Eagles defense was awful at tackling in 2012

Football Outsiders released their data for broken tackles by defenders today and the list of the worst offenders is well stocked with Eagles. This should come as no shock to anyone who actually watched the team last year.

Overall, the Eagles led the league in broken tackles for the 2nd straight season. Somewhat ironically, they also led the league in broken tackles on offense. So they have the rare combination of offensive players who are hard to tackle and defensive players who can't tackle. Clearly practicing against one another means very little.

Of the 16 players in FO's study who were responsible for at least 11 broken tackles, 4 were Eagles. That's a quarter of the league's worst tacklers on one team.

The worst offenders were mostly in the secondary with Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (12), Nate Allen (12) & Kurt Coleman (11). However, rookie Mychal Kendricks also missed 11, the most of any linebacker in the NFL.

Other poor tacklers around the league last year that may or may not surprise you: Michael Griffin (18 - league worst!), Ed Reed (15), Earl Thomas (12), London Fletcher (11), Antrel Rolle (10) & Curtis Lofton (10).

Nnamdi Asomugha had 8 broken tackles, which kept him off the first list, but if we look at broken tackle rate among DBs, Nnamdi comes in at #11 with 13.8% of his tackles broken.

On the bright side, Cary Williams, who the Eagles signed away from Baltimore this offseason had the 4th best broken tackle rate among DBs last year.