Pro Football Reference Average Value Rankings for 2020

[aikemirv]

First of all let me say I NEVER look at stats alone.. I watch every second of every Cowboys game.. at least once and if it was a good game I watch it twice.. Jaylon led the Cowboys in solo and combined tackles and in fact was among the league leaders in both categories. I can't fault him for the relative dearth of TFLs because the down linemen in front of him were SO god-awful most of the season. You can't make tackles behind the line of scrimmage when the opposing o-line is consistently moving the line of scrimmage 2-3 yards forward every snap. Sorry if that doesn't jibe with people's perception but it's the plain truth. The only rational explanation for why ALL of the linebackers on the roster regressed so badly from 2019 to 2020 is that Nolan's scheme and crappy play by the down linemen simply hung them out to dry too often. When I watched our defense play in 2020 (between barfing) I didn't see a lot of people standing out.. I saw a LOT of blown assignments.. I saw interior down linemen getting almost no penetration for the first half of the season (until we jettisoned the dead weight) and I saw guys looking lost most of the year. I saw Crawford playing on two surgically repaired hips getting rag-dolled at the 3-tech and I saw Poe essentially playing the part of a human blocking sled. I cannot accept that the 20 or so guys we brought back on defense from 2019 all forgot how to play football.. But the proof will be on the field.. Either they will all get back to the 2018-2019 form or they will all sit for the younger guys. The youngsters like Hill, Gallimore and the draftees give me hope that we will get some interior push this year.. which in turn should give us a far better output from the backers..

If you watched the games you can see that Jaylon does not move laterally well at all, is out of position and overruns plays regularly. No matter what the Dlineman are doing it is easy to see his flaws every game.

 

[RonnieT24]

If you watched the games you can see that Jaylon does not move laterally well at all, is out of position and overruns plays regularly. No matter what the Dlineman are doing it is easy to see his flaws every game.

No one is arguing that Jaylon does not have flaw does not miss plays.. I am merely pointing out that as bad as he was.. he was the highest rated PLAYER on the team in 2020. Not highest rated linebacker.. not highest rated defender.. highest rated PLAYER. Which means that in spite of all the plays he "missed".. he made more than anybody else on the team. The Cowboys made a mistake by moving him outside IMHO. His lack of lateral agility makes him a liability in space.. But here's the thing about that.. 90% of all 6'3" 245 pound guys are going to be found lacking in lateral agility. That's why 75 year old Jason Witten could still get open against all but a handful of linebackers in the league. It's why maybe two linebackers in the entire league can cover Darren Waller, George Kittle or Travis Kelce and NONE will be able to cover Kyle Pitts. The Cowboys also made a mistake (again IMHO) putting a guy coming off of neck surgery in the middle of the defense. I love that we drafted a coverage linebacker like Cox.. I just hope the coaching staff has the guts to play him and sit Jaylon and LVE down on obvious passing downs. But the real bottom line is that if you go look at the most productive LBs in the league you will invariably find they have productive down linemen in front of them. Until the Cowboys get that they can bring in young Nitschke, Butkus, Singletary, Howley and Ham and they'd still suck against the run. Again.. IMHO.

 

[stilltheguru]

Lol, yea. Even tackle stats aren't perfect - missed tackles are pretty subjective.

But there's really no tracking of positioning and that sort of thing.

You be on your best behavior on here now after I called out your feminine ways lol. I cant even get a thank you? Damn homie

 

[CouchCoach]

If the DL did their job, he could do his. But hey, everything is his fault. It is the narrative on here that must be accepted.

Did I say it was all his fault? Did I? Well, did I?

 

[CouchCoach]

Know who Jaylon Smith is? Roy OU Williams.

Same kind of player in college and played all over the line, the difference is most likely the injury because I do not think he will ever be 100% like he was at ND. But the level of competition he had isn't close to what he has in the NFL and read and reacts are far more critical and unforgiving when he gets it wrong. Fractions of seconds matter a lot more in the NFL than college.

When he was at ND, just like Williams at OU, he had better support from his fellow defenders and didn't have the same level of coaching from the other team dissecting every move he made and designing plays against him.

Quinn must help Smith overcome the OC's book on him. They're going to keep taking advantage of that until he can make them pay for that and there has never been any LB not helped by the big uglies up front. The Cowboys have too many big uglies ugly because of how they play.

 

[jterrell]

Looking at the site just now I was a bit surprised to see who the highest rated Dallas Cowboy for 2020 was..

It was..
.
.

Drum roll please...
.
.
.


Jaylon Smith..


Yep.. THAT Jaylon Smith.. That caught me off guard since people spent months (or years) telling us that the dude is the worst football player in the history of the game.

Then I clicked on his name to try and determine how they arrived at this conclusion.. One thing that immediately jumped out at me was that he was charged with 9 missed tackles in 2020.. which they computed out to 5.5%. That seemed pretty good to me so I went and looked at other good linebackers..

