Luke Kuechly, Bobby Wagner, Kwon Alexander, and Tackle Leaders

by Chase Stuart on June 7, 2017

Kuechly’s stats match his hype

Do you know who led the NFL in tackles in 2016? It was Tampa Bay’s second-year linebacker Kwon Alexander, with 108 solo tackles. If you give half-credit for assists, Kwon – who had 37 assists — would get 126.5 total tackles. That would be the second-most in the league, just behind Seattle linebacker Bobby Wagner (86 solos, 82 assists, for 127 total tackles).

Tackles aren’t a great stat for a lot of reasons. One reason is the statistic treats all tackles the same. Another is it ignores opportunity: the 49ers led the NFL last year with 855 total tackles (again, treating assists as half-tackles), which helped safety Antoine Bethea rank 9th in the league in solo tackles. That’s because the 49ers defense was on the field a ton last year; meanwhile, the Eagles recorded the fewest total tackles in the NFL last season with just 699. Eagles linebacker Nigel Bradham had 67 solos and 81 assists last year, but that total looks a lot better when you realize he was responsible for about 12% of all Eagles tackles in 2016.

In addition to looking at total tackle numbers as a percentage of his team’s tackles, there’s one other adjustment worth making. Carolina’s Luke Kuechly had 86.5 total tackles last year, good enough for 11.0% of Carolina’s 785 total tackles. But Kuechly played in just 10 games! If we multiply his 11.0% tackle share number by 16/10 — in other words, pro-rating for missed games — that means Kuechly gets credit for a whopping 17.6% of all Panthers tackles.

Another player who benefits from this sort of adjustment is Bears linebacker Jerrell Freeman, who had a great first season in Chicago. Freeman had 98 total tackles, or 12.5% of the Bears total tackles, despite missing four games. If you pro-rate those numbers, he gets credit for 16.6% of all Chicago tackles, second in the league behind Kuechly.

Do this for every defensive player in the NFL, and the top three players in adjusted total tackle share are Kuechly, Freeman, and Wagner. Alexander, while still impressive, drops to 7th via this method. Below are the top 75 players in pro-rated adjusted total tackle share.

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Rk	Player	Team	Solo	Asst	Total	Team Tot	Ratio	G	Pro-Rated
1	Luke Kuechly	CAR	71	31	86.5	785	11%	10	17.6%
2	Jerrell Freeman	CHI	86	24	98	785	12.5%	12	16.6%
3	Bobby Wagner	SEA	86	82	127	772	16.5%	16	16.5%
4	Sean Lee	DAL	93	52	119	785.5	15.1%	15	16.2%
5	Vontaze Burfict	CIN	73	28	87	783.5	11.1%	11	16.2%
6	Zach Orr	BAL	89	41	109.5	730.5	15%	15	16%
7	Kwon Alexander	TAM	108	37	126.5	794	15.9%	16	15.9%
8	Tahir Whitehead	DET	99	33	115.5	780.5	14.8%	15	15.8%
9	Zach Brown	BUF	97	52	123	812.5	15.1%	16	15.1%
10	Alec Ogletree	LAR	98	38	117	777.5	15%	16	15%
11	Paul Posluszny	JAX	97	36	115	765.5	15%	16	15%
12	Christian Kirksey	CLE	93	50	118	798.5	14.8%	16	14.8%
13	Jamie Collins	CLE	48	21	58.5	798.5	7.3%	8	14.7%
14	Benardrick McKinney	HOU	79	50	104	711.5	14.6%	16	14.6%
15	Jonathan Cyprien	JAX	96	30	111	765.5	14.5%	16	14.5%
16	Telvin Smith	JAX	98	20	108	765.5	14.1%	16	14.1%
17	Malcolm Smith	OAK	86	17	94.5	734	12.9%	15	13.7%
18	Landon Collins	NYG	100	25	112.5	845	13.3%	16	13.3%
19	Mark Barron	LAR	90	27	103.5	777.5	13.3%	16	13.3%
20	Keanu Neal	ATL	72	33	88.5	776.5	11.4%	14	13%

Showing 1 to 20 of 75 entries

As always, please leave your thoughts in the comments. And see if you can spot the player who appears twice on the list.

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