[washingtonismoney]

I agree tackles is a bad metric.  Some of it is dumb luck... how often is a play run towards you.  And how often a play is run towards you may depend a bit in how poor a defender you are.  That being said, when Blake Martinez led the league in tackles a couple years ago, we took it as a mark that he was a pretty good player ("had a nose for the ball"), so there is something to the stat on an individual level (especially among the front 7).

Well, except Martinez contributed more obviously good  defensive plays. (Which I'll categorize as TFLs, sacks, passes broken up, and picks.) His senior year featured 6.5 TFL, 1.5 sacks, 6 PBU, 1 pick. During his junior year -- which is Perez's eligibility right now -- he collected 7 TFL, 4.5 sacks, 3 picks, 2 PBU.

Perez has never contributed much by way of those type of impact plays. Saying Martinez is similar to Perez in the statistic of "tackles" is like comparing a Porsche to a Ford Taurus in the category of "number of wheels."

[washingtonismoney]

I agree tackles is a bad metric.  Some of it is dumb luck... how often is a play run towards you.  And how often a play is run towards you may depend a bit in how poor a defender you are.  That being said, when Blake Martinez led the league in tackles a couple years ago, we took it as a mark that he was a pretty good player ("had a nose for the ball"), so there is something to the stat on an individual level (especially among the front 7).

Well, except Martinez contributed more obviously good  defensive plays. (Which I'll categorize as TFLs, sacks, passes broken up, and picks.) His senior year featured 6.5 TFL, 1.5 sacks, 6 PBU, 1 pick. During his junior year -- which is Perez's eligibility right now -- he collected 7 TFL, 4.5 sacks, 3 picks, 2 PBU.

Perez has never contributed much by way of those type of impact plays. Saying Martinez is similar to Perez in the statistic of "tackles" is like comparing a Porsche to a Ford Taurus in the category of "number of wheels."