Devin White of the Bucs was charged in 15 missed tackles.. 9.7%.. His running buddy Levonte David was charged with 10.. 7.9%...

Zach Cunningham of the Texas was charged with 17 missed tackled.. SEVENTEEN!!! Almost double that of Smith.. The guys who made the pro bowl ... Roquan Smith missed 10 tackles (6.7%) Bobby Wagner missed 10 as well for 6.8%.. Of the 10-12 I looked at the only one who had a better percentage than Jaylon was Darius Leonard of the Colts who only missed 7 for 5.0% .

Now I'm not here to tell anybody that Jaylon had a great 2020.. Nobody on our defense did.. but I think his salary has made him a bit of a lightning rod for unjust criticism. These numbers tell me that if you put him behind a decent front line we're probably going to find out he's a pretty good player. Maybe not great.. maybe not all pro.. but pretty good.. which is about as good as we have a right to expect for a 2nd round pick.

You'll never sell this to the board and that's OK.
Jaylon provided the very best option they had at LB last year by a wide margin which is they doubled up there in the draft.
Provide him some help up front and next to him amd we shall see what happens.

Jaylon is a solid LB that is overpaid. Fans pretend he is a bum and that's heinously far from the case.

 

[Typhus]

Jaylon’s missed tackles were so low, because on some plays he was so out of position and turned around, that he wasn’t even in position to “miss” a tackle but was 10 yards away.

I believe he led the league in assists,, no need to look any further.
Sometimes stats actually tell the truth.

 

[Aerolithe_Lion]

Pro football reference is purely a stat accumulation site. It does not evaluate how or why a player has the stats he does, it simply comes up with a number based on them.

I’d imagine he’s so high because of his inflated 154 tackles, which seems to be because RBs were always in the second level of your defense.

 

[Redline360]

Why looking at stats at face value is a fools game.

Can't miss tackles when you take yourself out of plays constantly. It's that simple

 

[HungryLion]

He was in position for his assignment, the offense feared him. So the play was designed to stay away from him.
Fans need to stop hating. Learn the game and fundamentals themselves, and not just their own biased eye test.

Biased eye test?

ok if you want to use your eyes, and try to argue that Jaylon running around like a headless chicken, getting pushed around by blockers, engaging blockers and taking himself out of plays completely and making tackles 9 yards downfield.


If you want to watch that with your eyes and tell yourself Jaylon is good. Then go for it.

by all means “learn the game” watch Jaylon out there and then come here talking about “fundamentals”

 

[foofighters]

Looking at the site just now I was a bit surprised to see who the highest rated Dallas Cowboy for 2020 was..

It was..
.
.

Drum roll please...
.
.
.


Jaylon Smith..


Yep.. THAT Jaylon Smith.. That caught me off guard since people spent months (or years) telling us that the dude is the worst football player in the history of the game.

Then I clicked on his name to try and determine how they arrived at this conclusion.. One thing that immediately jumped out at me was that he was charged with 9 missed tackles in 2020.. which they computed out to 5.5%. That seemed pretty good to me so I went and looked at other good linebackers..

Devin White of the Bucs was charged in 15 missed tackles.. 9.7%.. His running buddy Levonte David was charged with 10.. 7.9%...

Zach Cunningham of the Texas was charged with 17 missed tackled.. SEVENTEEN!!! Almost double that of Smith.. The guys who made the pro bowl ... Roquan Smith missed 10 tackles (6.7%) Bobby Wagner missed 10 as well for 6.8%.. Of the 10-12 I looked at the only one who had a better percentage than Jaylon was Darius Leonard of the Colts who only missed 7 for 5.0% .

Now I'm not here to tell anybody that Jaylon had a great 2020.. Nobody on our defense did.. but I think his salary has made him a bit of a lightning rod for unjust criticism. These numbers tell me that if you put him behind a decent front line we're probably going to find out he's a pretty good player. Maybe not great.. maybe not all pro.. but pretty good.. which is about as good as we have a right to expect for a 2nd round pick.

Didn't he lead the league in how many yards he was dragged per play? He may not have missed a lot but he carried for an awful lot of yards.

 

[HungryLion]

I believe he led the league in assists,, no need to look any further.
Sometimes stats actually tell the truth.

Yeah, and the cowboys defense also had the second most rushing attempts against them, for the entire league. Why? Because opposing offenses were killing them in the run game.


So Jaylon got a lot of bulk stats like total tackles and assists because he had so many snaps where the opposing offense ran the ball..... precisely because the defense as a whole, including him, sucked against the run.

 

[ondaedg]

Devin White had 10 sacks to go with his 15 missed tackles.

I give Jaylon credit for the hustle to make as many tackles as he can. But his tackles are further down the field than just about any LB in the league and he makes a lot of tackles chasing ball carriers from behind.

Jaylon would lead the league in getting blocked with one arm, making tackles back pedaling, and chasing phantom ball carriers.

