Never got the hype of Lewis and Urlacher. As good as either. BS he isn't being recognized amongst his peers. Got his Jersey in every color and a toddler size one for the dog. One of my top three all time Dolphins along with 39 and 34 and the OG 13 and 42 and 66 and 75 and 99 and 29 and 53 and .... You get it.
Im shocked he gave up football the way he did. If Singletary got a headcoaching gig, how did Zach not get a job as linebackers coach at minimum..
Zach absolutely belongs. Its a travesty that the lack of media attention that he got during his playing days is still hurting him years later with this.
Yes. I was surprised he advanced, but after looking at his numbers I guess I didn't appreciate how good he was.
Zach put up quieter stats, on a lot of losing teams. I blame Wanny for wasting the prime years of an outstanding defense by never trying to upgrade the QB position. How we had Ricky with a monster year rushing and a good defense and STILL didn't make the playoffs is just painful to remember.
Wanny's stupid adherance to insisting on winning his way was what killed us. Both Chan Gailey and Norv Turner got sick of him for choosing to punt so much in the second half of games. I once looked at every game of his tenure and found that there were seven games from 2000-03 where the Dolphins took a lead into halftime, failed to score a TD on offense in the second half, and ended up losing the game. (That does not include other games where they did score but still blew the lead, like the Nightmare in NY MNF game). If memory serves, those games would have turned our record in his tenure into 12-4, 13-3, 12-4. 11-5, with two or three first round BYEs, including the #1 seed in the AFC in 2002. His boneheaded game calling hurt the careers of a lot of people.
The big thing that elevates Zach to HOF levels imo is that he wasn't JUST a tackling machine like Jackson ... he was a playmaker. Look at the INT and fumble totals. Comparable to Urlacher who was also seen (rightly) as a playmaker. I'd be interested in seeing TFL numbers as well as just sacks - Zach never blitzed enough for a huge sack total, but he made tons of plays at or behind the line, sniffing out plays and getting to the ball carrier first. Penalizing Zach for having lots of tackles is insane - he did his job, and then some. I also may be wrong, but I don't recall horrible DL play?
Tackle for a loss became an official stat in 1999, Zach's 4th season. From that point on, he had 74, including 68 from 99-2006, his last full season with Miami. JT had 107 over the same time period, ranking second in the league behind Michael Strahan.
I know right? The DL was basically set up to let Zach attack the LOS and keep gains to a minimum. The fact that he is getting penalized by some for doing his job is nuts. Any LB to LB comparisons where you are looking?
During that 99-06 window in his prime, he ranked 26th in the league overall. If I remember correctly, the list was about 2/3 do and 1/3 lb. I'm not at my PC now, but I'll look later.