Alabama Roots: Top 10 in NFL tackles

No less an authority than Vince Lombardi said: “Football is two things. It’s blocking and tackling. I don’t care about formations or new offenses or tricks on defense. You block and tackle better than the team you’re playing, you win.”
And yet the NFL doesn’t have official statistics for either of those foundations of football.
The lack of blocking stats seems understandable. But tackles? It appears so simple to track, and unlike blocking numbers, tackle statistics are kept at every NFL game. Each NFL game book has a page that lists the individual tackles as well as all the other defensive statistics for each player. And the NFL’s official website will have the season totals of the league’s tackle leaders updated week by week during the 2023 campaign.
Yet the NFL’s official “Record and Fact Book” has no listings for the game’s most prolific tacklers along with its pages and pages of information on the top passers, rushers, receivers, interceptors, kick returners and sackers.
Apparently, the stat has proven too unreliable to be officially sanctioned. Studies have shown that while solo tackles are recorded rather uniformly by stat crews throughout the league, with assisted tackles there has seemed to be a home-field advantage – that is, the home team’s players routinely end up with more assists than the visitor’s do.
Or as former Auburn standout Karlos Dansby said about tackle stats while a member of the Arizona Cardinals: “I think it’s some (expletive), personally.”
The recorded stats are out there, and profootballreference.com has compiled them for all players since the 1987 season. As with sacks, which became an official NFL statistic in 1982, the tackle numbers give an incomplete picture of the league’s 103 seasons of play.
But for the 36 seasons that profootballreference.com has complete stats, Takeo Spikes has totaled the most NFL tackles for a player from an Alabama high school or college and two active players, New York Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley and Denver Broncos safety Kareem Jackson, are among the career leaders.
Mosley recorded 158 tackles in 2022 to give him 326 in the past two seasons. But he wasn’t the player with Alabama football roots with the most tackles last season. Linebacker Rashaan Evans (Auburn High, Alabama) recorded 159, the eighth-most in the NFL, but he remains an unsigned free agent with training camps opening for the 2023 campaign.
The 10 players with Alabama football roots who have the most NFL tackles include:
1. Takeo Spikes, Auburn: 1,431 tackles
Cincinnati Bengals 1998-2002, Buffalo Bills 2003-2006, Philadelphia Eagles 2007, San Francisco 49ers 2008-2010, San Diego Chargers 2011-2012: The inside linebacker recorded eight 100-tackle seasons and was a first-team All-Pro in 2004 and a Pro Bowler in 2003 and 2004.
2. Karlos Dansby, Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, Auburn: 1,422 tackles
Arizona Cardinals 2004-2009, 2013, 2017, Miami Dolphins 2010-2012, Cleveland Browns 2014-2015, Cincinnati Bengals 2016: The linebacker recorded seven 100-tackle seasons.
3. Cornelius Bennett, Ensley High School in Birmingham, Alabama: 1,190 tackles
Buffalo Bills 1987-1995, Atlanta Falcons 1996-1998, Indianapolis Colts 1999-2000: The outside linebacker recorded five 100-tackle seasons and was a first-team All-Pro in 1988 and a Pro Bowler in 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993.
4. Ronald McKinnon, Elba High School, North Alabama: 1,011 tackles
Arizona Cardinals 1996-2004, New Orleans Saints 2005: The middle linebacker recorded five 100-tackle seasons.
5. DeMeco Ryans, Jess Lanier High School in Bessemer, Alabama: 970 tackles
Houston Texans 2006-2011, Philadelphia Eagles 2012-2015: The middle linebacker recorded six 100-tackle seasons and was a Pro Bowler in 2007 and 2009 and the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2006.
6. C.J. Mosley, Theodore High School, Alabama: 914 tackles
Baltimore Ravens 2014-2018, New York Jets 2019, 2021: Mosley has had at least 100 tackles in all six of the NFL seasons in which he has played at least 15 games. Mosley was a Pro Bowler in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2022.
7. Kareem Jackson, Alabama: 901 tackles
Houston Texans 2010-2018, Denver Broncos 2019-2022: Jackson played cornerback during his time with the Texans. He switched to safety when he joined the Broncos and recorded his top single-season tackle total with 94 in 2022.
8. Roman Harper, Prattville High School, Alabama: 820 tackles
New Orleans Saints 2006-2013, 2016, Carolina Panthers 2014-2015: The strong safety recorded two 100-tackle seasons and was a Pro Bowler in 2009 and 2010.
9. Mike Pitts, Alabama: 814 tackles
Atlanta Falcons 1983-1986, Philadelphia Eagles 1987-1992, New England Patriots 1993-1994: The defensive lineman recorded four 100-tackle seasons.
10. Eddie Robinson, Alabama State: 804 tackles
Houston Oilers 1992-1995, Jacksonville Jaguars 1996-1997, Tennessee Titans 1998-2001, Buffalo Bills 2002: The outside linebacker’s top tackle total for a season was 90 in 1998.