Darius Leonard on pace for 265 tackles

[Stephen]

He prob wont get that but he may get close to 200

[HarryTheCat]

16 minutes ago, Stephen said:

He prob wont get that but he may get close to 200

Even 200 is an insane number of tackles. Most NFL tackle leaders get some number between 150 and 170 by the end of a season. As long as Leonard stays healthy he might just do it though. By January, I could be cooking up an extra-crispy batch of Kentucky Fried Crow for myself and the rest of us who thought that spending a 2nd round pick on him was just too high. The only question that remains is, do you serve red or white wine with crow?

[Colts Hippie]

From what I've researched, I think 217 is the record.

[Stephen]

2 minutes ago, Colts Hippie said:

From what I've researched, I think 217 is the record.

Yea and the most to happen recently was 175

[AZColt11]

I'm not as impressed with the number of tackles as I am the IMPACT plays he's making.  Sacks, pressures, TFL's, causing fumbles, even had his hands on a few passes.  THOSE are the ones I'm excited about and so far have him in the DROY running.

[Yoshinator]

9 minutes ago, AZColt11 said:

I'm not as impressed with the number of tackles as I am the IMPACT plays he's making.  Sacks, pressures, TFL's, causing fumbles, even had his hands on a few passes.  THOSE are the ones I'm excited about and so far have him in the DROY running.

Yep, you can get tackles and still be a bad player. Leonard is absolutely doing EVERYTHING on the field for us. He's a true gamechanger, 2nd best defensive player in the league behind Mack IMO.

[Luck 4 president]

If our offense can’t stay on the field then he will blow the record out of the water. Eagles had like 80 plays on offense. So breaking that record may not be a good thing.

[bananabucket]

How so?  41/3 * 16 = 219.

[throwing BBZ]

4 hours ago, Stephen said:

He prob wont get that but he may get close to 200

 

You meant 216.7 right?

[bananabucket]

3 hours ago, HarryTheCat said:

By January, I could be cooking up an extra-crispy batch of Kentucky Fried Crow for myself and the rest of us who thought that spending a 2nd round pick on him was just too high.

 

Only if you also agree to serve some up for those who defended Braden Smith over Harold Landry.  I think we got a nice consolation prize with Turay but I have very little doubt that Landry will wind up being a pro bowl caliber player.

 

Admittedly though I did think Leonard was more of a late 2nd round guy (mainly due to his poor testing) so I was scratching my head a bit when we took him.  Glad to be wrong so far.  

[NewEra]

Reminds me of Sanders out there flying around making plays

[MB-ColtsFan]

Do NFL rookies hit a "rookie wall" as some bball players do?  Leonard is on a torrid pace.  Conditioning will play a factor as we get into December.

[Coffeedrinker]

He won't get close to 200.  I think he has been playing great but teams will start to game plan for him and they will start shifting the blocking to account for him and his tackle numbers will drop.  Hopefully then, someone like Walker, Franklin and Goode will fill in and be the ones to start making plays again.

[aaron11]

18 minutes ago, MB-ColtsFan said:

Do NFL rookies hit a "rookie wall" as some bball players do?  

sure they do, fournette mentioned it last year

[coltsva]

Hopefully, his tackles decrease as our Dline tackles increase.

[coltsva]

Just now, coltsva said:

Hopefully, his tackles decrease as our Dline tackles increase.

Let me rephrase that:

 

hopefully, our Dline tackles increase, thus decreasing his tackles. 

 

Hmm, wonder if I’ll get a notification that I quoted myself?

[shasta519]

I would hope not. It would be cool...but more tackles...means more chance of injury. Hopefully the burden of tacking the ball carrier is one he will be able to share with other guys on the team.

 

Also, schemes will likely not allow him to maintain that level...especially if teams run plays that aren't near him or block him.

[IinD]

I do love when the guy blitzes... We've got a Colt who's actually good at it for once.

[chad72]

10 hours ago, AZColt11 said:

I'm not as impressed with the number of tackles as I am the IMPACT plays he's making.  Sacks, pressures, TFL's, causing fumbles, even had his hands on a few passes.  THOSE are the ones I'm excited about and so far have him in the DROY running.

 

Well said.

