Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Gregg Bingham had some solid totals as well.

JohnTurney wrote:1978 NYG Carson, Harry 206
1976 Phil Bergey, Bill 200
1978 Den Gradishar, Randy 197
1994 Det Spielman, Chris 195
1978 Balt Simonini, Ed 192
1976 Mia Towle, Steve 187

Kind of interesting that Simonini is on the list. The Colts LBs under Marchibroda were fairly anonymous, and the Colts defense got run over in 1978 (with assistance from Bill Troup and a stagnant offense). He didn't have any distinguishable physical qualities, other than being the only MLB in the league who was under 6 feet tall and weighed about 200 pounds. Simonini's productivity was remarkable when compared to his skills. He was a two time state wrestling champ in high school, and those guys are usually pretty tough.

I know this comment is a lot of college history, but Ed Simonini was a darn good player. He played college at Texas A&M under the highly underrated DC Melvin Robertson who was mentoring an assistant named R.C. Slocum at the time. I don't remember the exact number off the top of my head, but I think that it might have been that all 11 starters on the A&M defense when Simonini played were drafted into the NFL. Might have been 10 of the starters; It was a ridiculously high percentage.

Had to look it up quick -- 12 players off that defense were drafted over three years. Remember, some of those guys were returning starters -- not sure if all 11 of a certain season eventually were picked, but it was a high number of them.