In today’s NFL, exceptional off-ball linebackers are hard to come by.
The draft position of the top players at each position is the most obvious sign of that truism. The number of selections in the fifth round (two: Roquan Smith and C.J. Mosley) was equal to that in the first round. We have T.J. Edwards, an undrafted player, and Zaire Franklin, a seventh-round pick, in our ranks.
Moreover, it’s one of the veteran-heavy cohorts of any position we’ve looked at. Nothing among the top players still has a rookie contract on them.
Off-ball linebackers haven’t received premium paydays like top defensive linemen have. But it’s hard to look at the impact top players like Fred Warner have on their teams without concluding they’re very valuable.
Our writers listed their best 10 off-ball linebackers based on their confidence in each player were he healthy and set to take the field for a game next week. A first-place vote merited 10 points in our methodology and descended from there, down to a single point for 10th place. We then combined the scores to determine our rankings.
Eric D. Williams: At the controls of one of the best defenses in the NFL, the BYU product has emerged as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate because of his playmaking ability. A two-time All-Pro, Warner has 48 combined tackles, including three tackles for loss, two sacks and an interception. He has finished with at least 100 tackles in his first five seasons in the league.
Carmen Vitali: Even with the emergence of Tremaine Edmunds, I have to think the Chicago Bears are missing Roquan Smith after trading him away to the Baltimore Ravens at last season’s deadline. Baltimore promptly made Smith the highest-paid inside linebacker in the league with an average yearly salary of $20 million. He currently sits fourth in the league in combined tackles.
Smith fit right into the Ravens’ scheme, despite arriving in the middle of the season, and had 86 tackles in nine games. It put him over 160 for the year and earned him All-Pro honors as well as his first Pro Bowl nod. This is weird given that Smith has, in fact, never had a season with fewer than 100 tackles in his career. Even more than the stats though, Smith is a leader. If the Ravens had season-long captains, you have to think he’d be one of them.
Greg Auman: Simply ageless. At 34, he’s been better in the second half of his career, on course to hit 200 games at the end of this season. If he gets to 100 tackles, it’ll be the seventh straight season — and he has 38 sacks as well. He and Cam Jordan are the veteran leaders as the Saints, led by their defense, try to get back to the playoffs.
Henry McKenna: The Buffalo Bills have — or had before his injury — a special linebacker to hold together their defense in the wake of Tremaine Edmunds’ departure for the Chicago Bears in free agency this offseason. Milano has flown under the radar for way too long and this year, he has gotten his flowers. In five games, he had 30 tackles, three run stuffs, one forced fumble and two interceptions. He’s a playmaker and — at least this year — he was a ballhawk. Buffalo is hoping desperately that he’ll recover from his knee injury before the season ends.
Vitali: David is a perennially underrated player and I’m tired of it. I’ve been tired of it. He’s in his 12th NFL season and just led his team in tackles against the Detroit Lions with 12 (fittingly). He had a sack, two tackles for loss and pass breakup, too. David has been a stalwart on the Tampa Bay defense through multiple coordinators, multiple schemes and still manages to be incredibly productive.
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