Pro Football Reference Average Value Rankings for 2020

[RonnieT24]

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...
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.
.


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.

 

[HungryLion]

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.

 

[Aven8]

Jaylon could be making the NFL minimum and it wouldn’t matter to me. He can’t play football plain and simple. He’s a liability.

 

[CowboyRoy]

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.

Easy explanation is that Jaylon is sitting back waiting for the action to come to him and funneling rather than being aggressive and hunting. Those other guys are all crashing in down on the line and behind the line trying to make plays. And coincidentally they miss a few more. Jaylon is playing prevent and they are playing tight man to man so to speak.

 

[Future]

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.

Beat me to it.

Actually making a tackle is rarely his problem.

 

[TwoCentPlain]

Just watch the tape. Don’t need any stats. Jaylon is soft, slow, can’t cover, and lacks fundamental football sense. Plain stinks.

 

[stilltheguru]

Beat me to it.

Actually making a tackle is rarely his problem.

This is your favorite website right?

 

[baltcowboy]

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.

Don’t let facts get in the way of an agenda. That’s the calling card of Cowboys Zone.

 

[JoeKing]

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.

Looking at stats alone sometimes lies about a player's performance. If you want to evaluate the performance of linebackers, you have to watch the tape. Jaylon was a lost puppy much of the time in 2020. He put himself out of position to make a play far too often. Just relying on what the stats say is just lazy. Any evaluator worth a damn will always watch the tape as well. It's glaring in the case of Jaylon Smith that something he was keying on was off much of the time. I think he can be fixed by a good coach. If so, he will do fine working with this new LB blood.

 

[Direwolf63]

I think the opening post says more about Pro Football Reference than it does about Jaylon Smith.

Not good

 

[CouchCoach]

Easier to make tackles from behind than head on. Tackles for loss or no gain should be the yardstick.

 

[jazzcat22]

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.

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.

 

[jazzcat22]

Easier to make tackles from behind than head on. Tackles for loss or no gain should be the yardstick.

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.

 

[fivetwos]

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.

Thanks for saving me the typing.

Exactly right.

 

[darthseinfeld]

Beat me to it.

Actually making a tackle is rarely his problem.

Stats only tell you so much. Data is never going to be Smiths issue

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

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.

he was charged with 9 miss tackles. you have to be in position to have a miss tackle.... but he was out of position to even have a miss tackle in about 40 others.....

 

[Future]

Stats only tell you so much. Data is never going to be Smiths issue

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.

 

[RonnieT24]

Looking at stats alone sometimes lies about a player's performance. If you want to evaluate the performance of linebackers, you have to watch the tape. Jaylon was a lost puppy much of the time in 2020. He put himself out of position to make a play far too often. Just relying on what the stats say is just lazy. Any evaluator worth a damn will always watch the tape as well. It's glaring in the case of Jaylon Smith that something he was keying on was off much of the time. I think he can be fixed by a good coach. If so, he will do fine working with this new LB blood.

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..

 

[JoeKing]

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..

LOL, you say you watch the games but then you commence to just give me more stats as a statistician will do. Rather than being so defensive trying to convince me you watch the games(as we all do) you should stick with what Jaylon Smith is doing on the field if you are attempting to defend him.

 

[darthseinfeld]

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..

Jaylon was pretty bad in 2019 as well