Tackling Inefficiency Rating (Part 1) - Cornerbacks

Pro Football Focus and Sam Monson take a look at the state of tackling throughout the league, starting with cornerbacks. In the first installment of the series, our Tackling Inefficiency Rating shows you the best and worst players at getting their man to the ground in '09…

Deion Sanders might have been the first player who got people really thinking about tackling from the cornerback spot, even if it was for all the wrong reasons. Although he may have been the greatest cover corner to ever play the game, an awful lot of people will forever hold his play against the run against him, because he was known to make what he termed “business decisions” when it came to taking down a running back barrelling towards him. It's probably no coincidence that many of the new breed of cornerbacks in the NFL today who have experienced the Deion tutelage are known for being less than enthusiastic with their tackling.

Here at Pro Football Focus we decided to take a look not so much at a cornerback's willingness to come up and support the run, but what happens when he gets there and tries to make the tackle. We've taken a detailed record of tackles from our game analysis, which you may find differs from the standard tackle counts you'll find everywhere else. That is because we look back at film retrospectively to assess who is making tackles. This retrospective watching allows us to be sure about who is making a tackle, and can often involve multiple viewings of the same play, if necessary. From this data, we've devised a simple formula to work out what we have coined the Tackle Inefficiency Rating. It works like this (25 being the qualifying minimum number of solo tackles):

(Number of Missed Tackles/[Number of Missed Tackles + Number of Solo Tackles]) x 100 = TIR

Before we go any further, it's time for a quick disclaimer; this isn't to say who the best tacklers are and is purely based on the 2009 regular season. All we are doing here is providing some hard data to show how efficient some players were at making tackles the they attempted this past season and how inefficient others were. We don't take into account mitigating circumstances (say, injuries), and we always suggest taking a look at how we graded a player's performances via our player pages — or players by position pages — for more informed, accurate analysis.

On to the rankings, in which a low number is better than a high one. We'll start at the bottom, where one performance stands out from the rest. It's worth noting that this player battled a series of injuries throughout the year, but that can only explain away so much with a TIR rating much higher than any other. Missing an astounding 32.76 percent of the solo tackles he attempted was … Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel. Samuel has always been known as a coverage corner with outstanding ball skills and a penchant for jumping routes, but his level of tackling inefficiency is unacceptable and hurt the Eagles over the course of the season. To put things in perspective, Samuel missed 15 more than his partner Sheldon Brown, who finished just outside the top 15. For more perspective, consider that Samuel's TIR was almost 10 points higher than the next player.

Another big name player to have a disappointing TIR (and more surprising) is the Oakland Raiders' Nnamdi Asomugha, who failed on eight of his 39 solo tackle attempts to generate a 20.51 TIR. Asomugha isn't known as a poor tackler and is often praised for being a complete corner, grading well in terms of his play against the run, but he recorded four missed tackles against rush attempts and another four on pass plays. The Raiders must be hoping their star player can eliminate some of those missed tackles in 2010 and fully justify the huge amount of money he is set to earn next year.

Continuing the theme of high-profile players showing poorly, Ronde Barber (often lauded for his excellent tackling) was ninth overall. He missed 16 tackles last season, trailing only Samuel for cornerbacks in the sheer numbers of missed tackles. To give Barber some credit, he also tied for top in the list for the number of tackles made (at 72 for the year), but even so it's an absurdly high number of missed tackles and another indication that the remaining Barber twin is on the decline.

Getting topical, we look at some of the players involved in trades and free agent move over the past week. Recent Jets acquisition Antonio Cromartie has often had a reputation as a player who isn't as keen on tackling as maybe he should be, and he finds himself just outside the bottom ten with a 16.22 TIR. The man he replaced, Lito Sheppard, finds himself in 28th place at 12.90, so there won't be too much of a drop off in tackling when Cromartie joins the starting lineup. The other big cornerback story was how much money the Atlanta Falcons paid Dunta Robinson. In addition to struggling at times in coverage last year, Robinson wasn't amongst the better corners in tackling efficiency. He finished the year just above Cromartie, missing 15.6 percent of his tackle attempts. The Falcons have to be hoping that Robinson doesn't bring his tackling efficiency with him from Texas.

As for some of the better performers in the list, Antoine Winfield and Champ Bailey both justified their reputation as good run-supporting corners. Each ranked inside the top 15 and missed fewer than eight percent of their attempted solo tackles (7.69 for Winfield and 7.14 for Bailey). Perhaps this is something the Broncos value, as they have kept this trend of strong tackling corners going by signing Nathan Jones, who missed just three tackles in 32 attempts covering the slot for the Dolphins last season.

Free agent corner Nick Harper struggled at times last season but despite missing games, he tied for the most tackles in the league by a corner at 72 and missed on just 7.7 percent of his attempts. This left him just outside the top ten on our TIR list. Any team that signs him has to know that at least it will get a sure tackler. A player with a similarly high number of tackles was Richard Marshall, who some speculate could be on the move after being tendered at the second-round level by the Panthers. He missed just four tackles, another string to his bow that may get teams considering whether he is worth the second-round pick.

A final mention goes to the Bengals' Leon Hall, who deserves special attention for not only his excellent coverage, but also his tackling. He had the second-best TIR after missing two tackles the entire season (Al Harris finished first, missing one tackle before injury ended his season). From the Bengals' perspective, it is extremely encouraging to have Hall; the team could field one of the most complete cornerback duos in the league, with Johnathan Joseph finishing just outside the top 20. Interestingly, the NFC North proved to be the best division on this list, with five players inside the best 25. The NFC East, on the other hand, emerged as the poorest division for cornerback tackling efficiency, with six players ranking amongst the worst 25. This narrowly beat out the NFC South, with five players appearing in the same scale.
Highest TIR (Cornerbacks)

Lowest TIR (Cornerbacks)

For a full list of where the corners ranked, feel free to request this information at forum, via Facebook or twitter, or get in touch with the writer here with any other queries or points. Stay tuned for the next installment of the TIR.