Mizzou in the NFL

Elias Says Aldon Smith's 29 sacks in 1st 26 games are most by a player in first 26 games since NFL began recording sacks for players in 1982

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 20, 2012

Aldon Smith's extreme success, lining up alongside Justin Smith no less, gives us a reason to check in on how Mizzou players are doing at the next level. Let's have a look!

Brad Smith – Buffalo Bills

7th season
0-for-1 passing with 1 INT
9 carries for 67 yards
5 catches for 71 yards and 1 TD
7 kick returns for 201 yards and 1 TD
7 tackles/1 assist

Brad is in the 2nd year of a 4 year deal with the Bills after getting signed away from the Jets as a Free Agent. He just played his 100th NFL game. He has 71 tackles for his career, along with TD's passing (1), rushing (3), receiving (4), and kick returning (4).

Colin Brown – Buffalo Bills

2nd season
1 game/1 start in 2012

Colin is in his 2nd year with Buffalo after stops with Baltimore and KC. He has played in 12 games for the Bills (11 last season) and is currently on their reserved/injured roster.

Michael Egnew – Miami Dolphis

1st season
No stats

Michael has been inactive for each game so far this season for the Dolphins

Ziggy Hood – Pittsburgh Steelers

4th season
10 tackles/7 assists
1 sack
2 passes defended

Ziggy is the starting LDE in the Pittsburgh 3-4. Ziggy has not missed a game in his NFL career to date. He has 49 solo tackles and 6.5 sacks in his career, along with a fumble recovery.

Blaine Gabbert – Jacksonville Jaguars

2nd season
162/278 (58.3%) for 1,662 yards
9 TD’s/6 INT’s
18 carries for 56 yards

Want to know something crazy? For all the injuries and QB controversy talk, Gabbert has started every game this year (and 14 of 15 last year).

C.J. Mosely – Jacksonville Jaguars

8th season
22 tackles/7 assists
2 sacks
1 forced fumble/3 recoveries

Along with Brad already being in the league for seven years, C.J. really snuck up on me. After landing in Minnesota in 2005, Mosely when went to the Jets and Browns before coming to Jax in 2010. He is currently one of two starting DT’s in the 4-3 and has amassed 94 tackles/36 assists and 11 sacks in his career, along with 3 pass defenses, 5 forces fumbles and 3 recoveries (all this season).

Kevin Rutland – Jacksonville Jaguars

2nd season
3 tackles (all in 1st game this year)

Rutland was a very pleasant surprise for Jax last year, making the team as an undrafted free agent who ended up playing in 14 games and started 4 of them. This season, he has been in seven games. I believe he was released earlier this season, but appears to have been picked back up (though he appears on the active roster, he must have been determined to be inactive since his return).

Beau Brinkley – Tennessee Titans

1st season
No stats

Beau is the first team long snapper for the Titans. Being a long snapper who you never hear about is a good thing. Here’s hoping that when I next do this in 2026 I find that Beau is still in the league ☺.

Martin Rucker – Kansas City Cheifs

4th season
No stats

"T" is on his 5th different team, having started with the Browns in 2008. He played in 5 games that season, catching 2 balls for 17 yards. He moved to Philly in 2009, then to Dallas in 2010 where he played in 5 games and started 1. In 2011, he played in a single game for Dallas and Jax. He was picked up by KC this off-season, but has been out hurt for the season.

Danario Alexander – San Diego Chargers

3rd season
15 catches for 291 yards (4 games/2 starts)
3 TD’s

What a crazy three years it has been for DX. He was picked up by the Rams in 2010 after going undrafted. He went on to play in 8 games (2 starts), catching 20 balls for 306 yards and 1 TD. In 2011, he was in 10 games (5 starts) and caught 26 balls for 431 yards and 2 TD’s. After being hurt for the pre-season, the Rams let him go and he landed in SD at week 8 and has really come on strong since. Right now, he is 2nd WR behind Robert Meachum, but that may not be for long.

Andrew Gachkar – San Diego Chargers

2nd season
5 tackles/1 assist

Chosen in the last round by the Chargers, Gachkar carved out his niche on the team with his special teams play, amassing 11 solo and 4 assisted tackles in 16 games last year, which was tied for the team lead. He is currently listed as the 3rd team ILB.

