3 Most Overrated Jacksonville Jaguars of All Time, 1 HC makes the cut
By Jeff Tice
No. 2 most overrated contributor in Jaguars history: Tony Brackens
Again, this doesn't mean Tony Brackens was a bad player. He was good. Really good. In fact, this writer once spoke to a former Jags offensive lineman who said that Tony Brackens was a different level of athlete. He said he once showed up in basketball shoes to practice and was still unblockable.
You can find him on Top Ten lists of All-time Jaguars, such as this one, and therein lies the overrating.
Tony Brackens, unfortunately, was more of an anti-Meester than anything — a player who had interstellar talent but was dogged by injuries — and rarely had the opportunity to put it all together for the franchise.
If one talks to most Jaguars fans who were around in the 90s, they will talk about Brackens like he is this franchise's version of Javon Kearse or Dwight Freeney. While he does resemble them in terms of being arguably the best individual pass rusher in franchise history (although Calais Campbell might have something to say about that), his career numbers fall far short of those guys.
Brackens' monster year was 1999, when he had 12 sacks and a whopping eight forced fumbles. That's a good year. But, he only had one other double-digit sack year, and the rest of his injury-ravaged seasons only allowed him to total 55 career sacks.
By way of comparison, Kearse had 74 career sacks, and three double-digit sack years, plus a fourth 9.5 sack year. Dwight Freeney was on a whole different level, totaling 125.5 career sacks. When you look at all-time greats, the truth is the Jaguars are still waiting on their all-time great pass-rusher to arrive. Hopefully, second-year outside linebacker Travon Walker can be that.