games, NFL defensive coaching staffs break down the films on their own and award a new set of tackle numbers. Those are listed by each team as its "official" tackle count.
Willis was credited with 174 tackles by NFL stat crews in 2007. Upon further review, the San Francisco coaches gave him credit for 52 more tackles, bumping his "official" count to 226.
How is it possible for stat crews league-wide to miss 52 tackles by Willis? That's a 23 percent increase in his tackle count. That's like the New England offensive staff studying weekly game tapes and uncovering 1,400 passing yards that stat crews missed in Tom Brady's 2007 season.
New England finished fourth in the NFL in defense and was one of only two teams that did not credit a player with 100 tackles. Miami was the other. Indianapolis finished one rung ahead of the Patriots on defense at third but had a league-high five players with 100-plus tackles.
The Indy defense was on the field for 980 snaps last season. But there were no tackles on 199 of those plays because they were either incomplete passes, interceptions or offensive touchdowns.
That left 781 defensive snaps that involved a tackle and the Colts' coaching staff awarded a league-high 1,416 tackles. That's an average of 1.81 tackles per play. The Indianapolis staff awarded 891 "solo" tackles in those 781 plays. Figure that one out.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who finished second in the NFL in defense, were even more generous. Their coaches awarded 1,385 tackles in 755 plays, an average of 1.83 tackles per play. The 49ers averaged 1.63 tackles per play.
I surveyed a handful of NFL head coaches a few years back, asking them what they considered a legitimate tackle average. The consensus was 1.44 tackles per play. I still consider that a bit high. I'm of the belief 1.3 tackles per play is about right. Nonetheless, 15 teams were at or below the 1.44 figure in 2007.
The four teams that count the press-box tackle stats as official are Houston, Miami, Oakland and Seattle. All finished in the league's bottom six in tackles per play. Ryan's Houston defense averaged 1.23 tackles per play, and Tatupu's Seattle defense averaged 1.13.
The first time I put together a league-wide tackle chart in 1992, there were three teams that averaged better than two tackles per play. That was ridiculous, not to mention impossible. So there has been slight improvement from one decade to the next.
Here's my solution: The NFL office should hire a retired defensive coach, bring him to New York on Sunday and give him three days to break down the tape for all 16 games. Let him credit all the tackles for all the games. One set of eyes would foster a league-wide consistency. It would also eliminate any and all bias and padding by stat crews and or coaching staffs.
I doubt you'd see any more 200-tackle seasons. And I'd start accepting tackle statistics as legit.
Here's the NFL tackle chart for 2007. The first column is the number of defensive snaps by a team. Now subtract the non-tackle plays (incompletions, interceptions and offensive touchdowns) in the second column, producing the number of actual tackle plays (third column). Now divide the number of credited tackles (fourth column) by the number of actual tackle plays (third column). That produces an average number of tackles per play by a team (fifth column).