<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (TheBeef)</div><div class='quotemain'>1st, Spikes is an OLB, not a MLB....2nd Brookings plays ILB in a 3-4, not MLB....3rd, Zack Thomas is popular becuase he gets so much out of limited physical talent, but hes not nearly as good as Urlacher....4th, Urlacher is the best defensive player in the league, at any position, no one is more versitile....5th, he will be great in the Bears new system, because he has the speed it take to drop into the deep zone that the Cover 2 requires out of the MLB....6th, Ray Lewis is excellent, but I think hes more overrated than Urlacher</div> Beef, eaglesfan is correct on colvin,washington leaving and it effecting urlacher's play. He was bounced around alot last year. i love the kid he has alot of potential, but the bottom line is he wasnt nearly the impact he was his first and second season. Ray lewis is clearly the best middle linebacker in the game. How can he be overated? He takes the crows on his back and excutes by his play of the field. How many games have we seen lewis be on almost every single tackle then at some point in the game he's causing a huge turnover. Whether its a int or fumble lewis is always a part of it, more so then 54 in chicago or 54 in miami. Bottom line, is all can hate lewis but he is the best linebacker in the game since singletary or butkus. No one is more dominant in the middle then ray lewis.
you r right he is the best, but he was not as good at the same stage in his career that urlacher is now. also eaglesfan urlacher is the only middle backer in the league that o-coordinators cant exploit as huge mismatch because he is 6'4" and runs like a safety, so he has size and strength to match any TE and power to tackle any back. as to making more plays before with colvin and washington, every player in the league is better with good players around them, and ray lewis has certainly had that advantage his whole career.
Urlacher: Year Team G Total Tckl Ast Sacks Int Yds Avg Lg TD Pass Def 2000 Chicago Bears 16 124 98.0 26 8 2 19 9.5 19 0 3 2001 Chicago Bears 16 116 89.0 27 6 3 60 20.0 41 0 5 2002 Chicago Bears 16 151 115.0 36 4.5 1 0 0.0 0 0 6 2003 Chicago Bears 16 116 87.0 29 2.5 0 0 0.0 0 0 4 Ray Lewis: (First 4 seasons) Year Team G Total Tckl Ast Sacks Int Yds Avg Lg TD Pass Def 1996 Baltimore Ravens 14 110 94.0 16 2.5 1 0 0.0 0 0 5 1997 Baltimore Ravens 16 183 155.0 28 4 1 18 18.0 18 0 10 1998 Baltimore Ravens 14 118 99.0 19 3 2 25 12.5 26 0 5 1999 Baltimore Ravens 16 167 131.0 36 3.5 3 97 32.3 60 0 5 I think Lewis was every bit as good in his first 4 seasons. Ulacher had more sacks as a rookie... the only difference.
BF1 I diagree, After Baltimore purged their talen year after their superbowl team. Ray Lewis was still every bit as dominating as he ws before, and that's without Tony Siragusa and Sam adams in front of him. He has done it with more then one cast of characters. Dont get me wrong BF1, Urlacher is a good player, just not as good as you think.
what do you mean talent purge they still had woodson, boulware, mccalister after the super bowl along with several other good players
I take 3 linebackers on my all etrain team! Ray lewis, Brian urlacher and Lavar arrington 3 of the best ive seen in long time.
the Ravens also kept McCrary and Burnett, and when they lost Kim Herring, they replaced him with a better safety in Ed Reed....the Ravens never purged all thier talent like people think they did
Taking off the sugar coating, I still believe that Ray Lewis was as talented and played as well as Urlacher did in his first 4 seasons. I watched him play at least twice a year and this guy was explosive. I'm not knocking Urlacher. He should have a great career, but I don't think he is better than Lewis was. If the supporting cast was so good, I would think his (Lewis) stats would suffer, but I'm guessing everyone has differing opinions on that.
