Cory Littleton's bizarre adventure

[JameisLoseston]

Is Cory Littleton on the Raiders having one of the worst seasons of all time for a three-down linebacker? He has literally nothing on his stat sheet besides tackles, only 55 of those and just 3 for loss. Yet he is pretty much playing every snap, and was a very highly regarded playmaker for the past two-plus seasons on the Rams. Changing teams is always a risk for a LB due to the possibility of a role change, but that doesn't seem to be what has happened to Littleton. He just cannot play anymore for whatever reason, and yet Vegas keeps throwing him out there to do absolutely nothing. I haven't seen anything like it since Dead Arm Peyton, and Littleton is 27 and injury free! I drafted him pretty high in fantasy this year, and I certainly didn't expect him to be historically, almost impossibly bad. What happened to him?! Can anyone name any similar defensive seasons throughout history?

[Bryan]

Broderick Thomas and Mike Croel had good seasons early in their careers, then they both hit brick walls in their mid-20's. Both came out of the Nebraska program and played in the same era. Thomas had a huge year in 1991 (I believe he unofficially led the NFL in tackles), then never really came close to matching those numbers (174 tackles, 7 FF, 11 sacks) again. Croel's production took a huge drop after his third season and never returned.

Another guy who I remembered was Mike Merriweather of the Steelers. He wasn't very big, but he made plays all over the field in 1984 and was the AFC version of LT (before Andre Tippett took that title in 85). For whatever reason, he wasn't the dynamic playmaker in 1985 and then kind of slowly declined.

[JameisLoseston]

Dear God, Broderick Thomas. Even if you take off 50 of the tackles, that's still above Darius Leonard level production. Bucs linebackers in the 90s were something else.

Has there ever been a full season by a LB or other defensive player in which they recorded absolutely nothing but tackles? Littleton has missed two games to COVID, but if he continues on this pace (and doesn't record a stat), he would have enough play time to qualify.

[Elkman8102]

Dear God, Broderick Thomas. Even if you take off 50 of the tackles, that's still above Darius Leonard level production. Bucs linebackers in the 90s were something else.

Has there ever been a full season by a LB or other defensive player in which they recorded absolutely nothing but tackles? Littleton has missed two games to COVID, but if he continues on this pace (and doesn't record a stat), he would have enough play time to qualify.

I recall Jay Foreman and Ronald McKinnon having seasons that were extremely tackle heavy. And Curtis Lofton in 2009.

[JameisLoseston]

Upon examination, Curtis Lofton actually had 2 such seasons, in 2009 and 14. He forced a few fumbles, though, and his tackle numbers were great, so I wouldn't call either of those seasons bad. Foreman only started three games in the season you appear to be referring to. I'm looking for what would amount to the least statistically effective seasons of all time by a full-time defensive starter, so as to compare them to what Littleton is doing this year. Thus far, he appears to be the worst anyone has ever seen.

[Bryan]

Has there ever been a full season by a LB or other defensive player in which they recorded absolutely nothing but tackles? Littleton has missed two games to COVID, but if he continues on this pace (and doesn't record a stat), he would have enough play time to qualify.

Al Smith had a couple seasons at ILB with the Oilers where he had around 100 tackles and nary a sack, INT, FF or FR. But he was a pretty good player. The highest total I could find of a guy who recorded nothing but tackles was Eugene Lockhart in 1988 with the Cowboys, with 121.

Stan Blinka was the MLB for the 1980 Jets. He started in all 16 games, the only stat other than tackles that he amassed was a lone fumble recovery, but he had 245 tackles for the year. Kind of amazing. Blinka lost his starting job in 1983 and his career ended.

[Reaser]

Is Cory Littleton on the Raiders having one of the worst seasons of all time for a three-down linebacker? He has literally nothing on his stat sheet besides tackles, only 55 of those and just 3 for loss. Yet he is pretty much playing every snap,

He was only a 3-down LB the first half of the season, since he returned from missing games due to covid, he's been playing roughly 55% of the defensive snaps.

and was a very highly regarded playmaker for the past two-plus seasons on the Rams. Changing teams is always a risk for a LB due to the possibility of a role change, but that doesn't seem to be what has happened to Littleton.

Well, he's not in the middle of the field racking up tackles (and other 'stats') as an ILB like he was with the Rams. Different team, different position, different defensive responsibilities.

Suppose it's an oddity, at least for the first half of the season in that he was playing 100% of the defensive snaps, that he only had tackles and the 3 TFL's with no other 'stats'. That's more of an 8-game thing and even then, different team/pos/responsibilities plus if you extrapolate his first half of the season (when playing 100% of snaps) stats over a 16-game season he would only come up around 20 tackles short of what he was getting with the Rams (explained by team/pos/resp. change,) would have the same TFL's, but wouldn't have the 2 int, 1 FF, 2 FR, 11 PD or 3 sacks that he was roughly averaging with the Rams, because he has 0 of each for the Raiders, but that could be a half-season anomaly, though those aren't exactly high numbers, in addition to the obvious of different team/pos/responsibilities.

Now, of course, a difference between being on the field for 33 of 61 snaps, rather than 66 of 66 like he was this time last season, as well as the difference of not being in the middle, as he was as an ILB last season.

Bit of a different situation from say, Blake Martinez, who based on the DC's history, you could expect and project him to get the same type of stats he got for GB, which he's on pace to do exactly that.

[Brian wolf]

Its simple ... he is not playing behind Donald anymore and since signing that fat contract, doesnt have the hunger to excell. Many players have gone through this, which is a shame. The Raiders could release him.

[JameisLoseston]

Don't look now... Cory Littleton is balling out again! Not quite to his LA levels just yet, but much closer to that dynamic skillset than the redefinition of the phrase "off-the-ball linebacker" (read: never anywhere near the ball linebacker) that he displayed last season. He is legitimately making impact plays again. I've even welcomed him back to my fantasy lineup as a waiver add. He's quickly becoming one to add to my "favorite weird career arcs" list! Hope the best for this dude, he's a beast when he's on.