Jeremy Maclin – Philadelphia Eagles

4th season
36 catches for 449 yards
4 TD’s

For his career, Maclin is now up to 225 catches for 3,045 yards and 23 TD’s. The receptions and yardage are each the 3rd most in Eagles history for a player in their first 4 years. Maclin led the team in receptions last year with 63 and he also had 10 TD’s on 70 catches in 2010 (with 964 yards). He has 7 100-yard games and 5 multi-TD games in his career as well.

Dominique Hamilton – Washington Redskins

1st season
No stats

Dom was signed by the Raiders after the draft, but was picked up by the Redskins and put on their practice squad on Sept. 18th.

Chase Coffman – Atlanta Falcons

3rd season
No Stats

Oh poor Chase Coffman. Never really got anything going in Cincinnati after being drafted there in 2009. He played in 6 games in 2010, recording 3 receptions for 30 yards. He was out of the league in 2011 and finally landed with the Falcons this past season, where he is credited with having played in one game against Arizona this past week. He is not currently listed on the offensive depth chart, so I am guessing what time he sees is on special teams.

William Moore – Atlanta Falcons

4th season
45 tackles/13 assists
1 sack/6 passes defended
2 INT’s/2 forced fumbles/1 fumble recovery

After only playing in 2 games his rookie season back in 2009, Willy has started all but 2 games in which he has played since then. He has collected 145 career solo tackles with 23 passes defended and 9 INT’s. He has forced 5 career fumbles, recovered 2 and has even registered a sack and a half.

Sean Weatherspoon – Atlanta Falcons

3rd season
40 tackles/12 assists
3 sacks/2 passes defended
1 forced fumble/1 fumble recovery

Many people thought Spoon had a Pro-Bowl year last season with his 115 total tackles, but it was not to be. Even more thought he was on his way towards that first Pro Bowl this year, but injury has kept him out of the last three games and probably has cost him that chance. Nonetheless, with 156 solo tackles already in his career, he should still get there at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Chase Daniel – New Orleans Saints

4th season
1-1 for 10 yards
3 rushes for 19 yards

For his career, Chase has a 78 percent completion percentage ☺. Yes, he is 7-9 for 55 yards, but the numbers speaks for themselves. In mop-up duty, Chase has seen action in carrying the ball as well, with 8 carries for 32 yards with 1 sack and 1 fumble. He is also the holder for the team while waiting for the day that Drew Brees has to take a play off in maybe the 2nd quarter and not the 4th.

Tim Barnes – St. Louis Rams

1st season
No stats

Because Barnes was not on contract last year after getting released by the Ravens on 9/3, he is listed as having 1 year of experience, but is not a rookie. Weird. Anyway, Barnes is listed as the backup center on the team and has evidently seen action in 9 games this season

Aldon Smith – San Francisco 49ers

2nd season
36 tackles/7 assists
15 sacks
3 forced fumbles

In 26 career games, Aldon Smith has 29 sacks. He did not "start" any of the 16 he played in last season where he amassed 31 tackles, 4 passes defended, 2 forced fumbles and 1 recovery, along with 1 safety. But this year, and especially this past week against Chicago where he has now been credited with 5.5 sacks for the game, Aldon is a monster. He has more games with multiple sacks (5) in 2012 than he does games without a sack (3). He has 9.5 sacks in the last THREE WEEKS. What he and fellow 1st rounder Von Miller are going to do in this league for the next 15 years is absolutely scary....

Justin Smith – San Francisco 49ers

12th season
33 tackles/14 assists
.5 sacks/1 pass defended
1 fumble recovery

...and Aldon would not be having the year he is without Justin Smith lined up inside taking up 2 offensive linemen. Smith is now in his 5th season with San Fran after spending his first seven in Cincy. He has not missed a start in ELEVEN years between the two teams, and now has 539 tackles (with 230 assists) and 73 sacks for his career. He has 28 passes defended, 14 forced fumbles and 9 recoveries, while also figuring out 3 INT’s. Teams seem to be paying him more attention this year which has opened things up for others, and at 33, he is certainly on the other half of the bell curve, but it has been quite a career so far for the longest tenured Tiger.