Patrick Willis Already Among Linebacking Elite

In the Oct. 20 “ESPN The Magazine,” Patrick Willis is ranked first in the league as the fastest to the ball.

That is quite amazing, when you consider that Willis is ranked ahead of two excellent safeties: Pittsburgh’s Troy Polamalu and New England’s Rodney Harrison.

Baltimore’s Ray Lewis is ranked first in the league for best tackler, but guess who is second?

Willis.

In only his second season, Willis is on the upside and no one knows what his pinnacle will be. Barring injuries, he could be one of the best linebackers to ever play the game.

That is saying something.

Although it’s great that Willis’ skills were recognized by ESPN, what ESPN didn’t tell us is that Willis is putting up numbers that have placed him far ahead of Lewis and Urlacher.

Willis is ranked third in the NFL in total tackles with 54.

Only Cincinnati’s Dhani Jones (61) and Jonathan Vilma (56) are ahead of him at this point.

What’s missed by many analysts and writers is the fact that the “total tackles” stat is somewhat misleading.

In my opinion, what is more important is the solo tackle total.

In this stat, Willis clearly leads the NFL with 44, one sack and six passes defensed.

Jones (40) and Vilma (38) do not have a sack.

In fact, these two quality linebackers are ranked fifth (Jones) and sixth (Vilma) in solo tackles.

What about Lewis and Urlacher?

Urlacher has 30 solos, three assists and no sacks for a rank of 24^th.

Lewis is way down on the list with a 50^th rank for solo tackles with 26, 10 assists and one sack.

San Francisco’s front office has done a decent job with managing the salary cap in terms of dollars; however, it has mismanaged the personnel decisions of paying “experienced” defensive players obscene amounts of money for less-than-adequate production.

Let's hope they have some left, when it's time for Willis to negotiate, to adequately compensate this outstanding and special athlete.