Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

BWags has been around forever and is already a first-ballot future HOFer, but he is somehow having his greatest season when the Seattle defense is otherwise a dumpster fire. He needs 48 tackles over his final four games to reach 200 total tackles, which hasn't happened in over 25 years, and the necessary pace of 12.5 per game isn't far above what he's done to this point. Definitely a story to watch over the final month; we could see him turn from a mere first-ballot HOFer into a mythic figure at the position. Whether he gets it or not, this dude commands utmost respect for balling so hard at a time when absolutely no one around him is picking up any slack whatsoever.

BTW, if anyone here has a full listing of currently documented 200-tackle seasons throughout NFL history, I'd love to see that. I'm pretty sure one belongs to Hardy Nickerson. Did Randy Gradishar have 200 in 1978?

JameisLoseston wrote:BWags has been around forever and is already a first-ballot future HOFer, but he is somehow having his greatest season when the Seattle defense is otherwise a dumpster fire.

It makes sense that Wagner would be compiling high tackle totals while Seattle's overall defense is struggling...it's hard to rack up tackles if you are constantly forcing three-and-outs. But IMO that is what makes the tackle stat so interesting. The highest total I've ever seen is Stan Blinka's 245 tackles for the 1980 NY Jets. He allegedly had 26 tackles in a game against Houston that year, which might be true if Earl Campbell was running up the middle on every play and the Jets couldn't stop him. I've always meant to check youtube for that game and compile my own tackle totals.

University of Illinois was pretty terrible in the 1970s, but IIRC Scott Studwell had a game where he had 37 tackles. I think that would have almost been comical to witness if it indeed took place. It seemed like in recent years that Ray Lewis would get credit for a tackle by simply making eye contact with the ball carrier.

Yeah, I've noticed that linebackers on bad teams are usually really high stat compilers, There are definitely multiple ways in which tackles alone can be unindicative of the player's ability, but obviously we do not have to worry ourselves about that with Wagner, we know what he Is. He has a 20 tackle game this season, so 26 is definitely not a major outlier, I'd believe that happened. 245 in a season is less believable, more than 15 per game, and Blinka was not even that highly regarded of a player, so I find this very dubious unless it comes from someone like John Turney. I checked Hardy Nickerson and he is credited with 214 one season, and no higher than 150 in any other. Also not sure of the credibility of that record, but I found it on PFR, and I don't think they would acknowledge it if they had doubts about it.

Studwell has to be an entry on the best football names list, by the way.

Bryan wrote: It makes sense that Wagner would be compiling high tackle totals while Seattle's overall defense is struggling...it's hard to rack up tackles if you are constantly forcing three-and-outs. But IMO that is what makes the tackle stat so interesting. The highest total I've ever seen is Stan Blinka's 245 tackles for the 1980 NY Jets. He allegedly had 26 tackles in a game against Houston that year, which might be true if Earl Campbell was running up the middle on every play and the Jets couldn't stop him. I've always meant to check youtube for that game and compile my own tackle totals.

I counted 19 tackles by Blinka while scrolling through the play-by-play. Then, in the stats at the bottom, I see I counted correctly since the statistician listed 15 solo tackles and 4 assisted tackles for Blinka. I also have that game on DVD so I could watch it at some point. It seems that if 26 was listed anywhere, then that was an exaggeration.

JWL wrote:I counted 19 tackles by Blinka while scrolling through the play-by-play. Then, in the stats at the bottom, I see I counted correctly since the statistician listed 15 solo tackles and 4 assisted tackles for Blinka. I also have that game on DVD so I could watch it at some point. It seems that if 26 was listed anywhere, then that was an exaggeration.

That likely means he didn't have 200 on the season, either, as 19-tackle games are not exceptionally infrequent as are 200-tackle seasons, and that was probably his highest game. What is the full record of accurately counted 200-tackle seasons? Have there not been any at all?

Eugene Lockhart may have had one in 1989 but I don't know if the tackle total is verified.

Speaking of high tackle seasons, in his first couple of years in the league, Ray Lewis was accused of making tackles too far down the field but that changed once the Ravens upgraded their defensive line ...

Of course, Jessie Tuggle bears mentioning... let's just keep in mind who counted the totals in those days.

Tuggle led the NFL in tackles four times, going over 200 twice.
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... ggJe00.htm

From Wikipedia:

"....1989-1993 period in which Tuggle racked up 969 tackles...."

In his 14 seasons, he recorded 1640 tackles (164 assisted), 21 sacks, 6 interceptions, which he returned for 106 yards and a touchdown, 10 forced fumbles and 37 pass deflections. He also recovered 10 fumbles, returning them for 155 yards and an NFL record 5 touchdowns...

Tuggle also holds the record for most tackles from 1990 to 1999 with 1,293. At the time of his retirement, he held the NFL record for touchdowns via fumble recoveries with five.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_Tuggle

and not coach's totals
Harry Carson, 206, 1978
Randy Gradishar, 197, 1978
Chris Spielman, 195, 1994

all the other numbers you see are coaches numbers---which have generous
"assist" totals that make the numbers much higher

JuggernautJ wrote:Of course, Jessie Tuggle bears mentioning... let's just keep in mind who counted the totals in those days.

Tuggle led the NFL in tackles four times, going over 200 twice.
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... ggJe00.htm

From Wikipedia:

"....1989-1993 period in which Tuggle racked up 969 tackles...."

In his 14 seasons, he recorded 1640 tackles (164 assisted), 21 sacks, 6 interceptions, which he returned for 106 yards and a touchdown, 10 forced fumbles and 37 pass deflections. He also recovered 10 fumbles, returning them for 155 yards and an NFL record 5 touchdowns...

Tuggle also holds the record for most tackles from 1990 to 1999 with 1,293. At the time of his retirement, he held the NFL record for touchdowns via fumble recoveries with five.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_Tuggle

pretty much all coaches data
here is play by play totals
https://nflfootballjournal.blogspot.com ... total.html