Top 5 Middle Linebackers

[*Range Rat]

I'm biased
1. Mike Singletary (Sic'em Bears!)
2. Lee Roy Jordan (America's Team)
3-5. three other guys

 

[aljaklaw]

hard to name 5. have to separate by era (Dick Butkus, Ray Nitschke, Tommy Nobis anybody?). account for the 3-4. new era is transitioning to the 4-2-5 nickel.

could probably name 10-15 who all have arguments for being in the top 5. longevity or lack of? might disqualify some.

only 2 MLB/ILB have 12 consecutive 100-tackle seasons: London Fletcher and Bobby Wagner

 

[rallo]

Zach Thomas probably isn’t top 5 but deserves a mention.

Also, a juiced up Brian Cushing was pretty scary

 

[Tywithay]

Zach Thomas probably isn’t top 5 but deserves a mention.

Also, a juiced up Brian Cushing was pretty scary

Thomas got a lot of love just for his determination. Despite his below average size he played as well as anybody of the era. I think he's definitely top 5 of the 90s.

 

[Someonescoat]

Patrick Willis
Ray Lewis
Singletary
Seau
Luke Kuechly

I that order for me. Mostly showing my age there though as I really am not as family with the super old heads.

Zach Thomas is someone I always love watching too.

 

[aljaklaw]

Top 5 should only be players that have a claim to #1.

Willis and Kuechly don't belong in the Top 5. Dominant players, but only 8 seasons each, far less than their peers. Willis/Kuechly/Wagner are 1a 1b 1c in whatever order you want, Wagner is in his 12th season and I wouldn't put Wagner in the Top 5. Same goes for Urlacher. I'd rank Zach Thomas ahead of Urlacher.

Does Seau count? He was mostly SAM.

Ray Lewis has a claim to #1 and T2 in murders
Mike Singletary has a claim to #1
If Lee Roy Jordan has a claim, so does Tommy Nobis. Short careers in this era though.
Dick Butkus?
Jack Lambert?
Chuck Bednarik?

 

[JW Smoove]

Not sure how the old guts can be named without

.

 

[DataDude]

Been watching since the early 90’s and all I can say is Ray Lewis is the best I’ve ever seen. Urlacher is next and it’s a pretty wide gap to the next guys. Seems the outside LB spot is where the really talented athletes play these days.

 

[sheepdawg]

Butkus, Nitschke, Lambert, Huff and Singletary. They played when you could legally send people to the hospital