 

Bethea and Angerer were tops in tackle numbers in our 2011 season because they were on the field too long or were around the ball more often because teams did not feel the need to pass on us due to our putrid offense thus forcing Bethea to play closer to the line of scrimmage and needless to say, Angerer was the MLB. Angerer made several tackles after the RB had gained his yardage, in the form of drag down tackling, hence just using tackle numbers are meaningless without context of the impact it made like you said.

[pgt_rob]

So, he's a pretty good player, right? Can't believe the Colts finally found a great linebacker. Haha. I hope he continues to pan out for us. I was originally thinking that he just had a fluke game where he put up crazy numbers. But he's done it over 3 games in a row now. Maybe a Leonard jersey in the future for me. 

[Superman]

And 16 sacks, and 32 TFLs. Safe to say none of those paces will be maintained all season. 

 

But he's been phenomenal so far. He'll have to settle down when he has outside run contain, he's overrun several ball carriers and missed tackles because of it. But that's really the only complaint I have about his play so far. He's an easy favorite for Defensive ROY, and he's in the conversation for DPOY. 

 

Great pick by Ballard. Great job by the coaches in deploying him. 

[The Fish]

Teams are going to start scheming to take him away. It'll be interesting to see if he's still around the ball all the time. Bet he will.

 

 

[Defjamz26]

If I’m not mistaken he has more sacks than Bradley Chubb atm. Leads the NFL in tackles as well. Him getting DROY is almost a certainty if he stays healthy. The next guy who would even be in the convo is Denzel Ward.

[AZColt11]

20 hours ago, pgt_rob said:

So, he's a pretty good player, right? Can't believe the Colts finally found a great linebacker. Haha. I hope he continues to pan out for us. I was originally thinking that he just had a fluke game where he put up crazy numbers. But he's done it over 3 games in a row now. Maybe a Leonard jersey in the future for me. 

I gotta say I didn't see this coming.  I had barely heard of him, and knew he had some talent, but I figured he'd just end up another in a long line of failed to mediocre LB's the Colts had brought in.  I didn't expect too much.  History had told me not to.  But we may have just hit gold.  It's still VERY early in his career.  Offenses will adjust and so must he.  BUT, to this point. and if he can even somewhat maintain this pace, I think we're all gonna be very, very happy.  This could finally be the defensive piece to build around this team has been looking for.

[Lawrence Owen]

Leonard is not getting 200+ tackles...or 16 sacks, or 30 TFL's this year.  His sacks are all well timed blitzes while starting from his LB'er spot, (no creeping). So i'll expect offenses to start watching for it.  As for his tackles..he has so many because he is never taken off the field.  OFC you want your best player on the field as much as possible.  But he's almost never given a breather. (odd for a coaching staff who's been preaching rotation all offseason).  Walker shown a lot of improvement last game as he re-acclimate's to the game after his missed time. Si he'll cut into those plays as well.

[OLD FAN MAN]

ballard hit on this pick, we now have one above average player from his two drafts

[jvan1973]

1 minute ago, OLD FAN MAN said:

ballard hit on this pick, we now have one above average player from his two drafts

Hooker, walker,  Nelson,  Turay  .  Many others are coming along

[crazycolt1]

5 minutes ago, OLD FAN MAN said:

ballard hit on this pick, we now have one above average player from his two drafts

Must be sad for your eyesight to be going too.

[aaron11]

23 hours ago, The Fish said:

Teams are going to start scheming to take him away. It'll be interesting to see if he's still around the ball all the time. Bet he will.

they wont be able to do that if walker also keeps playing well.  i think its easier to block a mlb out of the play than it is a will too

[CaptainColt12]

There is a reason players on defense don't achieve 200+ tackles, it's because teams study the players moves and decisions. Lenoard will probably come down to about 6-7 tackles a game at around week 8. Usually you don't want your defense to have much tackles that means your offense is not on the field enough which will change as time goes on for Luck. If lenoard can manage 130 tackles I'll be very happy.

[OLD FAN MAN]

On 9/26/2018 at 12:32 AM, AZColt11 said:

I'm not as impressed with the number of tackles as I am the IMPACT plays he's making.  Sacks, pressures, TFL's, causing fumbles, even had his hands on a few passes.  THOSE are the ones I'm excited about and so far have him in the DROY running.

i concur

[Colt Overseas]

PFF have Anthony Walker Jr. grading out pretty well, he has played very well to beside Leonard too.