One Piece of the Greatness of Patrick Willis

LOOKING BACK
by Nick Webster

When I first saw Patrick Willis play for the San Francisco 49ers there was only one player who came to my mind as a comparable talent—Ray Lewis. Hyperbole? No. Stylistically, physically, mentally, he was the most similar player I could think of. Over the course of the years that have passed, little has changed this impression in my mind. To me, the most obvious similarity is the combination of the anticipation to know where to make a play and the ferocity with which they each arrived in making that play.

Patrick Willis. Art credit John Turney

Ray Lewis exploded on the scene in 1996 with an immediate impact, albeit on a poor Raven team, just as Willis would years later. Then, slowly, the Raven defense built around Lewis to become one of the best of all-time. Similarly, the 49ers built around their strongest asset: Willis, to build a defense that—were it not for their neighbors up North—would certainly be considered among the best of the decade.

In the year prior to reaching his crescendo as a Super Bowl champion, Ray Lewis posted one of the most extraordinary stats of all-time. He had seven pass stuffs during the 1999 season, seven times in a single season, from his linebacker position, Lewis was able to tackle a player who caught a pass behind the line of scrimmage—a pass "stuff".

Dating back to 1982, this was the first time a figure of this high was posted. And, that figure stood for just under two decades until DeAndre Levy tied it in 2014. To what degree was this a historical outlier?  Here are the pass stuff leaders for every year of the past two decades:

Year	Name	Pass Stuffs		Graph
1995	Ken Harvey	4
1996	Seth Joyner	4
1997	Jessie Armstead	4
tie	Randall Godfrey	4
1998	John Mobley	4
1999	Ray Lewis	7
2000	London Fletcher	4
2001	Takeo Spikes	3.5
2002	Al Wilson	3.5
tie	Mike Maslowski	3.5
tie	Sam Cowart	3.5
2003	Nick Harper	5
tie	Antoine Winfield	5
2004	Morlon Greenwood	4
2005	Demorrio Williams	4
2006	Scott Shanle	3
tie	Chris Gamble	3
tie	Asante Samuel	3
tie	Karlos Dansby	3
tie	Deshea Townsend	3
2007	David Thornton	4
tie	David Harris	4
tie	Nate Webster	4
2008	Antoine Winfield	4
2009	Nick Barnett	3.5
tie	Patrick Willis	3.5
tie	DeMeco Ryans	3.5
2010	Paris Lenon	6
2011	Aaron Curry	4
tie	Navorro Bowman	4
2012	Thomas Davis	5
2013	Thomas Davis	6
2014	DeAndre Levy	7

Lewis’ seven was an absolute outlier amongst a series of four pass stuff leaders. And while Willis appears only once as a single-season leader, his year-in-year-out consistency means his career pass stuffs are in excess of any linebacker to play in the past twenty years—a list that includes many of the recent greats at the position. Pro Football Journal will miss you,  Patrick Willis, the Hall of Fame awaits.

Career leaders in pass stuffs:

Rk	Nm	PStf	Avg	GP
1	Patrick Willis	21.5	3.1	112
2	Thomas Davis	18	2.5	117
3	Brian Urlacher	17.5	1.5	182
3	London Fletcher	17.5	1.5	256
5	Karlos Dansby	16.5	1.6	164
6	Ray Lewis	15	1.1	228
7	Daryl Smith	13.5	1.3	166
8	DeAndre Levy	12.5	2.2	89
9	Bradie James	12	1.2	157
9	Will Witherspoon	12	1.0	189
9	Derrick Brooks	12	0.7	224
12	Takeo Spikes	11.5	0.8	219
13	Wesley Woodyard	11	1.7	103
13	David Thornton	11	1.5	121
13	Keith Bulluck	11	1.0	170
16	Lavonte David	10.5	3.7	46
17	Pisa Tinoisamoa	10	1.6	98

Honors and Stats—