One of the most impressive stats any New Orleans Saints defender put together with their performance last season was the frequency at which linebacker Danny Stutsman wrangled tackles.
During his rookie year, he saw limited snaps. He appeared, mostly, in the third defensive drives of each half and averaged roughly 11 snaps per game for his first ten appearances before New Orleans began to give more opportunities for young players during the final three games of the year.
During his 204 defensive snaps throughout the season, Stutsman tallied a whopping 53 combined tackles, with 25 solo takedowns.
That means Stutsman was involved in a stop on approximately 26% of snaps during his rookie season. All while missing only 5.4% of his tackle opportunities.
That’s an incredible level of efficiency and production, and one that should have the Saints considering their options to get him out in the field more.
Now, maintaining that 26% tackle rate won’t be realistic as his snap volume increases. But holding around 13-15% would put him up with some of the league’s most proficient tacklers who see the field more often.
For instance, last year, now-New York Jets linebacker Demario Davis corralled a team-high 143 tackles on 1,024 defensive snaps. That was good for 13.3% of defensive plays.
As a linebacker sees more snaps, he’s met with more situations that impact the amount of plays in which he may get the chance to be involved. Therefore, 26% isn’t sustainable.
But as the example of Davis, one of the league’s most proficient tacklers and productive off-ball linebackers shows, even if that per-snap percentage falls, there’s a long way to go before it becomes anything less than impressive.
