Just A Little Heads Up.

At the end of the 2007 season 25 out of the top 30 individual leaders in TOTAL TACKLES were linebackers. Five of the top 30 were defensive backs (including #4 Will Dunbar of UAB).

UAB was #114 in Total Defense.

The other 4 Defensive backs in the Top 30 in total tackles?

*Jordan Lake of Baylor (#110 in Total Team Defense)

*C.J. Spillman of Marshall (#107 in Total Team Defense)

*Alex Kube of Northern Illinois (#97 in Total Team Defense)

*Davonte Shannon of Buffalo (#72 in Total Team Defense)

My advice?

If the leading defensive tackler on a team is a defensive back, then LOOK OUT!

*UAB had the #4 tackler in the land, and he was a DB, and they gave up 487 yards per game. They gave up an average of 6.5 yards per play. They gave up 4.4 touchdowns per game and went 2-10 that year.

We can expand on this premise by locating the teams that have a high rate of DB tackles. Since the above mentioned teams already stunk on defense. What we can do is seek the higher rates of DB tackles on OVERRATED FAVORITES and, for that matter, overrated Doggies.

This should serve as a red flag in the NFL as well.

You might notice that the absence of Bob Sanders in the Colts defense causes that team to falter? You could see it in Denver, as well, in past seasons. It's a mini capping signal.

Heads up!

Please note that a DB in a "Stack" or "Pressure (man-coverage)" defense will be closer to the line. Nickle packages or Nickle copycats will also inflate a DB's tackle numbers.