Tony "Big Play" Brackens
Written on: Oktober 03, 2021
Title : Tony "Big Play" Brackens
link : Tony "Big Play" Brackens
Tony "Big Play" Brackens
By John Turney
Tony Brackens didn't start in his first two NFL seasons but he was an impact player for them ust the same. He played in rotations, every third series at end and then he'd take a series from Lageman so we'd estimate he played around 40% of the snaps in the base but also was a nickel edge rusher with Simmons 'sinking' to right tackle and Brackens would play right end. SOME of the time. Sometimes he'd be a "joker" as it is called now—a linebacker/defensive lineman hybrid that stands up behind the defensive lineman and picks a gap to rush or can drop to a middle zone or to a hood/curl zone and play zone defense or even lock up on a running back.
Brackens usually rushed, but if you watch the games he did plenty of coverage and made an impact while doing it. We cannot prove it but we'd guess that he was the NFL defensive lineman the dropped the most in zone blitzes due to the fact he could make plays doing it. Sure, it means for those plays he as out of the pass rush but like his teammate, Gary Walker said late in Brackens' career, "You can see that talent, he can play the run, he can rush the passer, he can drop into coverage and cover running backs and tight ends. He's the complete package". Those things applied early in his career as well.
In those first two years in that role be averaged 50 tackles, 9 stuffs, 7 sacks, 8 pass deflections, 5 forced fumbles, 2 fumbles recovered per season. There were a lot of starting defensive ends that didn't put up those kinds of numbers those two seasons. A lot.
Presumably, Tom Coughlin wanted more experience in his starters which is why in 1996 the right end was Clyde Simmons at left end was generally Jeff Lageman and that relegated Brackens to the rotational/nickel role we outlined.