For the second time in four weeks, the Miami Dolphins have an AFC Defensive Player of the Week.
With his twenty tackle performance in Madrid against the Washington Commanders on Sunday, linebacker Jordyn Brooks won his second Defensive Player of the Week award this season. His first came a month ago, when he had 10 tackles, a sack, and 3 tackles for loss against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 8. He is the first Dolphins player as well to have multiple games with at least 18 tackles since Zach Thomas in 2006 and the first player since the Broncos‘ Alex Singleton in 2022 league wide.
This continues a brilliant season for Brooks as he currently leads the league in tackles with 125, 18 more than the next closest player, linebacker Bobby Wagner.
A Lone Bright Spot in a Struggling Dolphins Defense
GettyJordyn Brooks is also looking to make Dolphins history with a new all time tackles record
This comes during a trying period for everything going on defensively for the Dolphins, as Brooks seeems to be the only individual capable of putting up elite stats. There is always a lot of worry surrounding a linebacker having to be your best defensive player, but Brooks has carried the torch all year. Not only does his 2 Defensive Player of the Week wins, but his performances at large for the Dolphins stand out as well.
The leading single-season tackler for the Dolphins all time is Steven Towle, who had 217 in 1976. After that, the aforementioned Zach Thomas holds eight of the other 10 spots atop the list. With Brooks averaging just over 11 tackles a game, it may not seem far fetched for him to at the very least try and beat Thomas’s best mark of 195 set in the ’02 season. When asked about Thomas’s influence on his game, as both attended Texas Tech, he discussed his positive energy and their rapport as Tech alumni. “We keep in touch here and there. So he’s been a guy that I’ve looked up to since I stepped day one at Texas Tech, and then obviously coming here. So, anytime he reaches out, man, that makes my day. So like I said, he reached out over the offseason. We had a great conversation.”, Brooks said to reporters on Tuesday. With the Dolphins currently at 4-7, having won three out of their past four, maybe a tackles record is something more attainable for Brooks.
A Surprising Free-Agent Gem for Miami
The biggest shock to date however stems from the fact that Brooks was an unrestricted free agent in 2024 when the Dolphins decided to pick him up. As a Seattle Seahawk, they had the chance to exercise a fifth year option on his rookie deal, but balked due to a knee injury he sustained in 2023. Weirdly enough, in his final season with Seattle, he was also their team leader in tackles with 161. This goes to show that sometimes another man’s trash is someone else’s treasure. For the Dolphins, especially in a horrific season, Brooks has been nothing short of talismanic. Hopefull, talismanic enough to break a major Dolphins record..and win countless more Defensive Player of the Year awards in the process.
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