What was the single greatest season by a Falcons linebacker?

Somehow we skipped linebacker in this series, so we’re out to remedy that wrong today.

There are so many worthy players and worthy choices in this group that I felt like I had to exclude some borderline years from players like Sean Weatherspoon, Stephen Nicholas, and Fulton Kuykendall. I also tried to limit each player to just one year, their very best year, with all the difficulties that imposed.

Hopefully this winds up being a list you can get behind, either way. Here are some of the greatest individual linebacker seasons in Falcons history.

1967 Tommy Nobis

It’s so hard to reach way back into the past and really judge seasons like this with maybe a couple of highlight reels and some excited chatter about performances, but we’ll make an exception for maybe the best linebacker in team history.

Nobis was an All-Pro this year after picking 3 passes and returning one for a touchdown, and all you need to know about that honor is he got it ahead of the likes of Dick Butkus, Ray Nitschke, Sam Huff, Willie Lanier and Nick Buoniconti, all of whom would someday go to the Hall of Fame. Considering he didn’t get it the year before when he piled up 294 tackles, it’s safe to say this year would’ve melted your face off had you been there to see it.

Anecdotes appreciated from those who were!

1969 Greg Brezina

Brezina also carried a reputation as a stellar player, one who is not remembered as fondly as he should be, again in large part because the Falcons of those days stunk out loud. This was somehow Brezina’s lone Pro Bowl nod, and he earned it by being an extremely effective complement to Nobis and a man with a nose for the ball, as he scooped up 5 fumbles this season.

1980 Buddy Curry

Curry’s rookie season saw him arrive in the NFL with a splash. Besides being an energetic, well-balanced defender across the board, he put up a career high 3 interceptions, recovered a fumble and returned it for a touchdown, and was one of the key players on one of the best teams in franchise history up to that point.

1990 Jessie Tuggle

An absurdly great season by one of the best linebackers in team history. This year, Tuggle put up 201 tackles, 5 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, and 2 fumble recoveries, flying all over the field with the intent to make the other team pay and succeeding pretty much 100% of the time. Most of Tuggles’ Pro Bowl and All-Pro nods came later in his career when people were paying more attention to the Falcons, but this was probably his finest season.

2005 Keith Brooking

There’s a general sense in the fanbase that Brooking was an overrated player, and I understand that sentiment. You can think that and still acknowledge that 2005 was one of the most impressive seasons in team history, full stop.

This year, Brooking was everywhere, picking 4 passes, managing 3.5 sacks, deflecting 10 passes, recovering a fumble, and managing 5 tackles for loss.

2011 Curtis Lofton

I considered Sean Weatherspoon, too, as this was the best year of both his and Lofton’s respective careers. In the end, though, I think Lofton’s year has a better claim to the pantheon of great seasons, as he was an absolute monster against the run (147 tackles, 9 tackles for loss), a gigantic pest for opposing quarterbacks (2 picks, 9 pass deflections), and generally just the team’s most intimidating defender not named John Abraham. He would parlay this year into a big contract from the Saints, but he was never quite this good again.

2017 Deion Jones

The numbers were even more impressive in his rookie season, but Jones was still uneven in his first campaign. This was the year when it became abundantly clear that he was one of the league’s best young linebackers, as he piled up 10 tackles for loss, 3 picks, a sack, and 10 pass deflections en route to a Pro Bowl berth. It’s impossible to overstate how impressive Debo was this season, and this remains the gold standard year of his career thus far.

Who’s your choice?