Derrick Brooks No. 5
May 29th, 2018
“Hey Sapp, you see where I am ranked?”
This is some pretty cool stuff.
Gil Brandt is now in his sixth decade working in the NFL in some form or another. The former director of player personnel for the Cowboys was a key figure in building the Dallas dynasty under head coach Tom Landry.
He began his football career in 1955 as a part-time scout with the Rams. He currently works part-time for the NFL helping organize the combine each season (which he and his friend Al Davis helped create), in addition to working for SiriusXM NFL Radio and writing columns for NFL.com.
Brandt has seen a lot in his days. A lot. And recently, he ranked the best linebackers he has seen in his six decades working in the NFL.
As far as linebackers go, Brandt has Hall of Fame linebacker Derrick Brooks as his No. 5 linebacker. That is some impressive stuff. Brandt has Brooks ranked ahead of Jack Lambert, Mike Singletary, Ray Lewis and Willie Lanier.
Also, former Bucs linebacker Hugh Green was ranked No. 31. That dude is so forgotten it is not funny.
As for Brooks, Joe will never forget the day in 2002 when Brooks just about singlehandedly shut down Michael Vick of the Dixie Chicks. What an awesome game that was.
May 29th, 2018 at 10:29 am
“Who’s your favorite player?…………….Mr. Derrick Brooks!”
May 29th, 2018 at 10:49 am
Brooks was special, but Joe you are right, Hugh Green was part of that core that started the defense minded Bucs with Richard ‘Batman” Woods, Dewey Selmon, Cecil Johnson and carried on with Scott Brantley…
May 29th, 2018 at 10:58 am
What a great player and man….I mean person.
May 29th, 2018 at 11:01 am
one of the GOATS!!!!!!!!
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!…#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!!…GO BUCS!!!!
May 29th, 2018 at 11:05 am
Like the fact that his list spans over decades makes it interesting but creates more arguments as to who is better. Would have liked to have seen my favorite Hardy Nickerson on that list, but so many good LB’s to choose from. Also miss Scott Brantley. Used to see him around town all the time and a great guy. I know he had some health issues but have not heard how he’s doing lately.
May 29th, 2018 at 11:11 am
Hugh Green was unstoppable, really liked the Sandman Broderick Thomas back in the day but the bucs were garbage…. If not for Dungy stubborness the bucs would of been in 4-5 super bowls and d brooks & sapps defenses would be talked as all time greats
May 29th, 2018 at 11:29 am
Bucsfanman Says:
May 29th, 2018 at 10:29 am
“Who’s your favorite player?…………….Mr. Derrick Brooks!”
——————–
You know that’s right! I LOVE me some DB55 but ahead of Ray Lewis, Singletary and Lambert idk about all that. But cool article nevertheless
May 29th, 2018 at 11:30 am
Saw Hugh Green play at Pitt…..with Marino……FSU beat that team…amazing game, Bobby Bowden made sure Hugh was running side to side all night, hot and humid, by fourth quarter he was out of the game with cramping….
May 29th, 2018 at 11:38 am
Great player, class act.
May 29th, 2018 at 11:38 am
In other news it looks like we might not have one player on the top 100 list this year, which to me is AWESOME news. Hopefully this shows each player on this team that last year was 100% unacceptable and it should never happen again as long as they play for this organization. We are down to the top 40 so the only shot left is Evans or McCoy and I am not sure either one of them are gonna make it with the poor stats they put up last year. While this list is largely garbage, as it has Jimmy G and Deshaun Watson on it after not even playing an entire season, it still carries weight among the players so hopefully it creates some “we’ll show you” amongst our best players this year and beyond.
May 29th, 2018 at 11:39 am
Great player, class act.
May 29th, 2018 at 11:44 am
DB55- Yeah, that’s some pretty high company. He’s my boy though.
Great list by Brandt, at least in names.
May 29th, 2018 at 11:53 am
Hugh, Hugh, Hugh, Hugh
Really great player. Maybe one of the best college defensive players ever. Had he been and stayed healthy he might be up there with Brooks.
Naturally, we traded him away. Round about the same time we got rid of Steve Young. And close proximity to drafting Bo Jackson.
Sterling personnel moves.
May 29th, 2018 at 2:02 pm
My alltime favorite Buccaneer! A guy we cut when we wanted to make our Gruden team of senior citizen (for NFL) players into a team of young ones. I was so upset because I feel like he had more left in the tank. Lengendary FSU and Buc player. All around good person and model citizen in the TB community.
May 29th, 2018 at 3:57 pm
Convinced Steve Young never would have blossomed into a Hall of Fame quarterback had he not played for Bill Walsh.
There was a “Football Life” episode of Steve Young where he said when the 49ers traded for him, the first thing Walsh did was retool Young’s footwork. Young said Walsh told him passing was all about timing and if his footwork was sloppy and inconsistent, he would never release the ball at the proper time and in turn, his play (and execution of the offense) would suffer.
Young said he never heard of that before but Walsh’s magic worked perfectly.
And who was the Bucs coach when Young played here? A meathead defensive coach Leeman Bennett.
May 29th, 2018 at 4:58 pm
What’s even more impressive is that of the top 10 on this list (top 11 actually) – only 3 played in the “modern era”. #1 LT, #2 DT and #5 DB.
LT and DT were primarily sack specialists – leaving Derrick Brooks as the most complete – do it all – sideline to sideline – Outside LBer in the modern era of NFL football.
High Cotton indeed. And some greatly deserved recognition.
Derrick Brooks is the greatest Buccaneer in the 42 year history of the franchise and any argument to the contrary falls short based on stats and longevity.
May 29th, 2018 at 7:52 pm
Remember when the Bucs played the Bills in one of the few games I was able to attend. Everyone was afraid of how Thurman Thomas was going to run all over them. They had Green shadow him all game and pretty much shut him down. Was a great game but we lost in the last minutes.
May 30th, 2018 at 12:08 am
The only thing Ray Lewis was better than Brooks at was murdering people.