AJ Klein

In 12 games, Klein had 54 tackles combined (solo and assists). That's an average of 4.5 per game or 72 over a 16 game period. To put that into perspective, only playing 47% of our defensive snaps, Te'o had 62 and Craig Robertson had 80. Demario Davis had 135 combined tackles for the Jets last season. Heck, Stephone Anthony had over 100 his rookie season as our MLB.

So there's the biggest reason for the knocks on Klein. Another thing, as I think Ellias is alluding to... Klein had multiple opportunities to make a game changing play but failed to do so. I think the number of passes that bounced off his hands were in the double-digits and there were several fumbles that he should've recovered as well. So even with the low tackle #'s, he had plenty of chances to redeem himself by simply making the play.

There is one more thing to consider, though I'm not sure if it's a big deal or not... Klein played SAM linebacker in our base 4-3 last season and slid over to MLB in nickel. So that could've give him some mis-leading #'s at least to some extent. And nobody can argue that he had our defense lined up correctly and made good pre-snap changes. For the 12 games that he wore the headset, our defense was ready and set better than it had been for years.

This year, it's possible that he's the full time SAM which I've heard is his most natural position. He could very possibly be all we could ask for at that position. If so, he'll still need to cash in some splash plays to keep the boo-birds away. If not (or maybe even if so), his new knock will be that we're over-paying for a 2-down LB.