 

[ondaedg]

Yeah, and the cowboys defense also had the second most rushing attempts against them, for the entire league. Why? Because opposing offenses were killing them in the run game.


So Jaylon got a lot of bulk stats like total tackles and assists because he had so many snaps where the opposing offense ran the ball..... precisely because the defense as a whole, including him, sucked against the run.

Jaylon led the league in tackles. ..... 8 yards downfield.

 

[BigD_95]

Looking at the site just now I was a bit surprised to see who the highest rated Dallas Cowboy for 2020 was..

It was..
.
.

Drum roll please...
.
.
.


Jaylon Smith..


Yep.. THAT Jaylon Smith.. That caught me off guard since people spent months (or years) telling us that the dude is the worst football player in the history of the game.

Then I clicked on his name to try and determine how they arrived at this conclusion.. One thing that immediately jumped out at me was that he was charged with 9 missed tackles in 2020.. which they computed out to 5.5%. That seemed pretty good to me so I went and looked at other good linebackers..

Devin White of the Bucs was charged in 15 missed tackles.. 9.7%.. His running buddy Levonte David was charged with 10.. 7.9%...

Zach Cunningham of the Texas was charged with 17 missed tackled.. SEVENTEEN!!! Almost double that of Smith.. The guys who made the pro bowl ... Roquan Smith missed 10 tackles (6.7%) Bobby Wagner missed 10 as well for 6.8%.. Of the 10-12 I looked at the only one who had a better percentage than Jaylon was Darius Leonard of the Colts who only missed 7 for 5.0% .

Now I'm not here to tell anybody that Jaylon had a great 2020.. Nobody on our defense did.. but I think his salary has made him a bit of a lightning rod for unjust criticism. These numbers tell me that if you put him behind a decent front line we're probably going to find out he's a pretty good player. Maybe not great.. maybe not all pro.. but pretty good.. which is about as good as we have a right to expect for a 2nd round pick.

what I find funny is if you criticize Dlaw and his performance along with his salary cap hit you get nothing but excuses how he is the only good defensive player and he gets no help. ..... But Jaylon Smith doesn't get those excuses

One other note is how many snaps Jaylon Smith is on the field for. He never comes off. Guy is playing crazy amount of snaps. I think he was 8th in the NFL last year in defensive snaps

 

[jazzcat22]

Biased eye test?

ok if you want to use your eyes, and try to argue that Jaylon running around like a headless chicken, getting pushed around by blockers, engaging blockers and taking himself out of plays completely and making tackles 9 yards downfield.


If you want to watch that with your eyes and tell yourself Jaylon is good. Then go for it.

by all means “learn the game” watch Jaylon out there and then come here talking about “fundamentals”

seeing how he is already 7 yards off the ball and the DL let’s them run right though. 9 yards is his fault?

 

[HungryLion]

seeing how he is already 7 yards off the ball and the DL let’s them run right though. 9 yards is his fault?

I’m not blaming every bad play against Jaylon.

My initial post was explaining how missed tackles were low.

jaylons issue isn’t tackling guys once he has his hands on them.

his issue is being in the right place at the right time and getting off blocks, to be in position to make tackles in the first place.

that’s the whole point.


I’ll agree all day that the DT play has been piss poor. But that still doesn’t explain Jaylon being out of position or doing a god awful job getting off blocks.

 

[JoeKing]

Jaylon was pretty bad in 2019 as well

Are you remembering that correctly? He played in the 2019-20 pro-bowl. He wasn't all that bad. Because of an injury to Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly, Smith represented the Dallas Cowboys on January 26, 2020 in Orlando in the Pro-Bowl.

 

[jazzcat22]

I’m not blaming every bad play against Jaylon.

My initial post was explaining how missed tackles were low.

jaylons issue isn’t tackling guys once he has his hands on them.

his issue is being in the right place at the right time and getting off blocks, to be in position to make tackles in the first place.

that’s the whole point.


I’ll agree all day that the DT play has been piss poor. But that still doesn’t explain Jaylon being out of position or doing a god awful job getting off blocks.

Oh yes he was horrendous at times. But I am willing to give him this year with a better scheme and better healthier surrounding players. As I think he was having his own health issues as well. He was a top 5 or so in the nfl in tackles so he wasn’t as bad as everyone makes him out to be.
It was the entire defense.

 

[HungryLion]

Oh yes he was horrendous at times. But I am willing to give him this year with a better scheme and better healthier surrounding players. As I think he was having his own health issues as well. He was a top 5 or so in the nfl in tackles so he wasn’t as bad as everyone makes him out to be.
It was the entire defense.

Jaylon is a Dallas cowboy. So I definitely hope he turns it around and plays lights out this season. I wanna win games. I don’t care which cowboys player does it. Just win.


But he is going to need to turn it around to be on the team much longer. Just given his contract.

So I hope for the best.