JackMagist said:
The one thing that I like about him is that he lead the Chiefs in tackles for two years running. You can't really blame him for the poor play of the other two or three guys (not sure what set they play). If he was leading the team in tackles he was probably doing his part and that is all I ask of him here; to take care of his assignments and have the other guys backs as much as possible.
By the way I finally decided to look up the actual tackle numbers...
So Fujita had his most tackles in 2003 (114) which is not exactly amazing but more importantly is only one tackle more than Shawn Barber, WLB, (113) in that same year. The MLB was by commitee but those guys still put up similar numbers too... It's not like Fujita was far and above the best tackler. He was just about average for the rest of the Linebackers. And at SLB he should have put up more tackles then Baber at the WLB. By the way that year (2003) the Cheifs were last in the league in 10+ yard runs. A pathetic 27% of all runs from scimage went for more than 10 yards.
He "led" in tackles the next year (2004) as well with 90 tackles. If that number seems low it should. Both of the other Linebacker spots faced injuries. One going down for the year while the other played 8 games. At MLB Mitchell, a rookie, slowly worked himself into the starting rotation and put up 74 tackles in less then 16 games.
I'm not sure I can think of a single team last year where 90 tackles would led. In fact it wouldn't have on the Cheifs if either Safety could have remained healthy for the season.
Anyway... He tackles numbers were barely higher than the other players around him. Being the only player of these positions (SLB, MLB, WLB, SS, and FS) to start all 16 games last year is the only reason he lead in tackles.
After looking at the numbers more closely I'm not at all impressed by his numbers.
One more thing... MLB and SLB are mostly responsible for the run D, the Will being a bigger part of the Coverage.
From the numbers I see... I'd keep the Will, Sign a FA Mike and Draft a new Sam... which, in no big surprise, is exactly what the Chiefs did...
