Broncos LBs Brandon Marshall, Von Miller Don’t Miss Tackles
What makes an NFL linebacker great?
Don’t miss tackles.
The Denver Broncos had a couple of linebackers who were really good at that last year, perhaps the best duo in the entire NFL in Brandon Marshall and Von Miller.
According to Pro Football Focus’ advanced statistics, Marshall and Miller combined for 1,809 snaps and 134 tackles with just seven missed tackles between the two of them all season.
Preston Brown in Buffalo was the only 4-3 outside linebacker that played a comparable number of snaps and he finished last year with six total missed tackles.
Oakland Raiders rookie Khalil Mack, who had a phenomenal season overall, missed 11 tackles in over 1,000 snaps. Luke Kuechly also finished last year with 11 missed tackles in 1,015 snaps.
Now, these players aren’t grading poorly, by any means, nor am I saying someone is better than the other. However, when you look at the season Marshall and Miller had in 2014, it’s something worth noting that in over 1,800 snaps, they missed just seven tackles combined.
It’s no coincidence that both of these players were in Pro Football Focus’ top 101 players of last season, Miller ranking 10th and Marshall coming in at 60th. Miller would have easily been the best 4-3 outside linebacker by their metrics last year if not for a -3.5 penalty grade, which came as a result of five penalties throughout the course of the season. That was enough to put him a couple of points behind Oakland’s star rookie Khalil Mack, who was a force against the run by their metrics.
Marshall was a consistent force for the Broncos in really every phase of the defense. He was PFF’s highest graded coverage linebacker (tied at +10.1) and also graded out positively in his pass rush and run defense.
Last year, we saw more of the 2012 version of Von Miller than we saw in 2013 when he was a shell of his former self coming off of a suspension and playing at a much higher weight than is optimal for his skill set.
Marshall, whose breakout season landed him on the PFF top 101 and even garnered an All Pro vote, ranked third among 4-3 outside linebackers by PFF in their signature stat ‘Pass Rush Productivity’ which measures a player’s pressure created on a per snap basis with a weighting toward sacks.
It’s nice to have nice things.