Kwon The Enforcer
August 29th, 2017
Don’t fool with him.
If one is to believe the well-trained orangutans at the PFF tribe, there are few linebacker warriors like Kwon Alexander.
After clicking for months on their Excel spreadsheets, the tribe spit out the best linebackers in the NFC South for registering stops. And there is no one close to the leader last year, Alexander.
Now the tribe considers a stop to be “any instance where the primary tackler prevents an offensive success.”
How they define “offensive success” is a whole different matter (feel free to bore yourself clicking on the link in the previous paragraph), which really opens the door to question the validity of their numbers. As Joe has repeatedly written over the years, he learned in high school one can twists stats any which way to build an argument. This is a perfect example.
For argument’s sake, let’s push that aside. Per the tribe, last year Alexander had 35 stops to lead the NFC South. Craig Robertson of the Saints had 26 and stud Luke Kuechly of the Stinking Panthers had 23, as did Deion Jones of the Dixie Chicks.
To be fair, Kuechly only played in 10 games. Joe will never forget the scene of Kuechly, in a Thursday night game against the Saints last year. Suffering from a concussion, and as he was sitting on the ground and trainers told him he had to leave the game, he started crying. That’s a friggin’ warrior right there, and Joe has the sense Alexander has the same heart and passion for the game.
Still, this says a lot about Alexander and may say more. The tribe isn’t a huge fan of Alexander because they claim he misses too many tackles. Well, if he is head-and-shoulders better than anyone else (not counting Kuechly missing six games) in the division in stops, imagine what kind of force Alexander could be if he cleans up his tackling.
That is, if you believe the NFL leader in solo tackles needs to clean up his tackling.
August 29th, 2017 at 4:14 pm
If Kwon leads in stops plus has too many missed tackles…..it could mean one of two things or a combination.
He is around the ball most often or, and…….Our D line let the ball carrier through to meet Kwon.
August 29th, 2017 at 4:15 pm
From their site:
‘Offensive success’ logically varies by down and distance with our official cutoffs for stops being as follows:
1st down: <40% of required yardage
2nd down: <60% of required yardage
3rd down: <100% of required yardage
4th down: <100% of required yardage
Interesting 'metric'. Personally, I think if they pick up anything over 3 yards (30%) on 1st down, the offensive is having success (although that's like the baseline amount needed obviously).
August 29th, 2017 at 4:27 pm
The NFL leader in solo tackling misses too many tackles. Classic PFF thinking and reasoning there.
August 29th, 2017 at 4:28 pm
Might prove a little more difficult this season,the instinct KB displayed on that force fumble against the brown was simply a thing of beauty.
August 29th, 2017 at 4:33 pm
^^ Yea that made me laugh too.
From my naked eye, he seemed to miss far less tackles last year than as a rookie. Of course I don’t go back and rewatch game tape.
August 29th, 2017 at 5:02 pm
When you check the stats he doesn’t have a ton of assists tho. My thought is we need more hats around the ball so some to the missed becomes assists. He far and away leads the league in solo, but not in total.
August 29th, 2017 at 5:39 pm
I can’t figure out why Kuechly Madden rating is so much higher than Kwons?
August 29th, 2017 at 5:42 pm
Luke Kuechly rated at 98
Kwon rated at 80
Note: Shady Brady rated at 99
August 29th, 2017 at 5:50 pm
Ummm dude. You’re talking about a video game……..why exactly do you think that has anything to do with the NFL, Buccaneers, #58, or anything that is anywhere close to relevant to this article or conversation.
Wake up man. In reality the performance of our cheerleaders have more impact on the play of Kwon then your dumb ole video game stats.
August 29th, 2017 at 5:54 pm
that’s a good point tnew
August 29th, 2017 at 6:35 pm
Joe hates the PFF tribe and all their manipulative stats but he certainly has them at his disposal to share. I appreciate it and at rare times can see the value in certain stats. Mainly, I’m just a dude that trusts his eyes on Sundays. I chose not to bore myself by clicking on the link. This begs the question, Joe(s) have you been manipulated by the PFF tribe enough to even show their stats? Say it ain’t so.
August 29th, 2017 at 7:37 pm
Remember, there are two Joe’s here. One won’t wipe his rear end with the tribe’s garbage. The other Joe tries to keep an open mind but believes the vast majority of the tribe’s statistical gibberish to be a waste, specifically their “grades.” Who does the “grading?” What are they using as a barometer? Have they coached at any level of football? Have they played at any level of football? What are their qualifications to be the self-proclaimed guardians of the game?
As has been from the day launched this site, if something interests Joe, he will write about it.
No, Joe will not link to their stats because Joe refuses to pay for their stats.
August 29th, 2017 at 7:59 pm
Kuechly getting the defensive MVP award a few years back was a huge joke – he wasn’t even the best LB in his own division that year as David absolutely destroyed him not only in stats but on the field as well. Kuechly is a very very good player, but I’d rather have David or Kwon and it’s not even close.
August 29th, 2017 at 8:02 pm
Joe you opened my eyes on PFF – then I started paying more attention to their numbers and sure enough, it’s mostly nonsense with very little consistency.
With that said Football Outsiders runs a PFF like service but in my opinion is much more consistent and much more accurate with its numbers – their stats are clearly explained and tend to match what I see on the field. So while I’m sure you do keep up with them already, just throwing that out there just in case you don’t.
August 29th, 2017 at 9:17 pm
Rod:
Joe knows the guys who run Football Outsiders and we often have beers at some point during combine week. They are reasonable if not objective.
August 29th, 2017 at 10:21 pm
Uh… Luke was crying before they told him he had to leave the game. In fact, Luke mentioned he didn’t remember crying. Perhaps this is an example of creative editing by Joe… smh
August 29th, 2017 at 11:24 pm
Joe – Cool to know, yeah you should quote Football Outsiders more as a legit source of stats, they normally do a great job in equating stats with reality. Are they local to this are you do you see them when you’re jetting around the country?
August 30th, 2017 at 2:57 am
Football Outsiders are superior.